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Head Start

Premier League 2024/25 fixture review

The Premier League fixtures have officially been released. 

(Side note: if you’re wondering how the list of fixtures is compiled, you can find the explanation here).

Starting with… drum roll… the reigning-defending-8-time-champions-of-England…. Manchester City. 

Yup. The talk of the town is that Pep’s men have - let’s say - an easy run of fixtures at the business end of the season.

Next season, they have the lowest average opponent difficulty rating in their last 10 games.

But City do have a difficult run of games in November… 

… they have European games sandwiched between Spurs at home and Liverpool away. And their first Champions League fixture is followed by Arsenal.

Arteta will be pleased that his side have the fourth-easiest final 10 games… 

… but Arsenal have a tough start. They face back-to-back games against Spurs and City in September and trips to Newcastle and Chelsea in November immediately following Liverpool’s trip to the Emirates. 

When it comes to the first five games, Brentford and West Ham have the most difficult start… 

(Oddly enough, West Ham’s first nine games are all in London…) 

Everton fans will have a rollercoaster of emotions when looking at their fixtures. 

The Toffees have the easiest opening 10 games on paper… 

… but - and it’s a big but - they then have a nightmare December… 

• Wolves (H)

• Liverpool (H)

• Arsenal (A)

• Chelsea (H)

• Manchester City (A)

• Nottingham Forest (H)

Yup. That’s all in December.

And, I mean, who let newly-promoted Ipswich face Liverpool and then City away in their opening games? What an introduction to the top flight. 

Either way, someone has a sense of humour, as Liverpool’s first game is - you guessed it - at 12:30 on Saturday… where’s Klopp when you need him, ey? 

Plus…

Kylian Mbappé will wear a face mask for the rest of the Euros after breaking his nose - and could miss the rest of the group stage (More)

The Premier League has changed its team news embargo, and teams will now announce starting XIs 75 minutes before kick-off instead of one hour (More)

An independent report has said that rules must change over the use of tear gas following chaotic scenes at a Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid (More) 

UEFA are investigating an allegation of racist abuse aimed at England's players in their Euro game against Serbia (More)

Euros Stats Zone

Group F: Türkiye 3 - 1 Georgia

→ Along with being the youngest-ever debut scorer at the European Championship finals (19y 114d), Türkiye’s Arda Güler’s five chances created against Georgia are the joint-most by a teenager in a game in the competition (since 1980).

→ Georges Mikautadze has scored Georgia's first-ever goal at a major international tournament, while he's now netted six goals in his last six starts for his country.

Group F: Portugal 2 - 1 Czechia

→ This is the first game at Euro 2024 to be goalless at half time.

→ Cristiano Ronaldo has now taken 29 free-kicks since making his Euro debut in 2004 - yet hasn’t scored one.

→ Francisco Conceição scored just 111 seconds after coming off the bench, becoming the first Portugal player to score as a substitute at the Euros since Éder in the 2016 final.

Today’s fixtures can be found below in On Today

International Careers

Messi & Ronaldo’s international careers in stats

We’re not going to compare the two. Instead, with The Athletic’s stats, we’re going to look at just how impressive their international careers are.

(Disclaimer: like many of our readers, we love stats. But there are simply too many factors to use stats to compare the two. It’s dangerous territory… so we’re treading lightly).

Firstly, goals (obviously).

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (130) and Argentina’s Lionel Messi (108) are the leading international goalscorers, numbers that exceed other great players of the game…

… but, of these players, Messi and Ronaldo are the slowest to reach 25 goals in terms of games played. While it took Brazil’s Pele 20 games to reach 25 goals, it took Messi 70 games and Ronaldo 78 games.

It’s safe to say… Messi and Ronaldo are the products of the modern game, focusing on longevity. They’ve scored 65% of their cumulative goals after their 100th appearance. 

Both players have exceptional goals-per-game ratios. Ronaldo averages 0.63 goals per game and Messi 0.59. 

(To put that into context, Erling Haaland had a 1.03 goal per game ratio in his 36-goal-season in the Premier League). 

In case you were interested in what makes up their goal tallies, The Athletic produced a comparison chart here… 

Interestingly, Messi has scored over 50 of his goals from friendlies, whereas Ronaldo only has 22 goals from friendlies. 

But, it’s hard to draw conclusions from this. 

Why? Well, only 16% of Ronaldo’s goals come from major tournaments, whereas it makes up 25% of Messi’s goals.

With both players still involved in the Euros and Copa America, the next month will only see them adding to their already incredible tallies.

Off The Pitch

🍔 McDonald’s is removing AI-powered ordering technology from its drive-throughs in the US after customers share its comical mishaps (More)

😬 Justin Timberlake has been arrested for allegedly drink-driving in the Hamptons (More)

🍿 The Formula 1-inspired movie starring Brad Pitt that Lewis Hamilton has helped to produce will be released in June next year (More)

💍 Thailand becomes the first Southeast Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage (More) 

🫣 A year after the Titan tragedy, another submarine is planning to go back to the Titanic (More)

🏀 Boston Celtics capture their historic 18th NBA title with a victory over Dallas Mavericks (More)

Around The Football World

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Former Chelsea defender Ryan Bertrand announces his retirement from football. Bertrand became the first player to make his Champions League debut in the final, which Chelsea subsequently won (Watch)

🇮🇳 Barcelona have closed all of its academies in India after opening its first academy there back in 2010 (More)

🇺🇸 Former Barcelona and Arsenal director of football Raúl Sanllehí will join Inter Miami CF as co-president alongside Xavier Asensi (More)

🇩🇪 A Germany fan’s hand was broken at the hosts’ opening Euro game against Scotland after a wayward shot from Niclas Füllkrug during the warmup (More)

Extra Time

Ten players to watch out for at Copa America.

Türkiye’s first goal against Georgia might be the goal of the Euros so far…

… actually, maybe it was their second goal.

Fans have been battling with their national dishes at the Euros.

Doing keepy-ups is hard… but what about with six pints balanced on your head?

One England fan woke up at 4 am to a stadium all to himself.

Brentford sum up their fixtures in a hilarious video.

Game Face On

Question: Only seven players have scored hat-tricks at the Euros. But which player has scored more than one?

Hint: He’s the second all-time goalscorer at the Euros.

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Euro 2024: Croatia vs Albania (14:00 BST)

Euro 2024: Germany vs Hungary (17:00 BST)

Euro 2024: Scotland vs Switzerland (20:00 BST)

CRICKET

ICC T20 World Cup: USA vs South Africa (15:00 BST, Sky Sports Cricket)

ICC T20 World Cup: England vs West Indies (01:00 BST, Sky Sports Cricket)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer

Michel Platini scored nine goals in five games at Euro ‘84.

Hottest Take of the Day

Today’s Hottest Take of the Day is: Arder Guler will win a Ballon d’Or within the next five years. Thanks to Peter from Bucharest for the entry. Submit another Hot Take of the Day here.