ANGEL GOMES was the star of the show as England sealed a 3-1 win over Finland.

Lee Carsley‘s side put in a solid performance as they bounced back from the defeat to Greece.

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Grealish made his mark on the game in the first half by slotting home after being found by a brilliant through ball by Angel Gomes.

The Manchester City star marked the celebration with a touching gesture to Sasha Attwood just days after the birth of their child.

Trent Alexander-Arnold also impressed as he filled in at left-back and even bagged himself his first international goal with a brilliant free-kick.

Declan Rice also grabbed himself a goal as he wrapped up the result for England before Arttu Hoskonen grabbed a consolation for the hosts.

But it was Gomes who ran the show for the Three Lions with his composed performance in the midfield.

Cole Palmer, however, struggled on the other flank to create much for England before he was hooked off in the second half.

SunSports’ Tom Barclay has given his ratings for the Three Lions…

Dean Henderson – 6

Only his second cap after long-time No1 Jordan Pickford was dropped. Not a lot to do, but pretty assured when he was called into action, including a smart, first-half stop to repel a Benjamin Kallman strike – even if the Finn was later flagged offside. Could do little to prevent Finland‘s goal.

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Kyle Walker – 6

After the calamity against Greece, it was no surprise to see Lee Carsley turn to his most experienced defender. Now just nine caps shy of a century, Walker was solid. Could have had an assist late on but his cushioned down header was poor.

John Stones – 6

England’s more conventional system meant the defence was far less exposed – though Carsley’s attacking approach did still see the Finns create chances. Stones made a good early block to deny Kallman after Angel Gomes gave the ball away.

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Marc Guehi – 6

Our best defender in the Euros group stages, Guehi was back in here with Levi Colwill dropping out. Pretty assured for a player who by his own admission has not started the season particularly well for his club.

Trent Alexander-Arnold – 7

We saw him in midfield at the Euros, and here the Liverpool right-back was shunted to left-back. Looked vulnerable defensively at times but who cares when he produces such quality on the ball – epitomised by his terrific free-kick to kill off this game.

Angel Gomes – 8

We saw him in midfield at the Euros, and here the Liverpool right-back was shunted to left-back. Looked vulnerable defensively at times but who cares when he produces such quality on the ball – epitomised by his terrific free-kick to kill off this game.

Declan Rice – 7

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Looked far more comfortable with Gomes playing in behind him, as opposed to the one-man defensive operation he was forced to put up against the Greeks. Looked proud as punch after stroking home England’s third from Watkins’ cross.

Cole Palmer – 5

Played in a more familiar wide right position compared to his central-midfield experiment against Greece. Yet it reduced him to a peripheral figure, adding more questions than answers as where best to deploy him, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden.

Jude Bellingham – 6

The Real Madrid superstar played off Harry Kane and had the occasional, exciting link-up with Grealish, but this was not one of his more memorable games overall.

Jack Grealish – 6

No doubt will be hoping Carsley does get the job full-time as his fellow Brummie seems to appreciate his talents. His composed finish was his second goal in three games under Carsley – doubling his overall haul from 39 caps.

Harry Kane – 6

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Cap 101 for the captain but not one he will remember particularly fondly. He offered the presence the team lacked against Greece when they played with no striker, but did not get much of a sniff in front of goal.

Subs

Noni Madueke (for Palmer, 69): 7

This game was made for him to make an impact off the bench and he almost teed up Watkins after one fine run but the Finns cleared.

Ollie Watkins (for Kane, 69): 7

Low cross for Rice’s third was right on the money.

Rico Lewis (for Gomes, 80): 6

Slotted in at centre midfield when coming on and looked busy.

Phil Foden (for Bellingham, 80): 5

Embraced the post ruefully after Madueke opted to shoot instead of crossing to him for a tap-in seconds after Finland’s goal. Was marking Arttu Hoskonen when the Finn headed home a consolatio.

Conor Gallagher (for Rice, 89): 6

His first appearance under Carsley but too late to make an impact.

Lee Carsley: 7

His tactical gamble backfired against Greece but he held his hands up and went more conventional here.

It paid off as England were relatively comfortable – although his teams have looked defensively vulnerable at times in all four of his games and this was no different.

But the three best players, Gomes, Grealish and Alexander-Arnold, were all given starring roles by Carsley when used sparingly or not at all by predecessor Gareth Southgate – and for that, the interim boss should take credit.

As Jorge Masvidal plots his comeback to the UFC, he’s got a lot of ideas on potential opponents. Don’t expect Conor McGregor to be one of them.

To be clear, that’s not from a lack of interest on Masvidal’s side. Prior to his retirement from MMA in 2023, the UFC’s first-ever “BMF” champion called for a showdown with McGregor numerous times. Now that he’s planning to return to action sometime in late 2024 or early 2025, Masvidal sees a lot of possibilities for his first fight back, but he highly doubts McGregor ever competes again after sitting out for the past three-plus years.

“We’ll see him at a bar and shit,” Masvidal responded to MMA Fighting when asked if we’ll see McGregor again. “Are you talking about in the cage? Like as an official or to be judges? You mean fighting? I don’t think so. I hope he proves me wrong but I don’t think so.”

McGregor has been teasing his comeback for well over a year already after he healed up from a devastating broken leg suffered in his trilogy fight against Masvidal’s longtime teammate and friend, Dustin Poirier.

Following his recovery, McGregor coached on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Michael Chandler with a fight originally expected between them sometime in 2023. Instead, a broken toe forced McGregor to withdraw from their scheduled meeting at UFC 303 this past June.

There were rumors swirling that perhaps McGregor could fight before the end of 2024 but UFC CEO Dana White nixed those plans and instead pointed towards 2025 for the Irish superstar to return. With each passing day more and more doubts are creeping in about whether or not McGregor will actually return and Masvidal knows with absolute certainty that he won’t be the opponent if that happens.

“Conor, under no circumstances, is fighting me,” Masvidal said. “He’s backed out of fighting Chandler — poor little Chandler, I don’t know how many times he let that dude eat dust. Imagine me?

“That guy is never fighting me. He can’t do enough cocaine to f*cking get [jacked] up to fight me.”

If McGregor remains absent from the UFC, Masvidal wouldn’t mind taking his place in the fight against Chandler, although he sees that as just one of many options open to him.

Chandler has been out of action for nearly two years in anticipation of fighting McGregor and Masvidal doubts that ever comes to fruition. If Chandler finally wants to return to action, Masvidal invites him to a fight where he should know without a shadow of a doubt that the opponent will show up.

“That wouldn’t be a bad fight to get my feet wet again with MMA,” Masvidal said about fighting Chandler. “Kind of an introductory course to MMA. I wouldn’t mind that fight. But there’s a lot of fights that I would take. I was just throwing that one out there.

“You can’t sit in silence forever. Let’s go. You want to throw down with one of the most f*cking electrifying motherf*ckers that ever touched the sport? Let’s f*cking go.”

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The four-inch curbing at Turn 16 is no more, just hours before the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at Charlotte. The corner apex, which was extended before the race weekend, created a narrower final corner.

Commonly called ‘turtles’ or ‘sausage kerbs’ elsewhere in the world, drivers were aggressively running over the top of the curbs during practice in qualifying, and later complained about how violent the hits were. For example, Martin Truex Jr. compared it to getting a concussion.

As a result, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports have replaced the red and white curbing with rumble strips that are just 2.25 inches from the track surface. A similar move was made at the bus stop chicane at Watkins Glen between 2023 and 2024 for the same reason. 

Updated rumble strips to Turn 16

Drivers will be held accountable for abusing track limits across the new curbing. Vehicles must run the full course at all times and a driver will be penalized for cutting the final chicane in the following situation: “You will be judged as missing or short-cutting any turn previously described when all four tires on the non-track side of the red and white rumble strips that define the apex of the turns.”

Similar to when drivers miss either the frontstretch or backstretch chicane, they must then come to a full stop at one of the designated locations or face a pass-through penalty. If there’s not enough time left in the race, a 30-second time penalty will be assessed.

Australia have been imperious in the tournament so far, but their preparations for this game were hampered by injuries to Healy and Tayla Vlaeminck.

Fast bowler Vlaeminck is out of the tournament with a dislocated shoulder but Healy – who arrived at the stadium on crutches – has not been ruled out and will continue to have a foot injury assessed.

But such is Australia’s strength in depth those injuries failed to disrupt their seemingly unstoppable march towards a seventh Women’s T20 World Cup title.

The Southern Stars were reduced to 17-2 when Renuka Singh Thakur removed Beth Mooney and Georgia Wareham in successive balls, only for Harris and McGrath put on 62 for the third wicket.

Another wobble saw Australia slip from 79-2 to 101-5 but Perry and Phoebe Litchfield, whose 15 from nine balls included a booming six over square leg, helped them finish with a flourish.

India began aggressively and reached 41-2 at the end of the powerplay, ahead of where Australia were at the same stage.

They were smothered by Australia’s spinners in the middle overs before a fourth-wicket partnership worth 63 between Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma, who hit 29 from 25, raised hopes of a spectacular win.

Despite falling just short, India could still reach the semi-finals. But if they are eliminated it will be their performances earlier in the tournament and not here that did the damage.

LAS VEGAS – UFC gold if the goal for Chidi Njokuani, but he understands several steps need to be taken before that can turn into reality.

The UFC veteran is now 2-0 since dropping to the welterweight division, as he defeated Jared Gooden in a unanimous decision in the main card of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 244. Now, Njokuani (24-10 MMA, 4-3 UFC) wants to test himself against the top 15 of the division in hopes to get closer to his ultimate goal.

“I’ll fight whoever, but I’m looking for somebody in the top 15 – maybe a bigger name, so I can start rising up in the rankings and getting my name out there a little more,” Njokuani said at the UFC Fight Night 244 post-fight press conference. “I’ll fight whoever. If a good opportunity comes by soon, I’ll take it. I’ll just go back with my management and see how they feel about everything.”

Njokuani, 35, has almost seen it all now 35 fights into his professional MMA career. Although some may dismiss his title chances, he believes there’s still time for him to get to a UFC title.

“It may sound crazy to a lot of people, but I’m shooting for that title shot,” Njokuani said. “I still believe I can get it.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 244.