LEE CARSLEY’S tactical experiment of playing no strikers backfired as Vangelis Pavlidis’ double secured an emotional shock win for Greece at Wembley.

Interim England boss Carsley played all three of our nation’s gifted No10s – Phil Foden, Jue Bellingham and Cole Palmer – in varying positions.

But it did not work and the Greeks took a deserved lead thanks to Pavlidis’ belting second-half finish.

The visitors then held up a shirt in celebration bearing the name Baldock – in reference to their team-mate George Baldock, whose passing at the age of just 31 on Wednesday rocked the world of football.

Bellingham looked to have ensured the points were shared with a thunderous strike with three minutes to go.

But there was still time for Pavlidis to expose some woeful defending deep into injury time by firing past Jordan Pickford.

Here are SunSport’s player ratings from a dire night for England under the arch.

Jordan Pickford: 4

Wandered into no-man’s-land territory outside his box early on and lost the ball, allowing Greek skipper Tasos Baksetas a free shot at goal – only to be saved by Levi Colwill’s last-gasp clearance. Did not instil confidence, despite his experience.

Trent Alexander-Arnold: 6

Some tasty passes – they are his speciality, after all – but not great at the back. He, John Stones and Cole Palmer were weak in their attempt to close down Vangelis Pavlidis before the Benfica man smashed home the opener.

John Stones: 5

Made captain for what was his 82nd cap, surpassing Rio Ferdinand’s haul. But it was a shaky display from his defence and Stones should have done better to stop Pavlidis.

Levi Colwill: 7

Greece would have been ahead far sooner were it not for Colwill’s athletic hack away to deny Bakasetas. Replays showed it would have crossed the line had the Chelsea man been a split second later with his incredible intervention.

Rico Lewis: 6

Tried to bomb up the left flank where he could but, just like Kieran Trippier at the Euros, was hamstrung by constantly having to cut back onto his favoured right foot.

Declan Rice: 6

Played as England’s only holding midfielder, as fans had been imploring Gareth Southgate to use him for years. It was not like he was overrun but his side did look vulnerable on the counter.

Phil Foden: 4

Spent most of the game pressing the Greek backline as a false nine without really getting on the ball and causing any damage. Ineffective. 

Cole Palmer: 6

Deployed in a deeper, central-midfield role which at least meant he saw plenty of the ball, though he blazed England’s best chance of the first half over the bar. Remarkably, his first competitive England start, despite being named on Tuesday as Three Lions player of the 2023-24 season. 

Bukayo Saka: 5

Struggled to get into the game and then was forced out of it, worryingly limping off early in the second half. The last thing Arsenal fans wanted to see.

Jude Bellingham: 7 STAR MAN

Played in a false nine position and had a belting early shot well saved. The system did not work but Bellingham still so nearly emerged as the saviour by banging in his first goal of the season for club and country.

Anthony Gordon: 5

Caused Greece few problems and his touch looked off it. Had a decent chance from Alexander-Arnold’s peach of a delivery but headed over.

SUBS: 

Noni Madueke (for Saka 52): Played out on the left, rather than his natural right, when coming on. Went down in the box deep into injury time but no penalty was given. 6

Ollie Watkins (for Gordon 60): Almost scored with his first touch when played through by Palmer, but smashed just over. 7

Dominic Solanke (for Foden 72): Grabbed an assist when laying the ball back to Bellingham who thumped in the leveller. 7

Manager Lee Carsley: 4

Seemed to gamble unnecessarily with this experimental system instead of playing it safe to add another win to boost his case to earn the job full-time. Carsley played without a natural centre-forward when winning the Under-21 Euros because he had to after Flo Balogun switched the USA and Rhian Brewster got injured, but here he did it by choice and it did not work. Bellingham looked to have saved his bacon – but then Pavlidis struck again.

Both Junior Tafa and Sean Sharaf were utterly exhausted.

The lone heavyweight bout on the UFC Fight Night 244 card was a short-notice replacement bout, as the original opponent for Tafa (6-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC), Chris Barnett, had to pull out of the fight due to hurricane damage at home. Sharaf (4-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) stepped up for his debut on just a few days’ notice, but was stopped at 2:15 of Round 2.

Sharaf nearly found a stoppage himself at the end of Round 1. He mounted Tafa, poured on ground and pound until the horn, but referee Mark Smith didn’t see a need to stop the fight.

The fight continued into Round 2, where neither fighter had much energy. At one point, they both decided to just stand there and catch their breath while Smith called for them to fight. Tafa found home for a few strikes, putting Sharaf on wobbly legs, but struggled to finish the fight.

If this fight were in a video game, their stamina bars would have been completely depleted and blinking red. Somehow, Tafa found enough energy for a few more punches, and the referee mercifully stopped the fight, completing Tafa’s comeback win.

Check out video of the finish below (via X):

WHAT A COMEBACK WIN FOR JUNIOR TAFA 👏 #UFCVegas98 pic.twitter.com/OkMLpb9qzm

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 12, 2024

Tafa returns to the win column for the first time since Aug. 26, 2023, when he defeated Parker Porter. By handing Sharaf his first professional loss, Tafa ended a two-fight skid.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 244 results include:

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

The IndyCar Series landed perhaps its biggest catch under the Penske Entertainment era after announcing a return to Texas with a race on the streets of Arlington in 2026. 

The significance of the announcement was in the partnerships formed, with Penske Entertainment teaming up with the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys and REV Entertainment, the official events partner of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.

A 14-turn, 2.73-mile circuit will weave around AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field, which serve as the respective homes of the Cowboys and Rangers, and through the entertainment district of a city that sells 1.6 million tickets to spectators for various events annually.

Mark Miles, the president and CEO of Penske Entertainment, which owns the IndyCar Series, sat down with Motorsport.com to discuss the event and the strategy of the series moving forward, as well as how new broadcast partner FOX Sports will factor in.

Let’s get the hard question out of the way first: There are people asking why this couldn’t work at Texas Motor Speedway, and why IndyCar is headed to Arlington?

Mark Miles: Well, I guess the first thing is, as everybody I think knows, we really haven’t had success lately in finding a date that was going to be reliable over time, and that’s important to us. That created the opportunity to think about it because we definitely wanted to be in North Texas. And then for some time we’ve had a dialogue — and for a shorter time, but several months, we’ve had a lot of work between our team and the Cowboys and the Rangers to explore the possibilities. I think [the announcement] does speak for itself. We’ve been articulating an event strategy for some time, which is that number one, we are not walking away from the desire to have a good mix of the various formats of races for us; that includes, of course, ovals and temporary street races and road courses.

So, that’s first, and this doesn’t represent any distance between that philosophy and the announcement. Then we’ve also said we want to look for high impact opportunities to be in hot growing markets and to approach them in two different ways. One is where we have become the promoter. By ’26, that will be the case for the two IndyCar races in Indy, in Detroit, for the race or races in Iowa, [and] Milwaukee. Now, through this partnership, we’re part of the promoter group for Arlington — and I think there’ll be one or two more examples of that by 2026, if not before. And we think that’s important, both in terms of the markets and our ability to really control the effort to upgrade our events.

We want to do that by taking control of more races ourselves and also by looking for opportunities for high level partners. What could be a higher level opportunity, in that regard, than the Cowboys and the Rangers in Arlington at that facility? I hope that everybody gets a chance to look at the video that was done to portray how the racetrack will look. I think it is going to be a great racetrack. We’ve got great partners. We’ve got time to do it right in the first installment for ‘26 in the spring. This is, kind of, the very first conspicuous example of that part of the event strategy. And again, I think there’ll be more as time goes forward. I also want to say that this does not represent walking away from our philosophy of having a healthy mix of three formats of racing for IndyCar. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to have third party promoters as we do now. We’re just going to be opportunistic to look for events we can run ourselves and for opportunities to have high level partnerships within the promotion of our events.

The magnitude of taking IndyCar to a level of involvement with major teams such as the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers was certainly felt at the track unveiling at Texas Live! on Tuesday. Talking with Santino Ferrucci, Alex Palou, and Josef Newgarden, there was a big-fight feel to this that really had them buzzing in a way that made this feel like it rivals Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix. What kind of stratosphere do you think this raises IndyCar to?

MM: Yeah, we think IndyCar deserves to be understood to be a major league sport, and I think sometimes you are judged by the company you keep. That’s another way to emphasize the strategy of looking for these kinds of high level partnerships. By the way, just related to promoting events, but also in upgrading other things we do, like marketing, communications, and hospitality. There are all kinds of partners out there that are very capable, very much major league and we’ll continue to be very selective, but look for those opportunities in those and other functions of putting on big events to up our game and show everybody IndyCar’s major league sport.

Arlington Grand Prix track map

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

What went into the details of the track layout?

MM: Well, it took a lot of work. Tony Cotman is the lead for us in designing tracks, but he has two roles for us: One is always looking at where we race to make sure that they’re safe, but also good racing and his other function is to help design them. We had this fabulous opportunity to basically take a white canvas. The entertainment district there is just a huge opportunity to put our best foot forward in the way we race. We could look at that whole space. It doesn’t have many of the complications or challenges that street races can have when you’re right in the middle of a downtown and it’s a lot of area that even things like the streetlights that are in the parking lots tend to be further apart than in a lot of places, which is useful.

“We could see how we could have a nine-tenths of a mile straightaway, which obviously gets us up, we think, 200-plus miles per hour. That’s a big part of our speed, obviously a big part of our racing and our brand that then immediately goes into a hard right-hand turn and we could engineer a track accordingly. It’s also wide. There are a couple places where we’re still working on how wide it can be, but a good example of the width is that straightaway. So, it was kind of a blank canvas and Tony and our team, people like Michael Montri, who have the experience of laying out that track in Detroit and elsewhere, could really go to town and make the most of the real estate that’s there.

When you have massive partners that are a part of something like this, I think the biggest curiosity is the promotional element. With that, what kind of activations – and we’ve heard rumblings FOX could be promoting it as early as this weekend’s NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions – should be anticipated?

MM: Well, FOX has a deep relationship with both our partner organizations and they’re absolutely all-in and supportive of this innovation for us. But also, I think the two organizations and their sort of assets, along with our ability to provide focus through the creation of the grand prix committee that will be focused all the time on just that, is potent. So, Bill Miller (President of the Grand Prix of Arlington) will be putting together the team. It will be small, but waking up every morning thinking about the grand prix there. But we also have these great relationships with the Cowboys and the Rangers and their sponsor lists, those relationships, their suite customers, their season ticket customers, their club customers, and that’s a pretty amazing base from which to go out and start to sell. So, we’ll have the focus of a dedicated staff right there in Dallas, with obviously the full cooperation of the Cowboys and the Rangers. I think that it’s just a remarkable constellation of assets that we hope to make the most of.

Grand Prix of Arlington rendering

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Does announcing this event, with the possibility of other event announcements looming, alter the expectation for the number of races on the new FOX deal? Can the number grow to, say 20, or is there a cap limit to the number of races that can be broadcast, per se?

MM: Our agreement with FOX calls for us to provide them 17 races that are championship races in the normal season as it’s structured now. And we like the number 17, that’s why it’s in our agreement with FOX. It’s not a limit. It’s what we expect to do. But whether it’s for us and the owners and the drivers or for FOX or our sponsors, we see another great opportunity, I think we’ll pursue it. If that means one less doubleheader or some other adjustment on the calendar, we’ll take things case by case and and act accordingly. I don’t think people should look at us as having an ambition to get to 20, for example, which is kind of implicit in your question. Seventeen is, we think the sweet spot, but we’ve talked about it and if there’s such a thing as another Arlington out there, and that means all things considered looking at all the races on the calendar, the best thing to do to go is to go to 18, then we’ll look at that. But there are probably ways even in the short term to add and still stay at about 17.

2007 Mexico City race winner Sebastien Bourdais, Newman Haas Lanigan Racing

Photo by: Dan R. Boyd / Motorsport Images

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Do you anticipate, whether it is next year or in 2026, FOX Deportes for the entire schedule or a select number of races to help generate interest of the Hispanic audience whether in this southern region of the United States, Mexico, etc.?

MM: Well, the opportunity to reach more Hispanic fans and make more Hispanic fans is important to us and our partners in Arlington vis-a-vis FOX. FOX Deportes is contractually committed to take three races. The plan is the first race of the season, St. Pete, the Indy 500 and the finale, but that’s not a cap either. That’s really a minimum. And as we get closer to making the ’26 schedule and Deportes sees how they do with the three races that they’ll have next year, I think it’s entirely possible that they would add events. And given the importance of Hispanic population in that market in North Texas, it’s an obvious place to look. But it’s not just about FOX. In talking with [Dallas Cowboys’ owner] Jerry Jones [on Tuesday], he was telling us about how important marketing to Hispanic people is.

He told us about the tours he’s done in Mexico to do earned media events and to publicize the Cowboys in Mexico itself, not just the southern part of the United States. And that’s music to our ears. We talked to him about Pato [O’Ward] and how he’s a natural star and how he would be happy to be engaged in this event and do all he can, as he did at Texas Motor Speedway to help promote and grow the event. I don’t want to say too much about it, but it’s conceivable that we could end up with an event in Mexico in the next few years. And if we did that, it would certainly be in the spring. So, a connection between an event in Arlington and an event in Mexico would be a powerful opportunity to bridge and cross promote the various sports to the Hispanic fans just south of the border and in the southern United States. I think it’s a big opportunity for us, and the Cowboys and the Rangers see it as an opportunity for them, to strengthen our appeal to Hispanic fans.

“It seems like they (Bellamy and McKenna) are cut from the same cloth. It’s like they’ve come out of the same football school.

“Both want to play a good style of football, possession-based, try and score on every attack if possible. Then if we lose the ball there’s an instant reaction to win the ball back as quickly as possible and swarm teams.”

Promotion to the Premier League with Ipswich last season was the latest chapter in what is proving to be a remarkable story for eight-cap international Burns.

Prior to joining the Tractor Boys in 2021, Burns had huge concerns over the direction of his career, and feared he would never realise his ambition of reaching the top flight.

“I’ve played in every league in English football from the Conference to the Prem, so I think I’ve learned a few tricks along the way that may help me as the season goes on,” he said.

“It’s been some journey. Maybe if I looked back three or four years ago, I probably would have thought my dream of playing in the Premier League was near enough over.

“My time at Fleetwood was coming to an end and I was looking around for other clubs to kickstart my career again.

“I walked into an Ipswich transition that could go one of two ways – it c]an keep going downwards or we were going to spike like we have done.

“Luckily for me I found a manager that got the best out of me and has propelled me back to where the club wanted to go, but not only that, has helped me achieve my dreams.”

Burns’ Premier League debut was cut short as he sustained a hamstring injury during a 2-0 loss by Liverpool at Portman Road in August.

Following a month on the sidelines, Burns has returned to feature in four successive matches for Ipswich, and has started against Brighton, Southampton and West Ham.

The wideman has taken up pilates in a bid to overcome his hamstring issues, and feels he is adapting well to life as as Premier League player.

“To pick up an injury in the first game, I was a little bit devastated really. I worked hard to get back as quickly as possible,” he said.

“I’ve seen a number of specialists, especially after my last time, to get on top of why it kept happening.

“In a game of football, there’s so many variations. Someone can knock you off balance when you’re running at high speed, it can send stresses through your body that don’t usually go there and that’s where injuries happen.

“Unfortunately for me it’s just the nature of the beast. I’m trying pilates every morning so hopefully that takes the edge off it. It’s tough because I’m not that flexible.”

Burns added: “I’ve played fairly regularly since I’ve been back, I’ve started all games bar one, and I’m adjusting to life in the Premier League quite well I think. It’s a very physical league, the quality of player is through the roof.

“Every team has got a squad that’s more than capable of giving anyone a beating in the league, so it’s mentally tough as well.”

Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira delivered the goods in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 98 event at the APEX, and while Taira proved he belongs at the top of the flyweight division, it was the wily veteran who got his hand raised at the end of the night.

Following the latest UFC Fight Night event, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Royval’s split decision win over Taira in the incredible headliner, the one scorecard for Taira, what we learned about both fighters, and where both go following the five-round classic. Additionally, they discuss Grant Dawson’s fantastic night at the office — both in his fight and the post-fight interview — who got bonuses, other standout moments from the event, and much more.

Catch the UFC Vegas 98 post-fight show above. An audio-only version of the show can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods.

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

LOS ANGELES — High above the sun-splashed turf at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where a 36-yard field goal from kicker Ryan Barker had given No. 4 Penn State an overtime victory over USC, the Nittany Lions’ celebrations spilled into the hallway from the visiting coaches’ booth. Out came offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and his placemat-sized play card that housed more magic and sleight of hand than an improved Trojans’ defense could handle. The back-clapping embraces between Kotelnicki and his coaching comrades reverberated around the press box. “Let’s f—— go, baby!” someone shouted. And the joyous howls attached to a 33-30 overtime victory in which Penn State trailed by double digits began to echo through the elevator shaft on their six-story descent to the field.

The scene that awaited them was one of catharsis mixed with hope and possibility regarding what this Penn State team, which improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten, might achieve in the first year of an expanded College Football Playoff for which they seem destined to qualify. Quarterback Drew Allar, who completed 30 of 43 passes for a career-high 391 yards and two touchdowns, waved his arms from waist height to an altitude well above his sweat-soaked hair while imploring the Nittany Lion faithful to roar in a lower corner of the stadium. “Come on!” Allar shouted. “Come on!” The fans obliged by greeting tight end Tyler Warren, who set a new school record with 17 catches for 224 yards and one touchdown, with a line of high-fives along the front row of seats and a cheer that bifurcated his name adoringly. “Ty-ler War-ren! … Ty-ler War-ren!” they sang.

And out near midfield, where defensive end Amin Vanover careened toward the intertwined “SC” logo for an emphatic stomp after Barker’s winning kick, head coach James Franklin hijacked an attempted flag-planting celebration that began with defensive tackle Hakeem Beamon and continued with cornerback Audavion Collins before cooler heads prevailed. That’s how Franklin, who had nearly lost his voice from screaming throughout the game, came to be holding a giant “We Are” banner on his way toward the tunnel.

“We found a way to get a tough win on the road,” Franklin said. “This is going to make the bye week awesome because it would not have been awesome without this. Just proud of our guys and, again, appreciate the fans and the support that we got, and we’re going to need to spend this bye week getting better. There’s still a ton of stuff that we can get better at. But we’re 1-0 [for six consecutive games and that equals 6-0. And I’m going to take it and run to the airport.

“You guys ever see the movie Soul Plane? … That’s what it’s going to be like on the ride home.”

Franklin understood the snatch-and-grab undertone of a game his team trailed by 14 points on two separate occasions in the first half, the Penn State run defense lacerated by USC’s tailback tandem of Woody Marks and Quinten Joyner, who combined for 193 yards and a score on 23 carries. The Nittany Lions lost the turnover battle, 3-to-1, as Allar, who entered the weekend having only thrown three career interceptions, including just a single INT this season, tossed three on Saturday afternoon alone. Penn State also finished on the wrong side of the field position battle and surrendered 7.1 yards per play to an offense that failed to surpass 17 points in a dispiriting road loss to Minnesota last week. Those were the micro elements of a quasi-heist in which the visitors never led in the second, third or fourth quarters.

But everyone associated with Penn State was keenly aware of the larger context surrounding Saturday’s game, which was technically a matchup between the No. 4 team in the country and an unranked opponent but could just as easily have been a top-10 showdown were it not for a questionable officiating decision on a fourth-down sneak that sunk the Trojans against the Gophers. They knew that Big Ten teams traveling across two or more time zones were just 1-8 so far this season, the conference’s first with a West Coast contingent. They knew that Franklin had dedicated a portion of his weekly news conference to railing against the travel difficulties associated with a shorter runway at the State College Regional Airport, which prompted the Nittany Lions to drive 90 minutes to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before flying to California a day earlier than normal. They knew that Penn State had won 21 of 22 games against teams not named Michigan and Ohio State the last two seasons, which meant any loss to someone other than the Wolverines or Buckeyes would invite more questions about where the program stands in a conference that recently added two more historical powers in USC and Oregon. They knew that a favorable 2024 schedule gave the program its best chance of reaching the College Football Playoff in years, perhaps ever, as long as silly defeats were avoided. And now the Nittany Lions are likely to be favored in every game the rest of the year save for a home date with Ohio State on Nov. 2. 

“You’re going to have to find different ways throughout a season to win,” Franklin said. “Some are going to be blowouts — hopefully more of them are blowouts — but some of them are going to be comebacks. Some are going to be home [games] where you get the fans and they’re supporting you. Some are going to be on the road where things are going against you and you don’t have a whole lot of support in the stadium. Maybe weather, or whatever it may be, that’s big. I think the word ‘resilient’ was probably the best word to define our team today.”

There was resiliency from Allar, who responded to a third-quarter interception by leading back-to-back scoring drives measuring 72 yards and 75 yards that knotted the score with 2:53 remaining, and a 14-yard connection to tailback Nicholas Singleton forcing overtime. There was resiliency from Warren, who absorbed one vicious tackle after another while lining up at tight end, running back, wide receiver, quarterback and even center for a brilliant trick play in which he snapped the ball and then caught a 32-yard touchdown. There was resiliency from Penn State’s defense, which rose to the occasion time and again during critical moments by only allowing six points off three turnovers, two of which gave USC the ball on the outskirts of the red zone. 

And there was resiliency from Barker, a former walk-on, who has made all six of his field goals since Franklin changed kickers two weeks ago, including a 4-for-4 showing against the Trojans. He buried the overtime winner from 36 yards and was immediately engulfed by teammates as catharsis, hope and possibility collided. 

“We grinded it out,” Warren said. “And I couldn’t be more happy with the way we played and the way we fought back after being down. It was just an awesome win.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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