Sport
Salvatore Schillaci: A story that will burn forever in memory of those who experienced it
The moment that changed Schillaci’s life came on 9 June 1990 as Italy struggled to break down Austria in their first game in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, when he met Gianluca Vialli’s right-wing cross to rise and power home a 79th-minute header just three minutes after coming on as substitute.
Schillaci raced off towards the touchline, almost in disbelief, pumping his arms out wide and staring wide-eyed, lost in the ecstasy of celebration. He looked like he would not stop running until he was brought to a halt, swamped by elated Italy team-mates.
An unlikely superstar was born.
Vicini resisted the temptation to start Schillaci, who came on as a substitute in the narrow win over the USA, but bowed to national demands to play the tough Sicilian alongside the great Roberto Baggio against the Czechoslovakia.
Schillaci and Baggio both scored in a 2-0 win and were soon hailed as a dream ticket, the headline on the front of Gazzetta Dello Sport reading: “Italy in delirium with Schillaci and Baggio. How beautiful you are.”
The remarkable tale continued with Schillaci scoring one and making another for Aldo Serena as Uruguay were beaten in the last 16. He ended the Republic of Ireland’s superb World Cup campaign at the quarter-finals stage with the decisive strike in a 1-0 win, also scoring against Argentina in the last four only for the dream to die as Italy went out on penalties.
Italia ’90 ended on a personal high as he scored a late penalty as the hosts beat England 2-1 to secure third place. He was the recipient of a generous gesture from Baggio, who stepped aside as penalty taker to give Schillaci the chance to end as the tournament’s top scorer ahead of Czech Republic striker Tomas Skuhravy.
Baggio’s decision showed that Schillaci’s down-to-earth personality and selfless playing style had made him a figure as popular with his Italy team-mates as he was with the rest of the world.
As far as Italy was concerned, Schillaci was now immortal, forever recognised in his home country, with stories of children and animals – including thoroughbred horses – named after the man who started his career being paid £1.50 a goal for a local amateur side.
Sport
Rory Gallagher: Former Derry GAA manager intends to return
Former Derry GAA manager Rory Gallagher has said he “fully intends” to return to inter-county management in a statement issued by his solicitors.
Gallagher was “temporarily debarred” from the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in September 2023 after Ulster GAA asked an independent panel to investigate claims of abuse made by Gallagher’s estranged wife Nicola Gallagher.
Gallagher, who stepped back as Derry boss in May 2023, challenged his ban and the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA), an independent arbitration body, found in Gallagher’s favour following a hearing on 1 February.
“There is no legal impediment to our client undertaking or accepting a role as a GAA Senior Football manager,” a statement from Gallagher’s solicitors Phoenix Law read.
“Our client fully intends to return to inter county management in the near future.
“Two separate investigations have led – rightly – to decisions by the PPS not to prosecute. Mr Gallagher has not been charged with a single offence,” the statement continued.
More to follow
Sport
Sir Alex Ferguson on helping families affected by dementia
Sir Alex Ferguson on helping families affected by dementia
Sport
Women’s Super League predictions: Can anyone stop Chelsea?
The Women’s Super League returns this weekend and Chelsea are aiming to win a sixth title in a row – but can anyone stop them?
New manager Sonia Bompastor is hoping to pick up her first WSL title but Manchester City, who lost out on goal difference last season, will want revenge.
With Crystal Palace joining the top flight and others spending big money in the summer transfer window, it promises to be another rollercoaster campaign.
Some of BBC Sport’s pundits have predicted their top three for the 2024-25 campaign, along with who they think will be relegated, while Emma Sanders tries to predict where each team will finish this season.
Football
FPL tips and team of the week: Erling Haaland not essential this week
Emi Martinez, Aston Villa, keeper, £5m – home to Wolves
Clean sheets have been so hard to predict this season.
Gameweek four saw six of them from the 10 games, which means we’ve had 18 in 40 games – or clean sheets for 18 teams from a potential 80!
There’s no standout keeper this week but Martinez has been a big-game performer in the past and derby games can be tight affairs.
Yukinari Sugawara, Southampton, defender, £4.5m – home to Ipswich
The Japanese full-back has been flying down the right flank in manager Russell Martin’s progressive style of play where he likes to overload areas of the pitch.
Sugawara has put in 16 crosses, double any of his defensive team-mates and second on the team to Will Smallbone.
He’s created three of Southampton’s five big chances and also scored at Brentford.
Ipswich have been goal shy so far, with just two in their four games and, should Saints turn some impressive periods of play into a 90-minute performance, Sugawara has chances of a return at both ends of the pitch.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool, defender, £7m – home to Bournemouth
I may sound like a broken record by now but the attacking returns are on the horizon for the most expensive defender in the game.
Alexander-Arnold was close to another clean sheet last week before Nottingham Forest’s smash-and-grab success at Anfield and it’s amazing he has not got an assist yet.
The right-back’s expected assists (xA) stat is an incredible 1.87 from four games. For context, that is an assist higher than any other defender in the game except Villa left-back Digne (0.94). Tottenham’s Pedro Porro and Sugawara are next with just 0.67.
Josko Gvardiol, Manchester City, defender, £6m – home to Arsenal
Defences are likely to be on top when City host Arsenal on Sunday and you’d expect the Gunners to set up like they did last season, to absorb City pressure and hit on the break.
Rodri should return to City’s line-up which should mean Gvardiol playing a more progressive position down the left like he did at the back-end of last season.
He’ll see plenty of the ball, we know he has a goal or assist in him and, if City do keep a clean sheet, the Croatian will be a strong contender for bonus points.
Sport
Sean Dyche: Everton boss working under ‘very difficult’ circumstances
Manager Sean Dyche is working under “very difficult circumstances” amid Everton’s worst start to a league season in 66 years, says the club’s director of football Kevin Thelwell.
The Toffees are bottom of the Premier League without a point having lost all four of their games so far, conceding 13 goals.
They have the poorest record of the 96 teams in Europe’s top five leagues and were knocked out in the third round of the Carabao Cup on penalties by fellow strugglers Southampton on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with BBC Radio Merseyside’s Giulia Bould, Thelwell said: “Sean and I work very closely together, our offices are a metre apart so we are talking regularly and consistently about what things we can do, how we can use the resources we have available to try and make things better going forwards.
“Sean has a responsibility for the preparation and performance of the team and fundamentally the results. My responsibility is the support services that sit around that. It is about us talking through some of the performance problems we have got.”
Dyche’s contract expires at the end of the season and, despite the wretched start, club sources have told BBC Sport the 53-year-old’s job is currently safe.
Thelwell added: “I can promise everybody that there is no stone being left unturned in terms of trying to rectify our current situation. He [Dyche] is working under very difficult circumstances.
“We still have ownership and financial situations to resolve so that makes it very difficult for a manager when we want to take that next step.”
Last week, Everton said there is “some work to be done” for American businessman John Textor to complete his takeover of the club following aborted attempts by 777 Partners and the Friedkin Group this year.
The Blues are also scheduled to move to their new stadium on Bramley Moore-Dock for the start of next season.
Sport
America’s Cup: Saddling up on the high seas – the life of a cyclor
The races take place across head-to-head events that are split into two parts.
The first part – the Louis Vuitton Cup – determines which of five challengers will face this year’s defending champion Emirates Team New Zealand in the second, the America’s Cup itself.
Races take approximately 25 minutes and this year start in August and end in October.
Endurance is the key metric for cyclors, who need to be able to consistently produce a high wattage during the races themselves and maintain their form across 10 weeks.
“We just want a huge reliable engine for the three months that we’re going to be racing,” Van Velthooven says.
“Big days are big days and easy days are still big days because they still need heaps of power. It’s relentless.”
The UK’s Ineos Britannia team, led by Sir Ben Ainslie, might not have recruited professional cyclists to their crew like some of their rivals but they have the next best thing – an affiliation with the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, formerly Team Sky and winner of seven Tours de France.
Matt Gotrel is part of Ineos Britannia’s crew. This year will be his second America’s Cup, but his first as a cyclor rather than grinder. A former Olympic gold medal-winning rower, having been part of Great Britain’s eight at Rio 2016, Gotrel has found it a “big challenge” to train a different muscle group, even if recreationally he considered himself a cyclist already.
“As rowers, we had an upside-down pyramid [body shape] before, but it’s flipped around now,” Gotrel says.
As grinders, his crew would aim to produce 400 watts of power over 20 minutes. As cyclors they are now “well north of that”.
Training for the past two years has predominantly taken place on the road or in the gym, rather than on water. Volume blocks can consist of four to six-hour-long rides, three times a week, interspersed with high-intensity intervals on a static bike and weight training.
Gotrel, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, compares powering the boats in a race to a cycling time trial, but with repeated sprint efforts throughout.
“You want to have a really good aerobic base where you can sit at as high a power as possible without producing too much lactate, and then you have your big spikes and need to be able to recover from those,” he says.
The connection to Ineos’ cycling team has been a “massive” resource for Gotrel and his fellow cyclors, enabling them to share training and nutritional insight on a training camp in Spain together.
“I had a chat with [sprinter Elia] Viviani about some sprinting technique, and then there are Filippo Ganna and Dan Bigham who have been really good on some of the strategy and fuelling things and what they did to push on the hour record,” says Gotrel
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