The Larne boss adds that the quick turnaround of games they are facing is “not something they are complaining about” but it does present challenges in terms of preparation.

“Our boys haven’t been wired to play the amount of games that have been asked of them. You’re now in a situation where the final whistle is blown and two days later you have another game.

“The preparation time has been very different because we’ve found ourselves having to do a lot of the preparation off the pitch, whereas we were normally able to do all our preparations on the pitch.

“That’s been very different for us so we’ve had to look at ways and means of getting our message across, getting our gameplan across, maybe giving them a little bit more analysis to understand their role and responsibility.”

After Saturday’s top-flight game against Crusaders at Inver Park, Lynch’s team will face League of Ireland champions Shamrock Rovers in their next European game at Windsor Park on Thursday before travelling to Portadown for another Premiership match on Sunday 27 October.

“Obviously they are very different games – playing domestic football and the European stage – so there have been lots of learning curves in there, lots of things we’ve had to tweak from an off-field perspective, both for the players and the staff.

“Domestically, there are so many new faces in the league, so many new managers, you are being challenged all the time now. I watched the Crusaders team for the first time last week, their style is very different, the personnel is very different, so there are challenges in that.

“Then the next day you get to watch Rovers, how they set up, how they play, the talent they have in their team, for a manager or anyone involved in football, that’s what you want.”

Francis Ngannou’s MMA return happens this Saturday as the PFL returns to pay-per-view for Battle of the Giants in Saudi Arabia. With the PFL needing to badly get some buzz, does Ngannou have to beat Renan Ferreira — not just for himself, but for the PFL as a whole?

On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Saturday’s big fight card, how important it is that the card delivers as a whole, and what happens based on the result of the main event. Additionally, topics include Dana White once again ripping the UFC rankings panel after UFC 307, the promotion returning to the APEX this Saturday for UFC Vegas 99 headlined by Anthony Hernandez vs. Michel Pereira, Donald Cerrone announcing he’s ending his retirement with hopes of two more UFC bouts, UFC 310 fight announcements including Belal Muhammad vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov for the welterweight title, and more.

Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and UFC lightweight Grant Dawson.

Watch the show live at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT in the video above.

If you missed the show live, you can still watch above, or listen to the podcast version, which can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.

As the Circuit of The Americas prepares to host the US Grand Prix for a 12th time, a trio of Formula One teams have made their way to the Lone Star State with fresh liveries.

The 19th race in the 2024 F1 calendar and the second of three to be hosted by the US this season — following a trip to Miami in May — Austin will mark another opportunity for Haas F1 Team to impress their home fans some 1,200 miles away from the team’s base in North Carolina.

This time around, Haas has announced that Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen’s VF-24s will take to the 5.5-kilometer circuit sporting a unique take on their usual black, white, and red livery.

With stars and stripes across the front wing, hints of blue can also be seen throughout the design. Most notably, the fresh paintwork includes an eagle and star design on both side pods alongside the team’s logo.

The team revealed their bold new look on X, tweeting, “Made in America…Turning up to Texas with symbols of home.”

Aside from Haas, McLaren‘s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastriwill also take to the Texas tarmac donning striking new liveries.

McLaren United States GP livery

Photo by: McLaren

The Woking-based team is adding a mirror-esque finish to the MCL38, with chrome adorning much of the side pods and airbox cover in celebration of their ongoing partnership with Google. Chrome will also be present on both Norris and Piastri’s race suits in Austin.

This will mark the second time this livery has been run by McLaren after it made its debut at the 2023 British Grand Prix.

According to the team, the decision to bring back the chrome livery is a continuation of their “Chrome Shines Again” campaign, which they say acts as a nod to “the iconic chrome from McLaren race cars of seasons past.”

However, the star of the show in Austin will arguably be Alpine. The Enstone team has partnered with sponsors Xbox on a thoroughly unique design for the upcoming grand prix, celebrating the impending release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — which is slated for release in December.

Alpine F1 Team United States GP livery

Photo by: Alpine

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The A524’s bare carbon fiber heavy shell will be covered in torn sections of an aged map, reminiscent of those seen within the iconic movie franchise. The game’s logo also features just in front of the side pods, with the driver’s numbers written in the same unique font on the nose.

Alpine’s “sunset orange” scheme including a world map will also be used on Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon’s one-off racing suits, as per F1.

“Working with the Xbox team to bring alive the incredible Indiana Jones and the Great Circle livery for the United States Grand Prix has been fantastic,” Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes said. 

“The new look will be right at home in the Austin setting this weekend.”

Poulsen had coached Odense BK to the Danish championship in 1989 and the domestic cup in 1991 before being asked to step in and help Zambia.

“Approximately three weeks after the disaster, I got calls from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Football Association [to ask] if I could help over a period of six weeks in Denmark,” he told BBC Sport Africa last year, speaking to mark the 30th anniversary of the plane crash.

However, the scale of the task in front of him became apparent when the side arrived in Europe and started training.

“I could see this was going to be a big job,” said Poulsen.

“I felt the ability of the players was not really there, that they didn’t have any confidence. All quite understandable given they were in foreign country with strange food and accommodation, far away from families.

“The main thing is that the common language of football is so strong.”

Poulsen was asked to take charge of the 1994 World Cup qualifier against Morocco in Lusaka on 4 July 1993 as the Chipolopolo players took to the field for their first competitive encounter since the crash.

Kalusha Bwalya captained the side, having avoided the crash because he was due to make his own way to Senegal.

The 1988 African Footballer of the Year was on the scoresheet as Zambia came from behind to beat their North African opponents.

“That was fantastic, mission accomplished,” Poulsen said.

“The whole nation accepted our work. It took hours for us to leave the stadium as people ran alongside the bus, singing.

“After less than six weeks, a new national team was born.”

BARCELONA fell victim to a scam when completing Robert Lewandowski’s transfer.

The striker moved to the Nou Camp in the summer of 2022, joining from Bayern Munich.

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Lewandowski has been in fine form this season and has helped Barcelona to the top of LaLiga, but his signing got the club into difficulty.

That is because a fraudster posing as his agent Pini Zahavi demanded a payment be made of £830,000, according to reports in Spain.

In late July 2022 several club directors and executives received an email requesting the payment as commission for the deal being completed.

Barcelona paid the amount into an account number at the Bank of Cyprus – but to an account under the name of Michael Gerardus Hermanus Demon.

The bank blocked the transfer as it was considered high risk, due to the fact there were no previous transactions on the account nor any valid documents to justify the payment.

The scammer continued to put pressure on Barcelona by posing as Zahavi, and threatened to report the club to Uefa and block Lewandowski’s registration.

They also wrote to the Bank of Cyprus in a bid to get the transaction approved but were denied again.

That meant Barcelona were able to recover the £830,000 and have since reported the scammer to police after receiving two more emails demanding around £210,000.

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Lewandowski, 36, has been a success at Barcelona with 71 goals in 106 games, including 12 this term.

He signed from Bayern in a deal worth £42.5million.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Fabian Edwards gets a second crack at Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen, and isn’t putting too much into losing the first matchup.

At PFL: Battle of the Giants in Riyadh, Edwards (13-3) will look to avenge the loss to Eblen (15-0), which came at Bellator 299 last September. All it took was one win, and “The Assassin” now finds himself days away from another Bellator title shot.

“It feels right,” Edwards told MMA Junkie and other reporters at media day. “Some people say it’s too soon and all of that, but for me, it feels right. … “I just look at it as one fight doesn’t mean that’s how all the fights will play out. I look at it as a new fight, but I’ve felt him before.”

The loss to Eblen snapped a three-fight winning streak for Edwards. He immediately returned to the win column in his following outing against Aaron Jeffery, winning by unanimous decision.

Looking back on the first meeting, Edwards believes he was doing everything properly against Eblen until an ill-timed mistake left an opening. Ahead of the rematch, he studied the first fight and said he watched the finishing sequence “thousands” of times, which taught him an important lesson.

“The small details,” Edwards said when asked what is different going into the rematch. “That’s what this fighting game is, it’s the small details that make a difference. I look back at the last fight, it was a small mistake that made a difference, and I made sure I corrected those.”

The scorecards were all over the place in the first meeting with Eblen. One judge had both rounds for Eblen, another scored both for Edwards, while the third scored one round for either fighter.

This time around, whether it’s on the scorecards or by early stoppage, Edwards is confident he will leave Riyadh with the Bellator middleweight title.

“I get my hand raised by any means,” Edwards said. “I feel like the last fight, I was beating him. It wasn’t any areas that he was outclassing me at. But it’s MMA, it’s 4 oz. gloves, and you get yourself caught sometimes. That’s what I believe happened.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for PFL: Battle of the Giants.