Match of the Day’s Stephen Warnock’s shows how Arne Slot’s half-time midfield rearrangement helped change the game in Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen.

WATCH MORE: Diaz hat-trick fires Liverpool to dominant win against Leverkusen

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TEMPLEGATE tackles Thursday’s racing confident of firing in some winners.

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DESTROYTHEEVIDENCE (1.40 Newbury, nap).

Kim Bailey (below) had plenty of success over hurdles with this son of Kayf Tara who was second in Cheltenham Grade 2.

He looked a natural when trying fences for the first time at Chepstow 27 days ago. He didn’t have things his own way but battled home to secure a two-length victory. He will learn from that and improve here.

JALAYBEE (3.45 Southwell, nb)

Was an easy winner here two runs ago and was on the podium again last time. He drops in class today, which can make all the difference.

MAJOR FORTUNE (2.52 Newbury, treble)

Has won six of his past seven and didn’t break sweat when scoring at Newton Abbot last week. He looks hard to stop under a 7lb penalty.

SHIELAS WELL (3.55 Newcastle)

Can make a splash. She had four lengths in hand when winning over course and distance last month before going in again at Musselburgh latest.

Templegate’s Tips

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Match of the Day’s Theo Walcott, Stephen Warnock and Julien Laurens analyse how Ruben Amorim engineered Sporting’s 4-1 win over Manchester City, and what it could mean for Manchester United as the Portuguese coach is set to take over at Old Trafford.

MATCH REPORT: Sporting CP 4-1 Manchester City

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Bo Nickal wants to be an undeniable UFC champion.

Nickal (6-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) takes on Paul Craig (17-8-1 MMA, 9-8-1 UFC) in a middleweight bout Nov. 16 on the UFC 309 main card at Madison Square Garden. Despite his dominance in the octagon, Nickal has opted to take an adequate amount of time between each fight. He continues to get criticized for his lack of activity, but the standout wrestler explains how his situation is different.

“For me, the most important thing is developing, and I don’t want to skip steps on development,” Nickal said on the “MightyCast” podcast. “You mentioned Diego Lopes. … These guys have 20-plus pro fights. He feels he’s ready to go. I fought six times in a little over two years. So, is that infrequent? I wouldn’t say it’s infrequent. I think people maybe forget that I’ve only been fighting since the summer of 2022 professionally. But with that being said, I think it’s really a good thing because people want to see me fight. They want to see me compete, and personally I want to compete as much as I can, but at the end of the day, it’s like, let’s say I fight a ranked guy next, then I fight a top five guy, and then I’m fighting for the title. It’s not like this long path that I have to get to where I want to go.

“So for me, the development and the improvement, a lot of it has to happen in training. I feel like I can compete with and beat the best guys in the world right now, but I don’t want it to be competitive when it happens. So, when I go out there and I’m competing for the belt, I want it to look like a masterclass where this guy’s not even on my level. I think right now there’s a lot of improvements that I need to make to get to that point. I think that it’s not all 100 percent up to me with the timing of how things work out, but I’m going to do my best to be prepared. And I feel like I’ve been put in a position where I have to make those improvements in training, and I don’t have the luxury of being able to get 15-20 fights before I’m there. Like I’m realistically probably going to be there at 10-11 fights.”

With his experience and notable wins over former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and top contender Magomed Ankalaev, Craig presents Nickal’s toughest test to date on paper.

However, oddsmakers still have Nickal as a heavy favorite. According to DraftKings, Nickal is a -1000 favorite over Craig, who is a +600 underdog.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

ASTON VILLA conceded one of the most bizarre penalties in Champions League history on Wednesday night.

Villa boss Unai Emery slammed Tyron Mings’ bizarre decision to PICK UP the ball as “the biggest mistake I witnessed in my career”.

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Mings gifted Club Brugge a penalty in the second half when he was passed the ball inside the area by Emi Martinez from a goal-kick and decided to bend down and pick it up.

It can only be assumed that Mings had a lapse in concentration and thought he had been rolled the ball to take the goal-kick himself.

But referee Tobias Stieler stuck to the letter of the law and pointed to the spot, a decision that cost Villa all three points as Brugge captain Hans Vanaken converted the resulting penalty to score the only goal of the game.

Former Premier League referee and SunSport columnist Mark Halsey gives his verdict on the controversial decision that marred Villa’s defeat to Club Brugge...

Speaking exclusively to SunSport Halsey explained that official Stieler made the right call and said that Aston Villa can have “no complaints whatsoever”.

He said: “We see it week in week out in every league around the globe, where the goalkeeper takes a quick goal kick giving it to the defender, and the defender plays it away.”

Adding: “The referee has no option whatsoever to to give that penalty because the ball is in play and it’s a it’s a schoolboy error by by Tyrone Mings.

“It’s just unbelievable for a player of his calibre to do what he did in the second half.

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“So Aston Villa can have no complaints whatsoever.”

The incident was remarkably similar to Arsenal centre-back Gabriel’s blunder against Bayern Munich in the Champions League last season.

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The Brazilian defender was let off the hook that night with Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg saying that it was a “kid’s mistake” that wasn’t in the spirit of the game to punish a team for.

Halsey reckons you can feel sorry for Mings, but the decision ultimately has to be a penalty by the letter of the law.

He added: “Tyrone Mings needs to have a look at himself and ask himself, What on earth was I doing?

“Listen, yes. You do feel a little bit for him, but they’re professional footballers. They should know the laws of the game.

“And as I say It’s a quick goal kick and, once the goal kick has been taken the ball is in play.

“So, as I said before, Aston Villa could have no complaints at the award of a penalty by the referee.”

Villa players also found themselves complaining that the referee hadn’t blown his whistle to restart play yet, but Halsey has clarified there’s no substance in that argument either.

He explained: “The referee doesn’t need to blow his whistle in that situation to restart play. It’s just ‘away we go’.”

Villa’s defeat knocked them off their perch in Europe and ended their 100% start to the Champions League this season.

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