Interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy thinks an extended stint on the bench acted as motivation for Manchester United’s two-goal Europa League hero Amad Diallo.

Amad had been named as substitute in six successive games before being given a start against Greek side PAOK at Old Trafford.

In Van Nistelrooy’s words, the 22-year-old responded by being “our best player in the first half”, before “winning us the game in the second”.

Asked if being a substitute so often had been a motivating factor, Van Nistelrooy said: “Apparently so.”

The Ivory Coast international was by far United’s biggest threat against limited opposition – he was prepared to run at the PAOK defence and carried on doing so, even when he did not get immediate reward.

Van Nistelrooy accepted a first half in which United made “many technical mistakes” and had one shot on goal “wasn’t good”, but Amad made the difference after the interval.

“The second goal had everything in it that is Diallo,” said Van Nistelrooy. “He fought to win the ball off the defender, then pushed through to take the shot and had the quality to bend it around the goalkeeper.

“He is a great character and a hard worker. He shows that attitude in every training session. Every day in he comes to me and wants to do extra finishing, crossing, one v ones. He is asking how can I improve his shot, and his heading.

“He is constantly focused on learning and getting better. He is motivated to get the most from his career.”

Amad’s present contract expires next June, although United do have the option to extend it by an additional year.

Next week, he will have a new boss to impress as Ruben Amorim takes charge.

Van Nistelrooy said he would have to “check his phone” to see if he had received a message from the Portuguese although, for now, he seems happy both parties are concentrating on their current clubs.

“I think that Ruben focuses on [Sporting at] Braga and I focus on Leicester [in the Premier League on Sunday],” he said.

The captain, who was also benched for the league win over St Mirren last month, came off on the 67th minute at Hampden and was then dropped for Thursday’s game in Greece.

It is impossible to say whether the result would have been different or not had Tavernier started, but what is clear is both Sterling and Kasanwirjo can be pleased with their defensive displays against a disappointing Olympiakos attack.

Clement hailed his “really solid” defence and heaped praise on his midfield for playing their parts in the draw, which meant Rangers are now unbeaten in their last five away Europa League matches – equalling their longest such run in the competition’s history.

The clearest sign on where Clement ranks Tavernier in his pecking order will now come on Sunday when Hearts visit Ibrox, but the Belgian insisted he wanted to see leadership coming from more than just one player.

“It’s never an easy decision, but I want more than one captain in the group,” the Rangers boss said of his call to bench Tavernier.

“If you [get to] a certain age you can’t play 60 games at the same level. We knew that before the season and we spoke about that.

“It’s about competition for spots. It’s about one team, winning together. That’s Rangers – one team, one family, going for one goal.”

The Chiefs, as you may have heard, are the NFL’s last unbeaten team, now 8-0 and almost halfway to the elusive perfect regular season.

The 1972 Dolphins, the only team to pull off an undefeated full season, opened that year with a win against the Chiefs, having beaten them in the playoffs the previous season. So any Chiefs run at perfection is ultimately a slow-burn revenge mission, and a difficult one at that.

Do the Chiefs even want to stay perfect? Kansas City has had two teams open 9-0, and both lost the 10th game. The 2003 Chiefs finished 13-3 and lost in their first playoff game; the 2013 Chiefs dropped five of seven to finish 11-5 and lost in the wild-card round.

So we’re here to remind you how remarkably unlikely a perfect season will be, no matter how good the Chiefs might be. They can be the best team in the NFL and win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl and still fall well short of perfection. There’s no shame in that. Here are a few vulnerabilities to watch, relative weak spots that could be exposed in an eventual loss to spoil that bid at 20-0.

Turnover margin

The Chiefs are not a good turnover team. They have forced exactly eight takeaways in eight games, and on turnover margin, they’re tied for 24th this season at minus-4. This is not a new development: Kansas City won a Super Bowl last year despite finishing 28th in turnover margin, and did the same in 2022 while ranking 22nd in turnover margin. Last year’s champs forced 17 takeaways in 17 regular-season games.

They’re good enough that they don’t need to win on turnovers. Since Patrick Mahomes took over as starter in 2018, they’re 37-2 when they simply force more turnovers than they commit. Dead even on turnovers? They’re 24-6, winning 80 percent of the time. Even when they’re minus-1, as they were in Monday’s overtime win over the Bucs, they’re 17-9, winning almost two out of three times.

But get them to minus-2, and it’s a conversation you can have. When the Chiefs are minus-2 or worse under Mahomes, they’re 5-7. That’s actually really good under the circumstances, as NFL teams that are minus-2 or worse are 9-41 this year, winning just 18 percent of the time.

Why we bring this up: The Chiefs’ remaining schedule includes three of the NFL’s best teams in turnover margin. In two weeks, they face the Bills, tied for the league’s best at plus-11 in turnovers, and later they’ll face the Chargers (plus-9) and Steelers (plus-10). All three are leading their divisions right now, and the net turnover differential between the Chiefs and those teams is enough to bring those rare minus-2 scenarios into play.

Mahomes’ interceptions are up this year, enough that he was tied for the league lead with nine before this past weekend. It’s rare he has more than one in a game — it’s happened only 14 times in his seven-year career, but the Chiefs are just 8-6 in those games. So if a team can pick him off a couple times, there’s a chance.

Keep them under 20 points

Much has been written about how the Chiefs have won as much with their defense this year. Before Monday night, they’d won 13 games in a row and had scored 28 points or fewer in all 13 games, the only such streak in NFL history. They scored 30 points on Monday, but needed overtime to do it.

All this is to say that these Chiefs have not been a dominant team offensively over the past two years. At their scoring peak, from the start of 2020 to their Week 8 bye in 2022, Kansas City scored 40 or more points 11 times in 46 games, but since then, they’ve scored 40 or more just once in their past 42 games.

“Hey, get them to score less” is not an innovative strategy, but the key number to aim for is 20 points or fewer. When the Chiefs scored 20 or fewer last year, they were just 4-6. Only one team has held them under 20 this year, and it’s the Chargers, who have the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense and lost 17-10 in their first meeting.

The Chiefs’ remaining schedule includes four games against the NFL’s top three scoring defenses — a rematch with the Chargers, a Week 17 showdown with the Steelers and two against the Broncos, this week and the season finale. That game at Buffalo next weekend — a rematch of last year’s playoff showdown — would also put Kansas City against the league’s No. 8 scoring defense.

Kickoff return concerns

The Bucs’ Bucky Irving had a 46-yard kickoff return Monday night, the second-longest the Chiefs have allowed over the past three seasons. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub is one of the best in the league, and Kansas City has an 80 percent touchback rate with Harrison Butker, so the team’s opponents have only returned nine kickoffs all season.

But on those returns, they’re averaging 30 yards per return, the eighth-highest average in the league. The Saints’ Rashid Shaheed had a 38-yard return against the Chiefs and the 49ers‘ Isaac Guerendo had a 35-yarder. The entire league has given up only three kickoff return touchdowns all season, and Kansas City hasn’t allowed one since 2020, but it’s something to watch. Keep an eye out for Bills rookie Brandon Codrington in two weeks.

The threat of a Mahomes injury

It’s almost cheating to have an undefeated season end because of a quarterback injury, but Mahomes had a scare early in the fourth quarter Monday night when he scrambled to his right, then pulled up and tossed a touchdown to Samaje Perine. He was down on the field with an ankle injury and initially had to be helped to the sideline before finishing the walk on his own. He ended up not missing a snap, but the concern was enough to have TV showing backup Carson Wentz throwing on the sideline.

Mahomes has been remarkably healthy in his NFL career, missing only two starts in seven seasons due to injury — in 2019 with a dislocated kneecap. He sat out the regular-season finales in 2020 and 2023 because the Chiefs had clinched everything they could, but otherwise, he’s been able to play every game.

Could the Chiefs win with Wentz? He’s 3-5 as a starter since the start of 2022 in stints with the Commanders and Rams. The Chiefs split the two games Mahomes missed in 2019, and that was with Matt Moore filling in at quarterback. Mahomes’ current ankle injury won’t sideline him, but it might limit his scrambling ability and the elusiveness that allows him to extend plays and improvise as few quarterbacks can.

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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We have seen some amazing Premier League comebacks down the years but few can match the way Chris claimed victory in last week’s predictions.

He was trailing his guest, The Piano winner Brad Kella, by 80-20 after eight of the 10 games in week 10, and was also 50 points behind you lot, before giving himself hope with an exact score in Manchester United’s draw with Chelsea on Sunday.

After 90 minutes of Monday’s final game, Kella’s prediction of a 1-0 Brentford win looked set to give him overall victory, before Fulham’s 92nd minute equaliser saw the BBC Sport readers, who had gone for a 1-1 draw, move in front as things stood.

Chris would have finished third with either of those results but instead snatched a remarkable last-gasp win, thanks to Harry Wilson’s 97th-minute winner for the Cottagers, which gave him another exact score and 40 more points.

That meant he ended up with four correct results, including those two exact scores, and a total of 100 points.

Kella got five correct results, but with only one exact score, leaving him on 80 points, and you lot got four correct results with one exact score, to end up on 70 points.

“I have sent a box of wine around to Harry Wilson’s house to say thanks,” Chris said. “Or at least I would do if I knew where he lived.”

Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson hopes experienced defender Shane Duffy will bring “steel and leadership” after being recalled to the squad for the forthcoming Nations League matches against Finland and England.

The 32-year-old central defender has been included in a 23-man group for the Group B2 fixtures against the Finns at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 14 November and the trip to Wembley three days later.

The Norwich City player’s only appearance for the Republic in the past 12 months came in a 2-1 friendly victory over Hungary in June under then interim head coach John O’Shea.

His impressive club form in the Championship has seen him regain a place in the squad and his international boss believes the 61-times capped defender can bring some qualities that the Irish side was missing in their win over Finland and defeat in Greece in the last international window in October.

“I wanted to see the upcoming exciting younger centre-backs so in the beginning we went for younger players but I felt – especially last camp and before – there were some areas we can improve,” said Hallgrimsson.

“For example, we lost a lot of duels, especially against Greece in the first half, and his leadership, his character will probably help us in that area.

“It’s good to see what he brings in and I hope they will be the attributes he will come in with, with leadership, a little bit more steel and winning duels, especially set-pieces, etc.