The trophy is Messi’s 46th piece of silverware in his glittering career for club and country.

By finishing top of the standings, Miami have secured home advantage during the post-season play-offs.

“The first objective has been achieved and now we have to think about what’s next,” said Messi.

“The first round is three games but then it’s one game and anything can happen. But we have the great advantage of playing all the games at home, which is what we were looking for. We are very strong at home.”

Miami need two wins from their final two league matches to beat the MLS record for most points in a regular season, which currently stands as the 73 amassed by the New England Revolution in 2021.

David Raya, Arsenal, keeper, £5.6m – home to Southampton

This is the second of Arsenal’s plum home games in a row and, despite last week’s disappointment, they are the team most likely to keep a clean sheet in gameweek seven.

Taking Raya is a hefty investment, but he has been worth it this season with three clean sheets and also six bonus points.

Riccardo Calafiori, Arsenal, defender, £5.8m – home to Southampton

Doubling up on Arsenal’s defence feels like a safe bet.

It’s a small sample size, but in Calafiori’s two starts for Arsenal, he has a higher expected goals number (xG) than goal machine Gabriel (0.26 to 0.21).

The Italian scored a cracker at Manchester City and is averaging a couple of shots per game he starts. He’s also had more touches in the box than any other Gunners defender in the past two games.

Rico Lewis, Manchester City, defender, £4.7m – home to Fulham

Speaking of touches in the box, Lewis leads that statistic for City and for just £4.7m he feels like an FPL cheat code, with a decent chance of an attacking return.

The flip side is you never know who Pep Guardiola is going to play on any given week in defence, but Rodri’s absence makes Lewis’ involvement against Fulham feel a bit more likely.

At the price, Lewis owners can make sure they have a decent fourth defender in case he stays on the bench.

Max Kilman, West Ham, defender, £4.5m – home to Ipswich

A budget defender at home to the team with the lowest xG so far this season – makes sense, right?

Kilman is a threat from corners – he scored twice last season for Wolves and has had two headers on target so far this term.

Team-mate Konstantinos Mavropanos has been more threatening from set-pieces this season, but he didn’t start the last game.

New signing Jean-Clair Todibo should eventually become Kilman’s defensive partner and he will make West Ham’s defence better.

Smallbone and Coleman have not played for their clubs since featuring for the Republic of Ireland last month.

Coleman hobbled off with a leg injury in the 2-0 defeat by England.

Smallbone started in both home losses against England and Greece but a hamstring issue has prevented him from playing for Southampton since then.

Taylor, 26, has been in previous Republic squads but the Ipswich midfielder, who made seven appearances for the Irish Under-21 in 2019 and 2020, is yet to earn a full cap.

The Irish will face Finland in Helsinki on 10 October before taking on Greece in Athens three days later.

Hallgrimsson began his Republic of Ireland reign with last month’s two defeats and will be seeking significant improvement both in terms of performances and results in the Helsinki and Athens contests.

Republic of Ireland squad

Goalkeepers: Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool), Mark Travers (AFC Bournemouth), Max O’Leary (Bristol City).

Defenders: Festy Ebosele (Watford, on loan from Udinese), Mark McGuinness (Luton), Dara O’Shea (Ipswich Town), Nathan Collins (Brentford), Andrew Omobamidele (Nottingham Forest), Liam Scales (Celtic), Callum O’Dowda (Cardiff City), Robbie Brady (Preston North End).

Midfielders: Josh Cullen (Burnley), Jayson Molumby (West Bromwich Albion), Jason Knight (Bristol City), Finn Azaz (Middlesbrough), Jack Taylor (Ipswich), Jamie McGrath (Aberdeen).

Forwards: Adam Idah (Celtic), Evan Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion), Sammie Szmodics (Ipswich Town), Chiedozie Ogbene (Ipswich Town), Mikey Johnston (West Brom), Troy Parrott (AZ Alkmaar), Kasey McAteer (Leicester City).

SALT LAKE CITY – It appears the beef between Khalil Rountree and Sean Strickland is over – at least from Rountree’s side.

Rountree (14-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) challenges light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 307 (pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+) headliner at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Strickland is in Salt Lake City to help Pereira prep for Rountree, whom he’s never been fond of. His issue with him started in 2022 when he went off on Rountree for crying during one of his post-fight scrums. Rountree downplayed his comments, claiming he didn’t know who Strickland was.

Rountree says Strickland approached him a couple of months ago to apologize, but that didn’t stop the former UFC middleweight champion from recently going off on Rountree again, calling him a “liberal c*ck beta male,” as well as accusing him of being in a cult.

“Honestly, the last interaction that I had with Sean Strickland was at the UFC PI. It was literally the day after Dan Ige stepped in for that fight on like three hours, four hours’ notice, or something like that,” Rountree told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “Out of the blue, Sean Strickland came up to me. He approached me, and he just said, like, ‘Khalil, I apologize. I’m a dumbass. I actually kind of like you. I think you’re liberal, but overall, I like you’ or ‘I respect you,’ something along those lines.

“So what I took it as is, almost like squashing whatever beef, or just saying, like, ‘Look dude, I am who I am. I’m going to say what I’m going to say, but I’m coming here to personally shake your hand, tell you I think you’re a liberal to a certain level, I respect you.’ It was like that. So I took it as like, OK, you’re coming here to kind of make the peace. I left it at that. So now, anything moving forward, anything that’s said, I’ve got that in my memory bank, so I know that there’s really no issue. It’s really just talk, and I won’t concern myself with it.”

Strickland is expected to get his desired title-fight rematch with UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, who edged him out by split decision in their first fight in January,

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.

SALT LAKE CITY – Julianna Pena feels she’s carrying the promotion of her UFC women’s bantamweight title fight with Raquel Pennington this Saturday, and she made sure to let the world know.

Both Peña (11-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) and Pennington (16-8 MMA, 13-5 UFC) got into a heated back and forth at Thursday’s UFC 307 press conference, mainly initiated by “The Venezuelan Vixen.” Pennington, who makes her first title defense, wasn’t happy with the several shots thrown her way.

“You are a warrior, and you have heart, but guess what? I’m a warrior, I have heart, and this whole “Pitbull” talk? You’re just a yapie-ass chihuahua who is in front of somebody’s face,” Pennington said.

Peña was quick to the microphone and responded by saying she’s had no choice but to stir the pot, accusing Pennington of not properly promoting their fight.

“Speaking of chihuahua, I feel like because I told her that she’s a bad representation of the women’s division, that she’s had no choice but to talk,” Peña said. “This is the most you’ve ever heard Raquel Pennington speak in the history of Raquel Pennington. I have to bring that out in her in order to get people interested in the fight because nobody else is interested in this block of wood here. She’s boring.”

You can watch their whole exchange in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.

Donn Davis continues to express his frustration towards Kayla Harrison’s departure from PFL.

Harrison (17-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) signed with the UFC in early 2024, and made big waves in her octagon debut. She dominated Holly Holm en route to a Round 2 submission in the promotion’s historic UFC 300 event in April.

The PFL CEO wanted to see Harrison stick around to try and avenge her setback to Larissa Pacheco, who handed her the first loss of her career. Harrison had already beaten Pacheco twice before.

After PFL acquired Bellator, Davis was also excited at the possibility of matching Harrison up with Bellator champion Cris Cyborg, but Harrison opted to sign with the UFC.

“We brought Kayla into MMA from the Olympics, developed her into an 18-1 star, two-time champion, and one of the greatest women, top five in the sport today,” Davis told MMA Today. “(I have) nothing but pride for that and nothing but respect for Kayla as a competitor. To build the company, I want every great fighter here.

“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t keep Kayla here for, what I think, are the two biggest fights of her legacy and her career: avenging Pacheco and winning the championship, and beating Cyborg, who is the greatest ever. I think those are the two toughest fights ahead of Kayla. I don’t like that she ran from those. I don’t like that she ran to a brand to validate herself. I think so highly of Kayla Harrison. She doesn’t need a brand to validate her. She’s that great. .. So that disappointed me.”

Harrison will look to emerge as No. 1 contender at bantamweight when she takes on Ketlen Vieira (14-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) on Saturday’s UFC 307 (pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+) main card at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.