Japan’s World Baseball Classic title defense is over. Saturday night at loanDepot Park in Miami, Venezuela rallied from behind to eliminate Japan (VEN 8, JPN 5) and advance to the semifinals. Venezuela is one step away from Tuesday’s Championship Game and Japan will head home following its worst World Baseball Classic finish ever.

Saturday’s game started with a bang. Two bangs, actually. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Shohei Ohtani have combined to win the last three NL MVP awards and they opened Saturday’s game with leadoff home runs. Acuña did the honors in the top of the first inning, then Ohtani responded in the bottom half. It’s the first-ever WBC game with two leadoff homers. This, right here, is the good stuff:

Reigning World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto got hit hard early against Venezuela. Acuña tagged him for the leadoff homer and three of the first six batters he faced had extra-base hits. Yamamoto did eventually settle down, though. He retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced, including five via strikeout. Yamamoto finished with two runs allowed in four innings.

2026 World Baseball Classic bracket, schedule: Semifinals set after Venezuela’s upset of Japan

Matt Snyder

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Venezuela took a 2-1 lead into the third inning before Japan jumped on starter Ranger Suárez. Four of the first five batters they sent to the plate in the third inning reached base, and one batter who didn’t reach laid down a sacrifice bunt. Center fielder Shota Morishita, who replaced the injured Seiya Suzuki (right knee discomfort) in the second inning, slugged a three-run homer to end Suárez’s night.

Morishita’s home run gave Japan a 5-2 lead and it felt like they were in control of the game, but once the bullpen door swung open, it was advantage Venezuela. Maikel Garcia got Venezuela to within 5-4 with a two-run homer in the fifth, then Wilyer Abreu clobbered a three-run blast to turn the 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 lead in the sixth inning in an electric moment.

That’s a brand name Abreu took deep. Hiromi Itoh was the 2025 winner of the Eiji Sawamura Award, which is Japan’s Cy Young. Yamamoto held Venezuela to two runs in four innings. Five Japan relievers were charged with six runs in five innings the rest of the night. The game swung when five of eight Venezuela hitters reached base, spanning the fifth and sixth innings.

Venezuela’s bullpen, meanwhile, stood tall behind Suárez. Six relievers held Japan scoreless across 6 ⅓ innings, and retired 13 straight at one point. Japan’s best chance to get back into the game came in the eighth inning, when Kazuma Okamoto and Munetaka Murakami strung together back-to-back two-out singles. Andres Machado got Shugo Maki to ground out to end the threat.

Tigers minor-league lefty Enmanuel De Jesus did the heaviest lifting out of the Venezuela bullpen, soaking up 2 ⅓ scoreless innings in the middle of the game to give the offense a chance to rally. He struck out three, including Ohtani with two runners on base in the fourth inning. De Jesus was awarded the win for his effort.

Ohtani went 1 for 4 with the leadoff homer and an intentional walk against Venezuela. He struck out twice and popped up behind second base to end the game.

Venezuela will play Italy in the semifinals Monday night in Miami after Italy continued its Cinderella run Saturday with a nail-biter 8-6 win over Puerto Rico. The winter of Monday’s Italy vs. Venezuela game will advance to the Championship Game and face the winner of Sunday’s highly anticipated USA vs. Dominican Republic game.

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This is Japan’s lowest-ever finish in the WBC. They won the 2006 and 2009 events, finished third in the 2013 and 2017 and won the 2023 WBC. Japan will finish either fifth or sixth in the final standings this year, depending on how Sunday’s USA vs. Dominican Republic game plays out.

As for Venezuela, this is the first time they’ve advanced to the semifinals since 2009, when they lost to Korea and finished fourth in the tournament. That is Venezuela’s best WBC finish ever. Saturday’s win also clinched a berth in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The third-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks take on the fourth-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores for the 2026 SEC Tournament championship on Sunday. Vanderbilt stunned top-seeded Florida 91-74 in the semifinals on Saturday, while Arkansas outlasted 15th-seeded Ole Miss 93-90 in overtime in the other one. The Commodores (26-7), who have won four in a row, are looking to win their third SEC Tournament championship and first since 2012. The Razorbacks (25-8), who have won four straight, are looking for their second SEC Tournament title and first since 2000.

Tipoff from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., is set for 1 p.m. ET. Arkansas leads the all-time series 32-15, including a 93-68 win on Jan. 20. Vanderbilt is a 2.5-point favorite in the latest Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas odds from DraftKings Sportsbook, while the over/under for total points scored is 166.5. Before making any Arkansas vs. Vanderbilt picks, check out the men’s college basketball predictions and betting advice from the SportsLine Projection Model.

New users can bet on Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas with the latest DraftKings promo code, which offers $200 in bonus bets instantly after any $5+ bet:

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every college basketball game 10,000 times. It entered conference tournament week on a sizzling 14-2 run on its top-rated over/under college basketball picks dating back to last season, and is on a 28-21 run on top-rated CBB side picks. Anyone following its college basketball betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen strong returns.    

Now, the model has simulated Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas 10,000 times and just revealed its coveted men’s college basketball picks and betting predictions. You can head to SportsLine now to see the model’s picks. Here are several men’s college basketball odds and men’s college basketball betting lines for Arkansas vs. Vanderbilt:

New users can also check out the latest FanDuel promo code and get up to $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days:

Top Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas predictions

SportsLine’s model is going Over on the total (166.5 points). The Over has hit in seven of the last eight meetings between the teams. The Over has also hit in five of the last six Vanderbilt games, and in seven of the last eight Arkansas games. The Commodores are 3-0 against the spread in their last three games, while the Razorbacks are 6-4 ATS in their last 10.

The model projects Vanderbilt to have six players score 10.2 points or more, including Tyler Tanner and Duke Miles, who are both projected to score 18 points. Arkansas is projected to have four players score 10.2 points or more, led by Darius Acuff Jr., who is projected to score 21.3 points. The model is projecting 169 combined points.

How to make Arkansas vs. Vanderbilt picks

The model also says one side of the spread hits in well over 50% of simulations. You can only see that pick at SportsLine.

So who wins Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas, and which side of the spread hits well over 50% of the time? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas spread to back, all from the advanced model that has simulated this game 10,000 times, and find out.

Jamie Redknapp has blasted Wesley Fofana following Chelsea’s defeat to Newcastle at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.

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The Blues failed to respond after their defeat to PSG, as they slipped to a 1-0 loss, with Anthony Gordon scoring the only goal of the game.

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It was a huge blow for Chelsea in their hopes of securing a top five finish, and it was quite frankly an awful showing with Liam Rosenior’s side booed off.

Jamie Redknapp not impressed with Wesley Fofana

Surprisingly Rosenior only made two changes to the side with Alejandro Garnacho coming in for the suspended Pedro Neto, and Robert Sanchez returning in goal.

It was the same backline which conceded five in midweek, and they were once again easily exposed as Tino Livramento played one simple ball through the middle of the pitch to Joe Willock.

Willock then played it across the goal for Gordon to tap home, but Fofana seemed to just give up when running back, something which Redknapp wasn’t impressed by.

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“Look, he’s got a head start and yet, [Gordon] catches up three yards on him,” he told Sky Sports.

“You can talk all you like about how the press was wrong, no. That, my friend, is wrong. Sprint.

“He doesn’t, because he doesn’t believe he’s going to pass it to him. Then he has the audacity to put his arms out, I don’t know what he’s complaining about.

“If you run, you stop the goal.”

Daniel Sturridge equally unimpressed

It wasn’t just Redknapp that took issue with Fofana, as former Blue Daniel Sturridge hit out at the centre back and accused him of a lack of desire.

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“That’s it for me there,” he added.

“Anthony Gordon wants to score. Fofana isn’t prepared to do the same run on the defensive side of things.”

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here:

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta refused to entertain speculation about future Max Dowman starts after the year 11 student became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history in the 2-0 victory over Everton.

Arteta gambled when a hunch led him to introduce the teenager – 16 years and 73 days old when he was introduced in the 74th minute of a goalless stalemate at the Emirates Stadium – but it paid off when Dowman first made Viktor Gyokeres’ 89th-minute breakthrough with a cross before immortalising himself in the seventh minute of added time.

Dowman was a few years away from even being born when James Vaughan, the previous record-holder, netted the final goal in Everton’s 2005 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park – where the opener was scored by none other than Arteta.

But asked if the schoolboy might have made an argument for starting, his grinning boss replied: “Let’s come down to earth today and enjoy the moment, because it was intense and it was worth it and we will see tomorrow.”

Jordan Pickford misread Dowman’s delivery in the build-up to Gyokeres’ goal, and was subsequently stranded after he was brought forward for a corner deep into stoppage-time.

Dowman broke from the edge of Arsenal’s 18-yard box to chase down the clearance before evading Everton’s remaining defenders, then sprinted up the pitch as the crowd rose in giddy anticipation of his inevitable low, empty-net finish.

“It was a phenomenal moment,” Arteta added.  “We talked before the game to play with that relentless desire to win every action and have the conviction that we are going to find a way to do it, and the effort, the quality, the commitment of the players was sensational, and then it ended up in a manner that probably none of us expected.

“It was one of the best moments that we lived together at the Emirates.”

Manchester City’s draw at West Ham ensured Arsenal moved nine points clear of their closest title challengers.

Dowman, now also Arsenal’s youngest-ever goalscorer in any men’s competition, shattered Vaughan’s record by 197 days.

The Essex teenager signed a pre-contract agreement with the Gunners in January, the precursor to a professional deal when he turns 17 on December 31st.

He is the second-youngest Premier League player in history, debuting at 15 years, 235 days old in August 2025. Only his Arsenal team-mate, Ethan Nwaneri, was younger – by 54 days – when Arteta introduced him in their victory at Brentford in September 2022.

The Gunners boss said he was guided by a “gut feeling” that day, the same phrase he used to explain Dowman’s introduction on Saturday.

Despite the two-decade gap, David Moyes was the man in charge of Everton for both Vaughan and Dowman’s milestone matches.

The now 62-year-old once handed Wayne Rooney – who remains the Premier League’s fourth-youngest goalscorer – his debut at 16, but Moyes did not want to draw comparisons between Dowman and the youngest man to ever score a goal for England.

Moyes said: “I wasn’t really looking at (Dowman), I was watching my own players.

“I don’t know enough about the boy, to be honest. I know plenty about Wayne. I could talk plenty about Wayne.

“But he looks like a talented boy, that’s for sure.”

Elsewhere in sports news: In Ligue 1, Lens missed a golden opportunity to go top after falling 2-1 away to Lorient. Monaco, meanwhile, kept their momentum rolling with a fifth straight win, defeating Brest.

In the Premier League, Arsenal moved one step closer to the title. The Gunners beat 2-0 on Saturday, with 16-year-old Max Dowman (16 years, 73 days) becoming the youngest goalscorer in English top-flight history. Arsenal also benefited from Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with West Ham, allowing them to stretch their lead at the top.

In Spain, Real Madrid put on a show despite the absences of Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo. Los Blancos cruised to a 4-1 win over promoted Elche, piling pressure on league leaders Barcelona, who still sit one point clear ahead of Sunday’s clash with Sevilla.

In tennis, Carlos Alcaraz suffered his first defeat of the year. After 16 straight wins, the world number one was stopped by Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Masters. The Russian will face Jannik Sinner in the final after the Italian defeated Alexander Zverev.

At the final whistle, Manchester City players slumped and crouched and sprawled on the pitch in disconsolate little piles, absorbing the enormity of the evening. Perhaps some of them were doing the maths. City are nine points behind Arsenal with a game in hand. They will meet one another at the Etihad next month. All is not lost. But here at the London Stadium, they wore the look of a team who had just been punched in the gut.

Of all the Arsenal players to shape the direction of this title race, not many would have guessed that a key protagonist would be a 16-year-old schoolboy who is yet to take his GCSEs. Even fewer would have suggested a giant Greek defender who played eight times for Arsenal a lifetime ago.

But about an hour after Max Dowman sunk Everton and became the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer in the process, a few miles across the city, West Ham’s centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos thumped a header against the crossbar and down into the City goal. Arsenal found a late winner; City huffed and puffed but came away with a 1-1 draw that felt almost terminal.

It is not, of course. The season is still alive. But title races are not just about raw numbers. There is a feel to them, a sway, a momentum that comes and goes. And on this cold March night, all the energy was sucked into the red corner of north London.

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It was apt that Mavropanos, a former Arsenal player, should hurt City’s cause. It felt apt too that his goal came from a corner, after so much discourse around the significance of set-pieces and how Arsenal exploit them. Jarrod Bowen’s delivery floated through the air and over the flying fist of Gianluigi Donnarumma, who should have punched it. Mavropanos met the ball with meaning.

What followed was a second-half onslaught. Pep Guardiola, who watched on from the stands under suspension, sent on a flurry of attacking substitutes. Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku brought spark off the bench; Phil Foden, too. Chances came and chances went. Cherki shot straight at goalkeeper Mads Hermansen. Tijjani Reijnders hit the crossbar from a wide-angle free-kick. Foden’s outstretched hallux missed the ball by inches with the goal gaping.

The game ended with another telling set-piece. Reijnders delivered a devilish corner and after the ball bounced around West Ham’s six-yard box it fell to the feet of Marc Guehi. An entire stadium winced and braced for the net to bulge, only to watch the ball take off into orbit. It was a slow-motion disaster, the sort of moment you could imagine set against the music from Titanic.

For West Ham, it is a point that draws them level with Tottenham and one clear of Nottingham Forest, out of the relegation zone for the first time in a long time. They will not relish the idea of helping Arsenal to the title, but if this was a point towards the cause of survival – perhaps survival at the expense of Spurs – then it was a precious one.

It has been a strange season for City, who started back in August with a 4-0 win over Wolves using players like Oscar Bobb and Nico Gonzalez and John Stones, a line-up like something from a fever dream. Only three of those XI started here at West Ham seven months later: Haaland, Bernardo Silva and Rayan Ait-Nouri. You might say only two, given Haaland is not the same striker now as late-summer Haaland or even autumnal Haaland who plundered goals every weekend.

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Guardiola’s team has evolved in real time, transitioning mid-season through different personnel, different formations, different iterations of Haaland. And ultimately, at least up to this point, they have simply not been as good as Arsenal. Not at the ugly stuff: crushing counter-attacks, defending as a unit, set-pieces, game management, s***housery. Not at the pretty stuff, either, at least not over the past three months.

Guardiola admitted as much after the game. “We are good at a lot of things,” he said. “But not as good as we were.”

This game encapsulated much of City’s troubles, particularly against low-block teams. West Ham deployed a giant claret curtain across Hermansen’s goal, billowing out towards the ball and back again as City desperately tried to pierce a hole.

This is what Nuno Espirito Santo brings, of course. Five at the back, and five in midfield too when they don’t have the ball. When City advanced towards the final third, the distance between West Ham’s centre-backs and Bowen must have been no more than 20 yards.

“There was no other way,” Nuno said. “Heroic from our boys. We have a long way to go, we have hard work in front of us.”

It made for punishingly dull viewing, initially at least. Nuno’s reluctance to yield an inch combined with Guardiola’s distaste for passes longer than 10 yards meant for a game played in busy burrows and crowded cul-de-sacs. Erling Haaland occasionally made a useful run into the channel but City’s midfielders routinely ignored him.

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City eventually broke through when Bernardo Silva shanked a cross which drifted perfectly over Hermansen’s head into the far corner of the goal. He could have claimed to have meant it, but could clearly be seen mouthing “pass” to the City bench while wearing a sheepish grin.

Mavropanos soon levelled, in no small part down to Donnarumma’s miscalculation. The goalkeeper has a penchant for the spectacular and his shot-stopping has been eye-catching at times this season, but data models consistently mark him down on a raft of other metrics such as distribution and, tellingly, command of his six-yard box.

So City had no choice but to throw everything at West Ham, just as Arsenal had launched an assault on Everton in the dying throes at the Emirates. Where one succeeded, the other failed. And it is in those telling minutes, on those fine details, that a title can be won and lost.

As the Arsenal players got into an ecstatic dressing room, the man of the match wasn’t there. Goalscorer Viktor Gyokeres even came in carrying his award.

That is all because Max Dowman isn’t actually the man of the match but the boy of the match, since he’s still… just a child. Premier League rules mean he’s not actually allowed change in the same dressing room as adults. He has to go around near the referees’ room.

Maybe it also serves as another little way to keep a mere 16-year-old centred after such a moment, too, but nobody who knows the Dowmans says he needs that. His parents are said to still ground him for misbehaving, and are conscious of keeping the obvious confidence that comes with such ability in check.

There were of course among many people at Arsenal in tears after Dowman scored that crucial clinching goal against Everton. As was openly being said in the dressing room by many staff, they’d known him since he was small. You might quip that wasn’t that long ago, but it also speaks to the speed of his development.

And here he was, at 16 years and 73 days, becoming the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.

Mikel Arteta is often criticised for a conservatism, but he still went for football’s classic roll of the dice when it was really required: the impetuousness of youth. Sir Alex Ferguson is the manager who has become most associated with that gamble over the history of the Premier League, due to everything from the “class of 92” to throwing on a 17-year-old Federico Macheda in a similar title game against Aston Villa. His logic was always clear: “if you give people an opportunity to succeed, it is amazing how much they will surprise you.”

Except, very little about Dowman is surprising. It isn’t exactly heaping pressure on a 16-year-old to say he’s being talked of as potentially the best player in the world in a few years, since so many around Arsenal say all the time. They are perhaps careful not to say it directly to him, but the Leo Messi comparisons are seen as entirely fitting.

It means Arteta is now in the exquisite position of pleading “calma” about such a prospect – as he did when asked if Dowman would start against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday – and being thrillingly excited about his talent.

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The Basque spoke about a “gut feeling” he’s had all week, but there’s more to it than that. Since the start of the season, Dowman has just been gliding past senior professionals in training. You could see it in the Everton game. He was beating players and opening the match in a way that Arsenal badly needed. It was the same with the ball in that finally flummoxed Jordan Pickford for Gyokeres’ goal. Direct, with purpose.

From that, Arteta had in the last few weeks apparently told his Arsenal-supporting father, Rob, that some changes might be required to Dowman’s school schedule at Brentwood. The question was obviously why. “Because there’s a title to win.”

They know he can carry it. Alongside his talent, Dowman’s football brain is described as “extraordinary”. Arteta’s tactical and pressing instructions are known to be highly complex, and it can take senior professionals months to properly internalise them. Dowman does it in seconds.

This could be seen in one of the elements that Arsenal figures were most raving about after the 2-0 win over Everton.

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With the ball in the air after Pickford went up for that 96th-minute corner, and Vitaliy Mykolenko coming in try and win it and force that equaliser, Dowman did something else unexpected. In the space of a millisecond, he decided to strain his neck muscles to head the ball down so that it would go in the opposite direction of the full-back. Mykolenko was so surprised that he fell over, as Dowman ensured he was now pulsing away on his feet and at the right pace.

From there, with Pickford also racing back, many players would have opted to immediately seize the chance and try a long-range shot. Dowman also showed mature composure with that. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was still in his way but he was evaded like a cone in training. Then he was away.

One of the things now being said about the goal at Arsenal was that the opposition half he still had to run through, and the seconds that took, offered a fitting final build-up to a moment everyone now feels they will be looking back to in years’ time.

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They could see it coming, they could feel it. People nearby heard Dowman’s family repeat: “go on Max, go on!” Then, the arrival.

It should be acknowledged that any such moment would be special for a young player, his family and his club, something they can now always treasure. At the same time, you just can’t overlook that this is considered all the more special because of what it might mean for the future.

There will be many excited questions about that. Thomas Tuchel is no doubt going to have to face a few at his England squad announcement on Friday, and whether Dowman can be taken to a World Cup.

It instinctively feels like it’s a bit too early… but then you could say that about so much with Dowman. Nothing about him is surprising. This is now more than a gut feeling.

A title challenge that had become a psychological challenge for Arsenal, where they were feeling all the angst of that 22-year wait, now involves one of the most invigorating themes in football. It’s the excitement of youth, and what might be possible for the future.