2025 NFL predictions revisited: Seahawks blindsided us, but we were right about Jets

We didn’t see Super Bowl LX coming, but some of us were early believers in Ben Johnson’s Bears, Trevor Lawrence’s Jaguars and the fallibility of the Chiefs

It doesn’t take long for the egg the start dripping from our faces. The early September headline accompanying our 2025 NFL predictions – Will it be Mahomes, Jackson or Allen in the Super Bowl? – was the ultimate hedge. After all, what were the odds that one of them wouldn’t emerge from the AFC?

Then there was the reality. Mike Vrabel’s dramatic turnaround of New England. The Bears transforming from worst-to-first in the NFC North under Ben Johnson. The first-half magic of Daniel Jones. The successful pairing of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Sam Darnold.

Published: February 15, 2026, 11:00 am

Love is in the big air for Ukrainian skier after reaching Winter Olympics final

• Kateryna Kotsar gets engaged at end of qualifying run

• ‘It was so cute … it’s two really huge things for me’

For most athletes, qualifying for your first Olympic final would be more than enough excitement for one night. But the Ukrainian freeskier Kateryna Kotsar’s evening was just getting started.

Having made the big air final, Kotsar then wrote “freedom of memory” on her glove to protest against the ban of her compatriot Vladyslav Heraskevych for wearing images of slain athletes on his helmet. And a Valentine’s Day she will never forget took another surprise turn when her boyfriend, Bohdan Fashtryha, then dropped to one knee and proposed.

Published: February 15, 2026, 10:09 am

Eden Hazard: ‘I’m more of a taxi driver than a football player now, but it’s OK’

Former Chelsea and Real Madrid idol wants merely to be remembered as ‘a good player and a funny guy’ after a career of multiple titles – and spats with Mourinho

If Italy is a boot, Lecce sits right on the heel. It is here, deep in the countryside a few kilometres outside the baroque city, that the noise of the Bernabéu and the intensity of Stamford Bridge feel like a lifetime ago. The setting is rustic, quiet and slow-paced: a stark contrast to the frenetic energy that defined Eden Hazard’s career on the pitch.

It has been almost three years since he stopped playing, and the silence since his retirement at 32 has been notable. After an injury-hit spell at Real Madrid brought a premature end to a dazzling career, Hazard did not seek the spotlight. Surrounded by vineyards rather than defenders, slumped in an armchair, he seems entirely at peace, remarkably comfortable with his life after football.

Published: February 15, 2026, 8:00 am

‘That’s hockey’: Canada’s Wilson shuns Olympic tradition and brawls during win over France

• Wilson and Pierre Crinon ejected after brawl

• Fighting is rare at Winter Games

Canada’s Tom Wilson shunned tradition on Sunday, deciding to fight during his team’s victory over France in their Olympic ice hockey game.

While fighting is a regular – and tacitly accepted – part of professional ice hockey, it rarely occurs on the Olympic stage. But Wilson dropped the gloves late in Canada’s 10-2 rout of France on Sunday, tangling with Pierre Crinon, who had delivered a forearm to the head of teammate Nathan MacKinnon minutes earlier.

Published: February 15, 2026, 9:31 pm

‘The ride was worth the fall’: Lindsey Vonn returning to US for further surgeries after downhill crash

• American fractured tibia in downhill last week

• Vonn reiterates she has no regrets over crash

Lindsey Vonn is preparing to fly back to America after she fractured her tibia in the Olympic downhill last week, according to the CEO of the US Ski and Snowboard Association.

Sophie Goldschmidt says her team’s medical staff has been coordinating Vonn’s recovery and hopes to accompany her back home to the United States. Vonn has had multiple surgeries in Italy to repair the complex tibia fracture in her left leg.

Published: February 15, 2026, 4:52 pm

Federica Brignone sparks Italian joy with second gold as Mikaela Shiffrin struggles

• Italian wins her second gold medal on Cortina slopes

• Sara Hector and Thea Louise Stjernesund share silver

Federica Brignone, the racing queen of Cortina, has won her second gold medal in the space of three days at the Winter Olympics. After her victory in the women’s Super-G on Friday, she won the giant slalom by just over six-tenths of a second.

As small as that gap sounds, it was an enormous margin in a race where there were only six-hundredths of a second between the three women who finished behind her; Sweden’s Sara Hector, Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund and Brignone’s Italian teammate Lara Della Mea. The gap between Brignone and second place was the same as that between second and 15th.

Published: February 15, 2026, 3:50 pm

Klæbo leads Norway to relay win and claims record ninth Winter Olympics gold

• Norwegian on course for six potential golds at Games

• France take cross-country skiing relay silver, Italy bronze

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo led Norway to victory in the men’s 4 x 7.5km cross-country relay at the Milano Cortina Games on Sunday to win a record ninth career gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

The 29-year-old has won four gold medals at these Games and is widely expected to take another two in the men’s team sprint on Wednesday and 50km classic race on Saturday.

Published: February 15, 2026, 12:33 pm

Femke Kok dominates 500m speed skating to end Jackson’s hopes of retaining Olympic title

• Dutch star’s years of dominance culminates in gold

• Jutta Leerdam wins silver in Dutch one-two

• USA’s Erin Jackson misses out on retaining title

Speed skater Femke Kok had admitted that anything but gold in her signature 500m race would be a disappointment after opening her Olympic account last Monday with silver in a Dutch one-two alongside Jutta Leerdam in the 1000m. On Sunday evening, she performed like an athlete insistent on leaving no room for doubt.

Kok leveraged two years of total sprint dominance into the first Olympic gold medal of her career. She blew away the field in the women’s 500m in an Olympic-record time of 36.49sec with the kind of controlled, furious circuit that has made her a three-time world champion at the distance at 25 years old.

Published: February 15, 2026, 6:48 pm

Eberechi Eze inspires Arsenal to emphatic FA Cup victory against Wigan

It has been a testing few months for the man who scored the winner for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final last season. But after being substituted at half-time during the disappointing draw with Brentford on Thursday, perhaps this competition could help to breathe new life into Eberechi Eze’s Arsenal career.

As well as providing assists for Noni Madueke’s and Gabriel Martinelli’s goals – albeit against a poor Wigan side languishing in the League One relegation zone – the England midfielder’s swagger was back for the first time since he scored a hat‑trick in the north London derby in November.

Published: February 15, 2026, 6:51 pm

James Trafford could leave Manchester City after being frozen out by Donnarumma

• Keeper did not think Guardiola would sign Italian

• ‘It’s football, you’ve got to keep grafting every day’

James Trafford has admitted he did not expect Manchester City to sign Gianluigi Donnarumma after his transfer from Burnley last summer, with the deputy goalkeeper potentially leaving this summer.

Trafford returned to City after two years at Turf Moor on 31 July in a deal worth £31m before Pep Guardiola informed the club executive that the manager also wanted Donnarumma. The Italian joined on 2 September from Paris Saint-Germain for £26m and became Guardiola’s first choice.

Published: February 15, 2026, 10:30 pm

Youssef Chermiti hat-trick powers Rangers to victory over leaders Hearts

Hearts will take no consolation whatsoever from the fact their progress to the status of serious entity in a Scottish title race was demonstrated by the atmosphere at Ibrox. The scale of celebration that met Rangers’ victory decreed they had not defeated also-rans. Danny Röhl, the Rangers manager, went cavorting down the touchline as his team scored a fourth.

This proved the game of the season in Scotland. A genuine thriller. It was also one Rangers dare not lose; that they took three points properly fuels hopes of snatching the league from Celtic’s grasp. An inspired second half from Rangers was sufficient as their visitors wilted.

Published: February 15, 2026, 6:47 pm

European football: Serie A referees’ chief apologises after controversial Kalulu red card

• Juventus lost 3-2 in dramatic fashion away at Inter

• Santos scores on debut to earn Napoli draw with Roma

Serie A’s referee designator Gianluca Rocchi said the match official Federico La Penna was “clearly wrong” in showing the Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu a second yellow card during Saturday’s loss at Inter, and apologised over the incident.

Kalulu was sent off after Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni tumbled to the ground and immediately gestured towards the referee demanding a card, indicating that Kalulu had grabbed his shirt to bring him down. Television footage suggested there was no contact between the players. Juventus, down to 10 men after the sending off, lost 3-2, meaning Inter are now eight points clear at the top.

Published: February 15, 2026, 10:31 pm

Perri makes key save as Leeds sink Birmingham in FA Cup shootout

Leeds advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup, with sights set on a possible first quarter-final place since 2002‑03. But after scoring a last‑gasp equaliser to take the tie to extra time and then a penalty shootout, Birmingham could draw some consolation from pushing their top-flight opponents.

Sean Longstaff converted the clinching penalty, after Patrick Roberts, who had scored in the 89th minute to gain parity for Birmingham, blasted his kick over the crossbar; the Leeds goalkeeper Lucas Perri also saved from Tommy Doyle, Birmingham’s best player.

Published: February 15, 2026, 3:10 pm

Wolves show guts to edge past battling Grimsby and into FA Cup fifth round

Santiago Bueno’s second-half winner ensured a safe passage into the FA Cup fifth round for Wolves as the League Two side Grimsby bowed out with pride intact.

The Premier League visitors had not won away in any competition since last April and look certain to be relegated to the Championship this season. But Rob Edwards’ side showed impressive resilience to avoid the kind of ignominy which befell Manchester United when they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup at Blundell Park this season.

Published: February 15, 2026, 4:03 pm

Habib Diarra on the spot as Sunderland ease past toothless Oxford

Precipitation not perspiration was the order of the day at the Kassam Stadium, as the rain hammered down on the banks of a bloated river Thames and Sunderland made it to the FA Cup fifth round without having to break a sweat.

Habib Diarra’s first‑half penalty provided only a narrow margin of victory for Régis Le Bris’s visitors, but the margin flattered Oxford United. With two teams of reserves contesting a tie in a competition that is a priority for neither club, this was a drab match in sodden surrounds. There was little in the way of the magic of the Cup, but to their credit 9,879 spectators created a decent atmosphere all the same.

Published: February 15, 2026, 4:25 pm

Bompastor admits pain of ‘emotional week’ after Chelsea beat Liverpool in WSL

Chelsea continued to steady the ship as they secured a crucial win against Liverpool in the Women’s Super League. Lauren James inspired Sonia Bompastor’s side to victory at Kingsmeadow, setting up Sjoeke Nüsken’s opener before making sure of the result with a goal in the second half.

It has been a turbulent month for the Blues on and off the pitch. Back-to-back defeats against Arsenal and Manchester City all but ended their title defence and it was announced last week that the club had parted ways with Paul Green, their long-term head of women’s football.

Published: February 15, 2026, 5:12 pm

‘The perfect place for people like me’: how one couple started UK’s first women’s sports bar

Lucy and Pippa Tallant have opened the Crossbar, in Brighton, to create a place for women to feel comfortable watching all sport

You can’t miss it, the giant “Crossbar” flanked by two stylised crosses in black on the whitewashed outside walls glares down the street, a stone’s throw from Brighton’s Churchill Square. Outside is the narrow shelf that the co-owner Lucy Tallant, the DIY enthusiast of the pair, attached to the wall for those wanting to hang around outside. As she worked on that shelf, two girls walked past and one proclaimed: “Yeah, they’re opening a lesbian club.” “A lesbian club?” replied the other, “Yeah, there’s one outside now.”

Lucy was in stitches, and so was social media when she posted about what she had overheard. The shelf has become a thing, with lesbians posing for photographs and then sharing online with versions of “there’s one outside now” as the caption.

Published: February 15, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Third time lucky’ for Alex de Minaur as he lifts one of biggest titles of his career

• Australian produces some fine tennis to win Rotterdam Open

• First indoor title comes after 6-3, 6-2 win over Felix Auger-Aliassime

Alex de Minaur sealed a landmark week by delivering a masterful performance to defeat the red-hot Felix Auger-Aliassime and finally land one of the biggest titles of his career at the Rotterdam Open.

The Australian produced some of his finest tennis on Sunday (Monday AEDT) to crush the Canadian world No 6, who had won the Montpellier Open just a week earlier and whose service had been seemingly unbreakable.

Published: February 15, 2026, 11:24 pm

GB chiefs hail greatest Winter Olympics day after super Sunday delivers two golds

• Britain win mixed snowboard cross then mixed skeleton

• Eve Muirhead lauds ‘just incredible’ performance

Team GB chiefs have hailed Britain’s greatest day at a Winter Olympics after celebrating two gold medals, in the mixed snowboard cross and mixed team skeleton in Milano Cortina.

Super Sunday started with Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale storming to a surprise victory in Livigno, with Bankes dramatically overtaking the French team with four turns remaining to take mixed snowboard cross gold.

Published: February 15, 2026, 9:27 pm

India rout Pakistan in T20 World Cup grudge match after Kishan’s ‘amazing’ innings

• Group A: India, 175-7, bt Pakistan, 114, by 61 runs

• Opener’s 77 proves decisive on tricky pitch

A day of no handshakes, and for Pakistan many head shakes. India coasted to victory in what became global cricket’s most lucrative mismatch after a superlative innings from the opener Ishan Kishan skewed it definitively in their favour.

In its second half a game that was dramatically off and then on again became one where a parade of Pakistan batters were dramatically in and then out again. Chasing a target of 176 they were seven down before they even got halfway, and were eventually skittled for 114 to lose by 61 runs.

Published: February 15, 2026, 7:06 pm

Weston and Stoecker strike gold to cap GB’s greatest day at Winter Olympics

• British pair triumph in mixed team skeleton event

• Bankes and Nightingale win mixed snowboard cross

The Games organisers had only just given Matt Weston the box for the medal he won on Friday night. He had been keeping it stashed in a spare sock in his top drawer since the moment he took it off that evening. As soon as it is out, he has a second one to put back in its place.

The 28-year-old Weston became the first British athlete in history to win two medals at a single Winter Olympics, after he and his 25‑year‑old teammate Tabitha Stoecker won the inaugural Olympic mixed team skeleton race in a combined time of 1min 59.36sec, 0.17sec ahead of the German pair of Axel Jungk and Susanne Kreher.

Published: February 15, 2026, 7:04 pm

Arsenal 4-0 Wigan Athletic: FA Cup fourth round – as it happened

Arsenal had scored all four goals by the 27th minute before the manager-less League One side stemmed the flow

Breaking: Riccardo Calafiori got hurt in the warmup so Bukayo Saka is a starter, and captain. MLS in midfield looks like it will be an experiment for another day.

Sunday’s FA Cup matches already.

Published: February 15, 2026, 6:57 pm

Jeremiah Azu completes surprise sprint double at UK indoor championships

• Azu adds 200m gold to 60m title in Birmingham

• Issy Boffey wins 800m after Hodgkinson withdrawal

Amid a raft of high-profile absentees from Birmingham this weekend it was quite the surprise to see Jeremiah Azu’s name on the 200m start list for the UK Athletics Indoor Championships on Sunday.

The 200m is not contested internationally during the indoor season so elite athletes almost never race it, and Azu had already won the 60m title a day earlier. In an era where world-class athletes tend to wrap themselves in cotton wool for fear of injury it was unusual to see one so accomplished run an additional three times in three hours when there was no particular need.

Published: February 15, 2026, 6:03 pm

England’s attacking options narrow with Arundell facing ban for crunch Ireland game

• Wing to learn fate after red card in Scotland

• Immanuel Feyi-Waboso also out with injury

Steve Borthwick is set for a major selection headache as England seek to get their Six Nations campaign back on track against Ireland on Saturday with Henry Arundell facing a suspension after his red card against Scotland.

England have promised an “honest and emotional” review into their dismal Calcutta Cup defeat before Borthwick contemplates team changes to face Ireland and he is likely to be without Arundell after tournament organisers confirmed he will face a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday. Arundell’s first yellow was shown for not releasing after a covering tackle on Rory Darge, the second for taking out Kyle Steyn in the air.

Published: February 15, 2026, 6:00 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: Weston and Stoecker cap golden GB day; Strøm wins women’s ski jump – as it happened

Britain won two mixed team gold medals, while there were individual triumphs for Norway’s Anna Odine Strøm and Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi

Brignone smashed her leg at the end of last season, fought her way back, and now look!

Goodness me, she’s almost perfect as she nears the end, and 1:03.23 is her time! That puts her 0.74 up on Colturi, Hector and Stjernesund, plus a whole 1.02 on Shiffrin!

Published: February 15, 2026, 9:16 pm

Trump gets the Monroe doctrine wrong. He should take a page from Bad Bunny | Ted Widmer

The US president has twisted the 1823 doctrine to suit his quest for domination. It originally had a very different vision for the Americas

Throughout Bad Bunny’s mesmerizing performance during the Super Bowl, the word “America” kept expanding, like an accordion, stretching out to embrace people of all nationalities. “Together we are all America,” his football read, and he obviously meant it, in the largest, most hemispheric sense. Near the end, after shouting “God bless America” (his only words in English), Bad Bunny ran through a long list of countries in the western hemisphere.

That inclusiveness enraged Donald Trump, who erupted on social media, and tried to take the word back, declaring the half-time show “an affront to the greatness of America”. By which, of course, he meant the United States.

Published: February 15, 2026, 2:00 pm