LiveScore Daily: The latest football news in bite-sized chunks

Cian Cheesbrough
LiveScore
Gareth Southgate is likely to ring the changes for England's friendly against Ivory Coast tonight
Gareth Southgate is likely to ring the changes for England's friendly against Ivory Coast tonight

LiveScore Daily is here to deliver all the big talking points from the world of football throughout the day. Keep refreshing this page for the latest stories in bite-sized chunks.

Southgate to shuffle his pack

England manager Gareth Southgate will make wholesale changes to his team for the Three Lions' friendly against Ivory Coast at Wembley tonight.

Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Switzerland saw established players mixed in alongside a handful of debutants and Southgate is expected to follow a similar template tonight.

Certain to miss out is defender John Stones, who has returned to Manchester City after suffering an injury in the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s contest.

On tonight's team selection, Southgate said: "We'll make changes. We think that's the right thing to do.

"We want to keep all of the squad involved. I think that has been a strength for us. Players who come in perform well at the level and the team march on.

"They need to feel that we've got the confidence in them to go into any game and we're also at a stage of the season where their load is heavy and we've got to make sure we try and navigate that in the best way possible."

Southampton’s Kyle Walker-Peters and Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi made their England debuts at the weekend, with Eagles left-back Tyrick Mitchell also coming off the bench for his international bow.

Mitchell is one who could earn a place in the starting XI tonight, as well as the likes of Fraser Forster, James Ward-Prowse, Jude Bellingham, Tyrone Mings and Ollie Watkins — all of whom played little or no part against the Swiss.

Ronaldo rallies Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo has urged fans to play their part in helping Portgual reach the World Cup tonight
Cristiano Ronaldo has urged fans to play their part in helping Portgual reach the World Cup tonight

Cristiano Ronaldo has described Portugal’s World Cup play-off final against North Macedonia as a "matter of life and death."

Portugal will be looking to avoid missing their first World Cup since 1998 but come up against a North Macedonia side who stunned European Champions Italy 1-0 in their semi-final last week.

Ronaldo, 37, can earn a place at a joint-record fifth World Cup by winning in Porto tonight — and he wants supporters to play their part in helping him and his team get there.

The captain said: "I urge the fans — I want hell breaking loose at Dragao [Stadium].

"I went to bed last night thinking that I want the stadium to shut down the music for our national anthem and let the fans sing it acapella to show our passion, our strength and union around the objective of reaching the World Cup.

"For us, this game is a matter of life and death. There is a responsibility to win this game. For us, also a game of our lives. They have surprised [opponents] in many games but I believe they will not surprise us."

Hayden fined and given warning

Newcastle midfielder Isaac Hayden has been fined £19,000 and given a warning after admitting an FA charge of improper conduct.

Hayden, 27, was charged after criticising referee David Coote following the Magpies' 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on March 13.

After the game, which Hayden missed through injury, he tweeted: "Some performance against 12 men today."

The comments were deemed by an independent regulatory committee as having breached FA Rule E3.1 for attacking the integrity of the game.

The Blues were victorious thanks to a late winner from Kai Havertz, who had escaped a red card for what looked like an elbow on defender Dan Burn.

That was after Newcastle were not given a penalty when Jacob Murphy went down in the box under a challenge by Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah.

Mings defends Three Lions team-mate Maguire

Tyrone Mings thinks criticism of England team-mate Harry Maguire is unjustified
Tyrone Mings thinks criticism of England team-mate Harry Maguire is unjustified

Tyrone Mings has leapt to the defence of England team-mate Harry Maguire, insisting the Manchester United captain is no “weak link”.

Maguire, 29, has come in for criticism for his displays at club level during an underwhelming season for the Red Devils.

Having been backed to win silverware in some form in 2021-22, the best Man United can now hope for is a place in the top four.

But Aston Villa skipper Mings, who could line up alongside Maguire in England’s friendly against Ivory Coast tonight, thinks the blame that comes his fellow centre-back's way is unjustified.

Ahead of Wembley clash, Mings said: "I think he [Maguire] comes under a lot of scrutiny, a lot of it misplaced at times because people are going on like the team is actually fully functioning and Harry is the weak link which I don’t think is fair whatsoever.

"I think as a centre-back your mistakes are always highlighted — that’s just the territory of the position you play in so that is what we accept. He is the same and I think that’s credit to the character he is.

"Whatever is happening at club level, the manager and the players here [with England] make it really easy to leave it at the door and come into a whole new environment, with different faces, voices and stimulus.

"I think that’s probably why you see players playing differently for the national team than they do at club level because it is a whole different world really. He’s doing well."

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World CupEnglandPortugalCristiano RonaldoNewcastle UnitedChelsea