Qatar’s push to be a central hub on the global sporting landscape could see the emirate be an unlikely host of a Rugby League World Cup

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag is concerned after his side suffered their worst start to a Premier League season with the 1-0 home loss to Crystal Palace. Not since the 1989/90 campaign, when Sir Alex Ferguson was reportedly one game away from the sack, have United lost four of their first seven league games. But Joachim Andersen’s first-half goal for Palace inflicted the same fate on the current crop, which left the Old Trafford faithful booing at the end. It had looked like United were turning their season around after a Carabao Cup win over the same opponents on Tuesday followed victory at Burnley last weekend, but the pressure is beginning to mount on Ten Hag. Asked whether he understood the crowd’s frustration, he said: “I understand, when we play home or away and we play Crystal Palace we have to win – with all respect. “I know every game in the Premier League is difficult and you have to play your best, but I understand fans are expecting a win and we didn’t win and we lost. “Of course it is a concern, we have to be more consistent, this is not the demand for Man Utd. The demand is we get a row of wins and get into a series. We have to do better than now. “I can give you reasons but you will explain it as an excuse and there are no excuses, we have to win.” United are having problems on home soil this season, having been fortunate to beat Wolves and Nottingham Forest, where they had to come from 2-0 down, but were soundly beaten by Brighton and have now lost to Andersen’s goal. The Dutchman insists his side are not a soft touch. “We lost two games in a row in the Premier League but I wouldn’t set that conclusion, but we have to do better, and that is definitely the case,” he said. “We have to show it in our body language that Old Trafford is a fortress and you can’t get anything here and the only way you can go away is with a loss. We have to do better here.” Palace boss Roy Hodgson could not find playing at Old Trafford any more enjoyable as he became the first Premier League manager to go five successive games unbeaten at the home of United. It was the perfect tonic for the veteran after his side were beaten 3-0 here in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday. “I am happy about the record, I suppose. I am most happy with how the team played today and I’m so pleased for the players,” he said. “It’s not easy coming up here for the second time in a few days and to give that performance and to work that hard and defend as well as we did, that is what gives me the most satisfaction. “I am not even certain I could tell you about the other games gone before but I am pretty certain I would be delighted after those as well, no doubt I would have been saying the same things.” Asked whether this was his favourite result as Palace manager, he said: “I am hoping the favourite ones are to come, I have to be careful looking back. “It is my favourite one for the moment that’s for certain, there may be others. At the moment I am just happy for the day and the performance and for the players. “All credit to the players and an extra mention because Tuesday night was such a disappointment. We didn’t come here to lose 3-0, we came hoping we could progress but we were dumped out of that, so even more credit to the players to do what they did.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live United States fight back but Europe still favourites to regain the Ryder Cup David Moyes backs Jarrod Bowen for England recall after starring in West Ham win England battle to victory over 14-player Canada

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou told reporters he isn’t “losing sleep” over Harry Kane’s future. The club’s star striker is set to return from his holiday later this week, and only once he’s back in training will Postecoglou look to address Kane’s situation. “He’ll be here in two days’ time and everything I need to know will be sitting in front of me,” Postecoglou explained. “In the meantime, I’m not going to lose time or sleep on what conjecture may or may not be out there, because then you’re jumping at shadows. How much of it is true, how much of it is not true.”

Sarina Wiegman was “very disappointed” England had not won but insisted the performance was not a concern after they were held to a goalless draw by Portugal in their Women’s World Cup warm-up match at Stadium MK. The European champions’ last home game before departing for this summer’s showpiece in Australia and New Zealand saw them unable to make a breakthrough despite creating a considerable number of chances. Georgia Stanway and Lucy Bronze both struck the woodwork and Alessia Russo was denied by a goalline block, while other notable moments included Rachel Daly having a header saved, Lauren Hemp heading over and Russo firing wide. Lionesses boss Wiegman said: “Of course my first thoughts are that I am, but also the team is, very disappointed that we didn’t win this game. “But we also take a lot of learnings from it and I think at moments we saw the things we really have been working on, that we wanted to show, a way of creating chances. “I think the first half we were a little bit too slow, the ball tempo was, and we had too many players behind the ball or very close to it, and then when we did break lines we didn’t have enough numbers higher up the pitch. I think we did that a lot better in the second half. “We had players higher on the pitch and created more chances, although I think in the first half we created a couple. But we just didn’t score. “I think we had moments that were really good and moments we could have done a little better.” Asked specifically about chances that fell to Daly, who started up front, and Russo, who replaced her at half-time, Wiegman said: “I think the first thing is you want to create lots of chances, and then see how we execute that. “And yes, it’s disappointing of course, they want to be ruthless and score those chances, and today they didn’t. It’s not a worry for me. “It’s just we want to get into those positions. When you got so much into those positions today – I think that’s pretty good. But of course we want to do the final touch too, and that’s to get the ball in the net. So we all know that.” The Dutchwoman added: “That was today a little problem, but if you see how many chances we created – I think we had 23 shots on goal – there won’t be many matches where we then don’t score.” England fly to Australia on Wednesday and face Canada behind closed doors in a final warm-up match on July 14 before opening their World Cup campaign against Haiti in Brisbane eight days later. When Wiegman, who made a treble change in personnel at the interval and six substitutions in total, was asked if she was closer to knowing her starting XI for the Haiti game than she had been before the Portugal contest, she said: “No. I’m not closer now. “I’m not sure if we get closer than this though. At the end you have to make decisions. I think in some positions it’s really tight. We have some time now. So, no, I’m not sure, and this is not the time to make the final decision because we still have a couple of weeks to go.” England were playing a Portugal outfit ranked 17 places below them at 21st and who will be making their first appearance at a World Cup finals this summer. Boss Francisco Neto said: “Playing in this kind of environment is not easy, and the emotional stability that we had during the game, I’m very happy with that, because it looks like the girls are ready for the environment that they will have in the World Cup.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Late reprieve for Ben Duckett keeps England’s hope of miracle chase alive Katie Boulter not feeling pressure of being British number one at Wimbledon Novak Djokovic still hungry as he bids for 24th Grand Slam singles title