Jonathan Woodgate scores past Petr Cech in the Carling Cup final. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images
69 min: Malouda receives the ball on the left and as he’s about to try to take on Jenas (who’s at right-back rather than Zokora), Huddlestone lumbers across and fouls him. Deco wastes the free-kick.
68 min: Lampard is being [...]

Mark Hughes is happy with a ‘very satisfactory week’. Photograph: Phil Cole/Getty Images
Manchester City have completed the signing of the Argentine defender Pablo Zabaleta from Espanyol for an undisclosed fee. The 23-year-old has signed a five-year deal at Eastlands, and will further strengthen Mark Hughes’s squad following the acquisition of Shaun Wright-Phillips from Chelsea on [...]

Tom Kristensen shows no signs of slowing down. Photograph: Ker Robertson/Getty Images
Why is Tom Kristensen uttering the words ‘unfinished business’? The Dane has famously won the Le Mans 24 Hours eight times – a record that will probably never be beaten – so there can’t be any scores he has left to settle.
Except, that is, [...]

Ebi Smolarek sees yellow. Photograph: Patrik Stollarz
Bolton have completed the signing of Poland international Ebi Smolarek on a season-long loan from Racing Santander. The 27-year-old will spend the season at the Reebok with a view to signing a permanent deal next summer.
Smolarek, who was the first person ever to win the Polish player of the [...]

Hargreaves told Sir Alex Ferguson this morning that he was unfit for tonight’s match. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Guardian
Owen Hargreaves has been forced to pull out of the Uefa Super Cup in Monaco tonight after reluctantly having to admit that he is not fit to play. Hargreaves, who has been troubled by persistent knee problems, informed Sir [...]

Hull’s Garreth Carvell battles through the Catalan Dragons defence in their Challenge Cup quarter-final. Photograph: John Clifton/Action Images
Good morning from Wembley, and the traditional walkabout for the two teams competing in tomorrow’s Carnegie Challenge Cup final. Except this year we think only one of the teams are coming, after the St Helens players decided earlier [...]

A man jumping over a bull or some suchlike.
1) It’s not just Vincent Jones giving our greatest thespians sleepless nights here and here; there are plenty of other sportsmen who have taken off their boots to tread the boards. Stan Collymore surpasses all previous front-seat fumblings with Sharon Stone in the absurd opening scene of [...]

Henrik Larsson could be set for a return to the Premier League. Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
Helsingborg’s Sweden striker Henrik Larsson is reported to be weighing up offers from three unnamed Premier League clubs.
Larsson, who scored 242 goals in 315 appearances for Celtic, has not played in Britain since March 2007 at the end of a [...]

Matt Prior celebrates Engalnd’s victory against South Africa. Photograph: Tom Shaw/Getty Images
England captain Kevin Pietersen has backed Matt Prior to solve England’s long-term wicketkeeping problem after he hit an unbeaten 45 and took six catches in England’s 10-wicket victory over South Africa in the second match of the NatWest Series at Trent Bridge.
The performance equaled [...]

Kaka insists he is staying put at the San Siro. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Guardian
Milan playmaker Kaka has publicly declared that he has no intention of leaving the Serie A club for Chelsea. Kaka has been linked with an £80m move to the London club for several weeks, with some reports suggesting that Andriy Shevchenko’s return to [...]