Clockwise from top left: Netherlands' Virgil van Dijk gets some heading practice in before the Netherlands’ World Cup opener against Japan; fans show support for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya; and the Women’s T20 World Cup captains pose with the trophy on a bus. Composite: Guardian Design; AP; Formula 1/Getty Images; ICC/Getty Images.
World Cup Football and T20 Cricket Galore, Plus F1 in Barcelona – Follow with Us
Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports.
Saturday
Football
10am-6pm (BST) World Cup news liveblog
Friday’s action will be reviewed and Saturday’s previewed in our daily World Cup news liveblog helmed on Saturday by Rob Smyth and Will Unwin. There’s no better gateway to the weekend’s World Cup action, bringing you all the breaking news and colour from the tournament’s first round of group games. Before Scotland get their campaign rolling as they face Haiti near Boston in the early hours of Sunday morning and Australia meet Turkey in Vancouver, Qatar confront Switzerland near San Francisco and, in the day’s big game, Brazil and Morocco collide in New York/New Jersey. Keeping pace with the day’s events couldn’t be easier with our World Cup daily guide. Click here for details on how to follow the action, day by day. Or why not print our excellent wallchart, here?
Cricket
10.30am Women’s T20 World Cup live
Cricket is staging its own World Cup in England and before the day’s football we’ll have over-by-over coverage of Scotland v Ireland in the second game of the Women’s T20 World Cup (10.30am) followed by a crunch clash between Australia, the defending champions, and South Africa (2.30pm). Tim de Lisle and Daniel Gallan are our blog hosts. We won’t be forgetting the domestic action and Tanya Aldred will be bringing County Championship updates on day two of the latest games from 11am.
Formula One
3pm Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix qualifying live
Philip Cornwall is at the wheel for our rolling report from qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli again claimed the glory with a fifth consecutive victory of the season in Monaco and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was back on the podium once again in second, with the rest of the placings affected by a penalty controversy. Hamilton, F1’s all-time leading race winner, appears to have turned a corner after a frustrating first season with Ferrari last year finished without a top-three finish. Hamilton enters round seven second in the points standings behind the teenage sensation. Britain’s former world champion hasn’t savored victory since winning the Belgium GP in July 2024 – could this be his return to the top step? Luke McLaughlin reports.
Lewis Hamilton will be looking to improve on his second place at Monaco. Photograph: Simon Galloway/LAT Images.
World Cup
8pm (12pm ET) Qatar v Switzerland live
Qatar take on Switzerland in their World Cup opener eager to shake off the pressure of expectation, coming in as back-to-back Asian champions with an urgent need to make amends for a dismal debut as hosts of the 2022 tournament. Qatar’s 2022 unravelling was unprecedented, losing all three matches and scoring once, but, after rebounding to defend their Asian Cup title and qualifying easily for this World Cup, they have unfinished business and need a strong showing to earn any credibility on the global stage. They might have hoped for a more gentle introduction, with the resurgent Swiss unbeaten in competitive matches since late 2024 following an impressive Euros run, and keen to make a mark in their sixth successive World Cup. John Brewin helms the live blog.
11pm (6pm ET) Brazil v Morocco live
Brazil begin their latest hunt for a long-awaited sixth World Cup star on their shirts with little room for a gentle landing, facing impressive Morocco in a Group C opener that will test their ability to cope with a lengthy injury list. The record five-time winners arrive in North America under Carlo Ancelotti, whose World Cup debut as a coach comes a little over a year after he left Real Madrid following a glittering haul of European titles to take on one of football’s most demanding rescue missions. Brazil have endured three turbulent years, four managers and a series of disappointments, while Neymar’s long decline from untouchable talisman to fitness gamble has added uncertainty. Follow the game live with Jeff Rueter, Pablo Iglesias Maurer and Alexander Abnos. Ed Aarons and Leander Schaerlaeckens report from the MetLife Stadium.
Neymar’s decline hasn’t affected his popularity as shown by this piece of street art in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, which was created by artist Rafael Jung. Photograph: Diego Vara/Reuters.
Sunday
World Cup
2am (9pm ET) Haiti v Scotland live
It is Scotland’s first World Cup finals match for 28 years and they cannot afford to start their campaign gently against Haiti, with both teams in need of a quick win in their opener before colliding with tougher opposition in the next two games. Brazil and Morocco – who defeated Spain and Portugal en route to the semi-finals in 2022 – are also in Group C, putting pressure on Les Grenadiers under their French coach, Sébastien Migné, and Steve Clarke’s Scotland to take all three points. Tom Bassam helms our minute-by-minute blog with Ewan Murray and Paul MacInnes reporting from the Boston Stadium.
5am (12am ET, 2pm AEST) Australia v Turkey live
Arda Guler will lead a hungry Turkey side as they make their return to the World Cup finals for the first time in more than two decades against an Australia squad brimming with youthful vigour in their Group D opener. Despite strong showings in the Euros of late, Turkey have not played at a World Cup finals since making the last four in 2002, and, though the 21-year-old Guler was not even born back then, he will bear his side’s attacking hopes on his young shoulders. The Socceroos have rung the changes and could have 17 World Cup debutants at this tournament, including two uncapped players in Tete Yengi, 25, and the 22-year-old striker Cristian Volpato, who switched allegiance from Italy just before the tournament. Jonathan Howcroft brings all the action minute-by-minute with Jack Snape reporting from Vancouver’s BC Place.
Turkey’s Arda Guler looks up for the cup. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Fifa/Getty Images.
8am-4pm World Cup news liveblog
Emillia Hawkins, Billy Munday and Yara El-Shaboury are our Sunday liveblog crew, and they’ll be unpicking the threads from all Saturday and Sunday morning’s early games as well as looking forward to the rest of the day’s fixtures. Our first World Cup MBM report of the day is Curaçao’s tournament debut, against Germany in Houston, at 6pm BST/1pm EST, before live coverage of the tantalising Netherlands v Japan Group F fixture (9pm BST/4pm EST). A hectic week concludes with our MBM reports of Côte d’Ivoire v Ecuador at midnight BST/7pm EST and Sweden v Tunisia (3am BST, 10pm EST). And if that’s not enough, a reminder that Football Weekly goes daily – tune in throughout the tournament – and there’s brilliant and comprehensive guides to all the players: click here.
Cricket
11am and 2.30pm County liveblog and India v Pakistan Women’s T20 World Cup live
Our attention once more switches to cricket and day three of the latest County Championship games from 11am, with Tanya Aldred steering the blog. There’s then a blockbuster Women’s World T20 clash at 2.30pm with James Wallace’s over-by-over coverage of India v Pakistan. India launched the Women’s Premier League in 2023 along the lines of the men’s IPL. That has encouraged fearless strokeplay by players such as Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh and Harmanpreet Kaur, who will captain India for the fifth time at her 10th T20 World Cup. The closest Kaur came to winning was in the 2020 final. Taha Hashim reports from Edgbaston.
India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur gets in a spot of practice during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Captains’ Carnival at Waterloo Bridge. Photograph: Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC/Getty Images.
Formula One
2pm Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix live
It’s lights out and away we go with Billy Munday’s lap-by-lap report of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. George Russell’s championship campaign is in tatters after failing to score in the previous two rounds. The British driver’s engine expired in Montreal when battling his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli for the race lead before a botched five-second penalty that was caused by an official timing error resulted in a drive-through in Monaco that left him to finish outside the points. That put him a whopping 68 points adrift of Antonelli, with the teenager claiming five wins in a row to take a firm grip on the title race.
World Cup
6pm (1pm ET) Germany v Curaçao live
Only a convincing win will do against Curaçao, with Germany eager to start the tournament strongly after shock first-round exits in 2018 and 2022. Curaçao is a self-governing part of the Netherlands, with a population of just over 150,000 and a land area of 171 square miles (443 square km). All their players are Dutch nationals, as is their coach, Dick Advocaat, and they are the smallest nation to qualify for the World Cup. The four-times champions say they are not feeling any pressure but they must contend with performing in high temperatures in Houston. Daniel Harris hosts the live blog with Nick Ames reporting.
It’s bad news for Dick Advocaat and his Curaçao players as Walter, “the oracle orangutan”, looks to plump for Germany when he is asked to predict the result of their World Cup group game. Though as Walter lives at Dortmund Zoo, one can’t rule out home bias. Photograph: Leon Kuegeler/Reuters.
9pm (4pm ET) Netherlands v Japan live
Japan travel to their eighth successive finals on the back of several high-profile victories and with their coach, Hajime Moriyasu, understandably bullish about their chances of reaching the tournament’s latter stages. The four-time Asian champions secured friendly wins over Brazil and England during the past eight months but in four appearances in the World Cup knockout rounds they have failed to register a single win, crashing out in the last 16 each time. The Dutch consider themselves World Cup contenders but head for the 2026 finals with a squad that contains few of the outstanding individual stars and little of the overall quality that has marked their previous appearances at the tournament. The Netherlands have been runners-up three times, most recently in 2010, and at the last finals in Qatar in 2022 were eliminated in the quarter-finals on penalties by the eventual winners, Argentina. This time they have set themselves the minimum goal of a semi-final place. Rob Smyth hosts the blog with Barney Ronay reporting from what is certain to be an entertaining clash.
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