‘Don’t wait four more years’: World Cup co-hosts Canada offer Italy f…

• Canada Soccer holding jersey exchange in Toronto

• Italy failed to qualify for finals after playoff defeat

Italian football fans are being encouraged to put their national team’s World Cup 2026 qualification failure behind them – by backing co-hosts Canada instead.

Canada Soccer, the national governing body for the sport, are offering a jersey swap on Saturday for fans in Toronto’s Little Italy district. “Dear Italian soccer fans, Don’t wait four more years. Swap your jersey for Canada,” read a post on X.

Win our next two fixtures, and we can believe heading into the split where the fixtures are going to favour Celtic but we need Paradise at its best…

Our Dear Green Place tifo by the Green Brigade, September 2024. Photo IMAGO

I’ve been guilty of regularly writing off our title chances, but who can really blame me after having to sit through this troubling campaign?

For example I totally wrote off our chances after the lacklustre performance in the 2-0 defeat at Tannadice before the international break, and despite still feeling the same way, I’ve somehow managed to find a tiny glimmer of hope that this squad of players can still do the improbable and retain the title and in doing so achieve five titles in a row and 14 league triumphs in 15 seasons, the only exception being the covid behind closed doors nonsense which was football but not as we know it.

Green Brigade tribute to James Forrest on Trophy Day. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

However, for 5IAR to become a reality we need to win our remaining seven fixtures, which can all be classed as the proverbial ‘cup finals’. Whilst that is NOT impossible or as far-fetched as I was thinking a fortnight ago, it’s still going to take a major reset and hopefully that’s happened over the past 13 days at Lennoxtown.

This current crop of players don’t exactly fill you with great confidence in the mental or ability stakes. The squad of winners has been reduced in status by the arrival of players not of the required standard and changing managers continually during the season has had an impact with everyone’s Christmas and New Year trashed by Michael Nicholson’s first choice candidate as our new manager practically burning the season down in a disastrous 33 day reign that cost us a dozen points and a cup final.

Nicholson didn’t even have the balls to sit alongside Wilfried Nancy as he was unveiled as Celtic manager, a sign of disrespect that should have set alarm bells ringing. The Celtic CEO really is the weakest leader our club has had. Say what you like about Peter Lawwell but he’d always stand his ground and fight his corner and he never sent a new manager in alone to meet the media.

Malcom McKay and Peter Lawwell are seen during the Premiership match between Celtic FC and Hibernian FC at Celtic Park on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Tomorrow’s trip to Dens park is the acid test for our current crop of players. It really is the last chance salon, and anything other than a victory will surely end our title hopes. Many know that they won’t be at the club next season. Those on loan who haven’t produced will see this as a short-term gig, others who have run their course at the club and want away will perhaps have one eye on what’s next. Ideally the teams that start going into these cup final league matches are filled with players who have the commitment and the desire to succeed.

Brendan Rodgers on the Celtic bench at Dens Park. Dundee v Celtic. 19 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Dens Park a venue that we’ve already tasted defeat this campaign, and we will most likely head into the game five points adrift of our city rivals, and eight points behind Hearts if they win at Livingston tomorrow ahead of our game kicking off. So earning all three points is of massive importance, nothing else will suffice if we want to successfully defend our title.

Win tomorrow, then follow that up with a home win next Saturday over St Mirren and we can head into the split with some much needed optimism where we will have three home games and two away with both title rivals having to come to Celtic Park and Hearts also hosting the Rangers at Tynecastle. We will also welcome back a couple of key players from injury, so we still have a decent shot at defending our title.

Impossible? No it’s not, but we need to show some great belief, and winning our next two fixtures will give us just that heading into the final run of games, where anything is possible.

The one thing that many of us can’t get our heads around is the ongoing and seemingly spiteful ban on the Green Brigade, who seem to be victims of the Board’s wrath due to the formation of the Celtic Fans Collective last September.

Despite what Brian Wilson, the interim Celtic Chairman told Gerry McCulloch on Celtic TV recently, the club does have the scope to lift this long running ban and bring Paradise back to its best for these crucial matches. Not to do so and thereafter for the title to be lost will be unforgivable.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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Where is Pep Guardiola? Why Pep Lijnders is on the Man City bench against former team Liverpool in the FA Cup originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Manchester City host Liverpool in the latest instalment of English football's defining modern rivalry in the FA Cup sixth round on Saturday.

Mohamed Salah will bid farewell to the fixture, having announced he will leave Liverpool at the end of this season.

There are increasingly fewer familiar faces remaining from the peak Pep Guardiola vs Jurgen Klopp years still around. City captain Bernardo Silva is out of contract at the end of this season and could lead the Blues against Liverpool for the final time.

However, another of the main faces of this 21st-century argument will also not be out on the grass in Manchester this weekend.

MORE:Man City vs. Liverpool as it happens

Where is Pep Guardiola for Man City vs. Liverpool

City manager Guardiola will watch Saturday's match from the Etihad Stadium stands as he serves the second of a two-match ban for yellow card accumulation.

Guardiola was also absent from the dugout for City's 0-0 draw at West Ham last month.

He was allowed on the touchline for the 2-0 Carabao Cup final win over Arsenal because, under Football Association rules, yellow card accumulation bans do not apply for major cup finals.

When did Pep Lijnders join Man City

Klopp's former Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders will take Guardiola's place in the City technical area against his former employers.

When Guardiola refreshed his coaching team this summer, he sought Klopp's blessing to bring in Lijnders, worked at Liverpool for the best part of a decade between 2014 and 2024.

This spell was broken by a stint as head coach of NEC in the Dutchman's homeland. He left Liverpool with Klopp following the German's final season on Merseyside in 2023/24. An u unsuccessful stint in charge of Red Bull Salzburg followed.

“I had a lot of info from other people about him who had been trained or managed by him at Liverpool. I needed to refresh myself first with new people who have incredible knowledge about the game and the Premier League and I love a lot many things that he did with Jurgen at Liverpool. We talked one day, I think we felt connected immediately. I am incredibly lucky that since the first day I started as a manager [with] all my backroom staff and close people and Pep is one of them.”

Phillies' Zack Wheeler has shaky start in second rehab appearance originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

While the Philadelphia Phillies have started to get into the swing of things, posting a record of 4-3 through Friday night’s action, they’ve had to do it without one of their key players. Given that Zack Wheeler had the procedure done to remove his blood clot so late in the 2025 season, it wasn’t a guarantee that he’d see any action early on in 2026, which has been a reality for the Phillies, having to work on a shortened rotation.

This hasn’t meant that the three-time All-Star hasn’t been working his way back on the field, as he threw multiple sessions for Philadelphia’s time in Clearwater, as well as taking to the mound for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate in late March.

In his first rehab start, Wheeler took to the mound for three innings of action, throwing a total of 38 pitches, striking out three batters in the process, while allowing two hits and a walk.

Wheeler’s shaky second start

That three-inning outing wouldn’t be the only rehab start for the former Cy Young candidate, as he took to the mound on Friday night when the Iron Pigs took on the Durham Bulls. To put it simply, this start wouldn’t go as smoothly as his first rehab appearance.

Jacob Melton BLASTS a three-run shot off rehabbing Zack Wheeler 😳#RaysUppic.twitter.com/VIAFX2a7Bt

— Milb Central (@milb_central) April 3, 2026

The 35-year-old got through the first two innings without any trouble, throwing a total of 22 pitches, but things would get dicey in the third. In the bottom frame of the third inning, Wheeler would allow a total of five runs up, as Durham’s Raynel Delgado would have an extra-base hit that would bring in two runs, while Jacob Melton would smash a three-run home run against the Phillies ace.

Zack Wheeler will make his second rehab start on Friday in Durham. Four innings, 50-55 pitches. He will make a third rehab start next week with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Will he get a fourth rehab start? TBD.

— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) April 1, 2026

The 35-year-old would finish his second rehab start with a statline reading three innings pitched, five earned runs, four hits, with only a strikeout to his name. As reported by MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki earlier in the week, Wheeler will get a third start for Lehigh Valley in the coming days, but anything beyond that isn’t a guarantee.

When he returns to the Phillies rotation, he'll be a welcome addition as they'll look to see him return to his stellar form from last season, when he finished with a record of 10-5 and an ERA of 2.71, fanning 195 batters in the process.

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