Saturday<\/p>\n
Football<\/p>\n
8am-12.30pm (all times BST)Matchday live<\/p>\n
The Premier League may be on a break but there is no slacking at our essential gateway to the weekend\u2019s football action. Front and centre, we will have the latest news on Manchester City\u2019s legal battle. Plus England\u2019s mouthwatering confrontation with the world champions, Spain, on Saturday evening, their first match since that semi-final freeze against Argentina. At 2pm, a new era for Scotland commences as S\u00e9bastien Pocognoli\u2019s side kickstart their Nations League campaign away to Slovenia. We will not be forgetting Leagues One and Two either: if the National League is your passion and you are travelling to a match, we would love to hear from you<\/a>. You will be a lot of things, but one thing you will not be is bored. Emillia Hawkins has all the breaking news and more.<\/p>\n Cricket<\/p>\n 10.30amCounty Championship live<\/p>\n As the campaign rushes to its conclusion, Tanya Aldred keeps those on tenterhooks updated with all the highs and lows, wickets and runs. Champagne corks are planned to pop at Warwickshire who are striding toward clinching the County Championship title against relegation-threatened Leicestershire at Edgbaston. A win would guarantee a first pennant since the Covid-shortened 2021 campaign, with second-placed Somerset faltering against Surrey. In Division Two promotion hopefuls Kent are battling rock-bottom Gloucestershire at Canterbury. Northamptonshire, just four points behind second-placed Kent, need to step up against Middlesex. Why not join the conversation?<\/p>\n Formula One<\/p>\n 12pmAzerbaijan Grand Prix live<\/p>\n Azerbaijan is marking 10 years since its first F1 race but this year\u2019s event is a little different. The Grand Prix is taking place on a Saturday because Sunday is a national holiday, Remembrance Day. The Baku City Circuit hosting Saturday\u2019s race is about 105 miles from the nearest point on Azerbaijan\u2019s southern border with Iran, yet the turmoil of the regional conflict that has accounted for other motor sport events has not shunted this fixture off the F1 calendar. Two other world championships governed by the FIA have abandoned plans to race in the Middle East this year. The World Rally Championship last week scrapped its season-ending event in Saudi Arabia after travel concerns from teams. The World Endurance Championship cancelled races in Bahrain and Qatar in July and replaced them with European venues. Azerbaijan has been less directly affected by the Iran war than the Gulf nations, many of which host major US military bases and were targeted by Iranian strikes. So, F1 racing will go on, as Kimi Antonelli commands a vast 81-point lead over his Mercedes teammate George Russell. Baku is where Oscar Piastri\u2019s title challenge started to crumble a year ago but Antonelli\u2019s lead is more than double the biggest advantage the McLaren driver had last year and he is coming off back-to-back wins. Dominic Booth covers the race lap-by-lap. Giles Richards reports.<\/p>\n There is an imposing backdrop to the street circuit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov\/Reuters<\/p>\n Nations League<\/p>\n 2pmSlovenia v Scotland live<\/p>\n So to the first of Saturday\u2019s two big games. In an extended international break, the Scots face the Slovenians twice, Switzerland and North Macedonia as they strive to get out of League B. Enter S\u00e9bastien Pocognoli, tasked with building on the groundwork laid by Steve Clarke, under whom Scotland qualified for three major tournaments, including this summer\u2019s World Cup in North America. \u201cWe arrive in the timeline of the Scotland national team [where], in the natural way, you will have some changes. But I don\u2019t see this as a bad challenge, I think it\u2019s a needed challenge,\u201d the former Union Saint-Gilloise and Monaco manager said in the buildup. Those Scotland followers of a jaded nature might say t\u2019was ever thus: a challenge. Maybe it will take a Belgian to take this generation of players to a higher level and provide some cheer for the longsuffering Tartan Army. Barry Glendenning live blogs the match, with Ewan Murray reporting from Ljubljana\u2019s Stadion Stozice.<\/p>\n Nations League<\/p>\n 7.45pmEngland v Spain live<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s visit to Wembley is a painful reminder to England of what might have been, and Thomas Tuchel needs a positive response to silence criticism of how the Three Lions\u2019 World Cup fizzled out against a snarling, brutal Argentina. Had England held out for the final five minutes plus stoppage time in their semi-final two months ago, they would have met Spain in the final. Instead Tuchel\u2019s players wilted, conceding twice after he had attempted to batten down the hatches with a series of defensive substitutions. The German coach admitted to being left \u201cunfulfilled\u201d by failing to achieve his target of a second star on the England jersey. Bukayo Saka went even further in midweek by revealing \u201cthere\u2019s still a scar in us\u201d over what happened in Atlanta. Time to start healing those wounds against the best international team on the planet. It is a tall order, particularly with a string of high-profile withdrawals. Rob Smyth will keep the blog updates flowing while our top team of David Hytner, Barney Ronay and Jacob Steinberg provide reports and analysis from the national stadium.<\/p>\n Alex Scott and Bukayo Saka battle for possession during a training session as England head coach Thomas Tuchel looks on. Photograph: Eddie Keogh\/The FA\/Getty ImagesSunday<\/p>\n Football<\/p>\n 8am-3.30pmMatchday live<\/p>\n