Satou Sabally had 24 points and 10 rebounds, Kalani Brown added 17 points and 15 rebounds, and the Dallas Wings beat the Phoenix Mercury 84-79 in a Texas homecoming for Brittney Griner

Michael O’Neill could point to individual and collective mistakes after Northern Ireland lost 4-0 to Finland in their penultimate Euro 2024 qualifier but the inexperience of his young squad played a major role in Helsinki. Northern Ireland played well for much of the first half but fell behind to Joel Pohjanpalo’s penalty just before the break, and Daniel Hakans then doubled the lead three minutes into the second half before substitutes Teemu Pukki and Robin Lod added to the score late on. Ross McCausland made his debut from the start only days after being drafted in as injury cover on Monday, and there was also a late debut for Michael Forbes with O’Neill trying to make up for the raft of missing players. But it was a sadly familiar story as O’Neill’s men were unable to capitalise on early chances before being punished at the other end. “We played very well for 40 minutes in the game I thought,” O’Neill said. “We had a plan to make ourselves difficult to beat and to contain Finland and we did it very well, I can’t remember them having any opportunities in that period… “We created one or two half chances we could have done better with. Then the penalty, for all the work you do in the first 40 minutes you end up going in 1-0 down at half-time because of a penalty.” Isaac Price clipped Nikolai Alho on the edge of the box before Pohjanpalo sent Conor Hazard the wrong way. “Probably it’s a challenge he’s better off not attempting,” O’Neill said. “There’s not a lot of contact but there’s enough. The player wasn’t really in a position to shoot, we could possibly have been able to block the shot… “I was really pleased with the first 40 minutes but obviously by 48 minutes you’re in a really difficult position.” Hakans’ strike was in many ways the killer blow, coming so early in the second half. The Valerenga winger skipped through four challenges before exchanging passes with Glen Kamara, beating Hazard at his near post. O’Neill was disappointed with his stand-in goalkeeper, but also accepted more experienced players might have stopped the run by fair means or foul much further from goal. “It’s a shot that I would not expect to beat my goalkeeper at the near post,” O’Neill said. “You have to recognise the danger and there’s points in the game where maybe you have to make a technical foul as they call it and we didn’t do that. I felt probably that was something that if I was to be critical of, we didn’t win enough of those types of challenges through the 90 minutes.” When Finland then introduced Pukki off the bench, with the former Norwich striker scoring the third and creating the fourth, the game quickly went away from Northern Ireland. “That has been the big difference, the attacking players some of the opposition have had and we saw that tonight with goals three and four,” O’Neill said. “We’ve got a group of players where a lot of them are new to international football. This is their first campaign. They’re coming into games and the games are going away from them. As a manager I have to support them and back them. “They have to learn on the job and they’re having to learn quickly.” The good news is that this miserable qualifying campaign is almost over, with only Monday’s match at home to Denmark remaining. “When you come out of a defeat you look at the game from a tactical point of view and a performance point of view but what’s most important as a staff and a coach and a group of players is that people don’t question your character or mentality,” O’Neill said. “That’s what we have to show again on Monday night.” Read More Finland put Northern Ireland to the sword in Helsinki Trent Alexander-Arnold receiving the keys to England’s midfield suggests one thing England labour to win over Malta in front of bored Wembley crowd Finland put Northern Ireland to the sword in Helsinki Jarell Quansah keen to become ‘top centre-back’ after Liverpool breakthrough On this day in 2004: John Toshack becomes Wales boss on five-year deal

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Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian forces have taken the “initiative” after making gains outside the eastern city of Bakhmut as part of a wider counteroffensive. Stating that Ukraine is “advancing, albeit not as fast [as we would like]”, Mr Zelensky said: “We would all love to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time. But there is reality. Today, the initiative is on our side.” On the 501st day of the war, Ukraine is attempting to retake territory and villages that were captured by Russia not long after its invasion began, to the east and south of the country. Heavy fighting continues to rage in two southeast areas, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. This comes as a group of Western allies, including the US, the UK, France, and Germany have huddled in “frantic, last-minute” negotiations as they look to provide security assurance for Ukraine ahead of the Nato summit in Vilnius. And Vladimir Putin’s close aide Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to attack Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities in eastern Europe in retaliation over unconfirmed allegations on Telegram that Ukrainian forces tried to strike a nuclear power plant in Russia’s Smolensk with British missiles. Read More Biden touches down in UK as president expected to be challenged over cluster bombs at Nato summit Biden says Ukraine not ‘ready’ for Nato membership ahead of key summit Cluster bombs: What are the controversial explosives and why is Biden sending them to Ukraine? Why are Russian and Belarusian players allowed back at Wimbledon?

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BEIJING (Reuters) -China's factory activity expanded at a slower pace in September, a private-sector survey showed on Sunday, with sluggish

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