Rachel Daly’s former school teacher has hailed the Lioness as a “one-off” player as England aim for World Cup glory on Sunday. Sarina Wiegman’s side reached their first ever World Cup final with a 3-1 win against co-hosts Australia on Wednesday in front of 75,784 in Sydney. Aston Villa forward Daly, the WSL’s top scorer last season, has played a key part in their campaign – often featuring at wing-back for the side and scored in England’s 6-1 victory against China in the group stages. The 31-year-old started her career at Killinghall Nomads in Yorkshire and Michael Sweetman, who was her teacher at Rossett School, admitted her mental and physical attributes stood out from an early age. Mr Sweetman told the PA news agency: “She was a one-off, she was completely different and the attributes she had, those winning attributes, it’s just pure focus on winning the game. “It can in some ways not be great, but on a football pitch it’s ideal, it’s perfect. She’s been a success at every team she’s played in and that’s why I think, but she had the physical attributes as well. “She wasn’t amazingly quick or amazingly fit, but she just played the game. Her touch was amazing, she was strong and nothing fazed her. “She could take a boot, get up and get on with it. She’s skilful, she’d play up front or in midfield for me and she scored two or three a game.” England are aiming to achieve back-to-back success in a major tournament final after their European Championship win at Wembley last year. Daly was part of that Lionesses squad and Mr Sweetman reflected on how far she has come in her England career. “I definitely believed she’d play for England, whether I believed she’d get to a World Cup final I don’t think you could ever comprehend that really,” he added. “You just want your kids to achieve the best they can be, so to get to England is great. “I actually rang the FA when she was 14 and asked them to come down and watch her. They came down to a final at Harrogate Town and we beat a school in York 5-0 I think, she scored two and that was the start of it.” Beginning her domestic career with Leeds, Daly moved over to America to play in college for St John’s University and was selected by the Houston Dash in the 2016 NWSL draft. She spent six seasons in Texas before moving to the Women’s Super League last year to play for Aston Villa, where she instantly made a mark in her debut season by finishing with 22 goals. Those performances earned Daly the Barclays WSL’s Player of the Season award and on Wednesday she was nominated for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award. Mr Sweetman expressed his pride at her success, adding: “I don’t want to say I feel responsible, because I’m not, I was a small part for five years and basically I just let her play. “The only thing I did differently was that football was just developing at the time. “They were trying to say that there may be careers ahead and if you can keep playing, keep improving on your game maybe you could go to America or you could do this or you could do that. “I never say I was responsible but the only thing I did let her do was let her play football with the boys in PE. “You don’t feel responsible, but there is a sense of pride that one of your kids that you did your best to nurture during those years is playing at the highest level.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Holly Bradshaw makes giant leap to overcome anxiety before World Championships Gus Atkinson feeling ready for World Cup duty after surprise England call-up FA chief Mark Bullingham says Sarina Wiegman could be an England men’s candidate

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Reigning champions the United States were knocked out of the Women’s World Cup after the VAR intervened in a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Sweden. Lina Hurtig’s winning penalty was found to have crossed the line following a check with the VAR officials after USA goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher appeared to have saved the effort. Replays showed the ball had just crossed the line and Sweden were able to celebrate a 5-4 win on penalties after a goalless draw in the last-16 clash in Melbourne. The back-to-back defending champions led 3-2 in the shoot-out but misses by Megan Rapinoe and Sophia Smith opened the door for Sweden to take it to sudden death. Goalkeeper Naeher scored for the United States but with their next effort Kelley O’Hara hit the right post to give Hurtig the chance to win it. Her shot was blocked by Naeher, who then reached behind her to claw the ball away as it looped up in the air, but she was a fraction too late to stop Sweden moving on to the quarter-finals. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

After nearly two years and $69 billion, Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard is finally complete. The Xbox maker and the game developer are joining together in the biggest purchase in gaming history. It is a vast business undertaking that will define the future of the two companies and the gaming industry more broadly. But what will it actually mean for the gamers who use Microsoft’s platforms and play Activision’s games – as well as those that don’t? What happened in the deal? Microsoft first announced that it wanted to buy Activision Blizzard in January last year. Microsoft makes the Xbox and Activision Blizzard makes many of the worlds biggest games – it is often associated with Call of Duty, but also makes World Of Warcraft, Overwatch and mobile giant Candy Crush, and more. In the time since, the deal has been hit by opposition from rivals, primarily PlayStation maker Sony, and has been undergoing scrutiny from regulators, who worried that it would give Microsoft too much power in the gaming market, and harm players as a result. Regulators across the world expressed those reservations, and in some cases required Microsoft to make changes to the deal. Chief among those changes were Microsoft’s decision to give French gaming company Ubisoft the rights to distribute Activision games in the cloud. This was a response to concerns from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which expressed concern specifically that the deal would give Microsoft too much power over cloud gaming. But there were a host of less dramatic and expensive commitments. That included signing deals with other companies such as Sony and Nintendo to commit to keep Call of Duty games on their platforms. What will it mean for Xbox players? At least initially, the biggest consequences of the deal are likely to be for Xbox’s Game Pass, the subscription platform that allows players to download and play games in return for a monthly fee. More Activision games are expected to come to that platform as a result of the acquisition. But even that won’t happen straight away, at least with all games. Activision said in a statement this week – before the deal closed – that its big titles won’t be coming to Game Pass this year, and has not made any commitments about which games will do so or when. “While we do not have plans to put Modern Warfare III or Diablo IV into Game Pass this year, once the deal closes, we expect to start working with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world,” Activision wrote in a tweet. “And we anticipate that we would begin adding games into Game Pass sometime in the course of next year.” What will it mean for gamers on other platforms? Much of the discussion with regulators has been about this question. And many of the concessions that Microsoft gave over the deal were done with the aim of ensuring that the answer is: not that much, at least at first. Xbox has committed to keep making its games available on other platforms such as PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, as well as on cloud platforms. And Xbox chief Phil Spencer echoed that commitment in the announcement that the deal was completed. “Whether you play on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC or mobile, you are welcome here - and will remain welcome, even if Xbox isn’t where you play your favourite franchise. Because when everyone plays, we all win,” he wrote. But the bigger question might be about new games, especially those that come out after the initial commitments are over. Microsoft has committed to keep Call of Duty on rival platforms for 10 years, for instance – but things could change in the years after that, and with other, new games. When Microsoft bought another game developer Bethesda in 2020, for instance, there were questions over what it would mean for players on other platforms, and whether its games would be exclusive to Microsoft. Its most recent game Starcraft was available only on the Xbox and PC, and the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI is likely to be the same. Read More Nasa launches Psyche mission to study an ancient metal asteroid Microsoft buys Call of Duty developer in biggest deal in gaming history Microsoft gets go-ahead to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Nasa launches Psyche mission to study an ancient metal asteroid Microsoft buys Call of Duty developer in biggest deal in gaming history Microsoft gets go-ahead to buy Call of Duty maker Activision

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