Los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Kupp was in Minnesota on Monday seeing a specialist for his latest injury

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates one of India’s most famous street food snacks – the bite-sized pani puri. The dish is one of India’s most popular street foods and can incorporate many different flavours depending on the ingredients used and where in the country it is being made. The popular snack consists of a crispy, deep-fried shell that is cracked open on one side and stuffed with any combination of potatoes, chickpeas, spices or chillies dunked in flavoured water. The tiny snack is best eaten quickly in rounds, with customers dipping the shell into the water and popping it whole into their mouths before the next shell is offered. The sweet and savoury dish goes by different names in different parts of India. In capital Delhi, it is known as gol gappa, while in West Bengal, Bihar and Nepal, the snack is called phuchka. In southwestern Maharashtra, it is known by the staple pani puri, while in northern Haryana state, it is called paani patashi. In central Madhya Pradesh, the snack goes by fulki and in Uttar Pradesh, it’s called pani ke batashe or padake. In the northeastern state of Assam, locals call it the phuska, while Gujaratis call it pakodi. In parts of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, locals call the snack Gup-chup. The process of making the humble pani puri is simple and the filling can be made according to the preference of the person eating it. The options usually consist of a potato stuffing, mashed chickpeas stuffing, boondi or tiny fried gram flour balls. A hot ragda stuffing can also be used, which is a curry or gravy preparation made from dried white peas, spices and seasonings. The server pokes a hole in the deep-drief hollow shell called the puri and fills the stuffing in it. The flavoured water, or pani in Hindi, used to dunk the filling is made either of tamarind, asafoetida, mint, garlic, lemon or jaljeera – a type of flavoured water made with chilli, cumin (jeera) and water (jal, which is another word for water) – and is served to customers one by one. One plate of pani puri usually consists of six to eight bites and costs between Rs 20-40 (£0.20-£0.40). The staple Indian snack is available in almost every north Indian restaurant locally and has only grown in popularity abroad. London’s high end Indian restaurants, like Dishoom, Roti Chai, Indian Accent and Gunpowder, also serve the dish. The snack is best enjoyed when the flavoured water is served cold. Today’s Google Doodle features a bespoke video game in which players “serve” customers’ orders for pani puri with different fillings. Google said 12 July marked the anniversary of a World Record set in 2015 for the most flavours of pani puri offered by one restaurant. It was claimed by eatery Indori Zayka in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Read More How to shop at Borough Market in the summer ‘We call them Picky Bits’: Nigella Lawson responds to viral ‘Girl Dinner’ trend Get set for Wimbledon with these strawberry recipes Google Doodle celebrates pani puri, the much-loved Indian street snack Indian food influencer’s digestive mocktail recipe mocked online Ali Ahmed Aslam, chicken tikka masala ‘inventor’, dies at age 77

The alleged leader is accused of illegally harvesting kidneys from more than 300 people in Pakistan.

England and Chelsea right-back Niamh Charles, now 24, began her career at an early age on the Wirral in Merseyside. Charles spent her youth at the West Kirby Wasps and excelled as the only female on the pitch, playing against boys up to the age of 14. “Playing in boys’ teams growing up was all I knew so I can’t really compare it to anything else but I loved it,” she has said. “Some of the things that I had to learn as the boys got older and stronger and some of the things I had to adapt and grow about my game have helped me now in terms of the physical side of football. I wouldn’t change playing for boys’ teams because I really liked it.” After that success at junior level, Charles became a member of Liverpool’s FC Academy youth setup and found herself climbing the ranks. She made her Women’s Super League debut at just 16 and appeared 59 times for Liverpool, scoring 11 goals, but left the club following their relegation and signing for Chelsea in 2020, where manager Emma Hayes has hailed her as “tenacious” and a “willing competitor”. She has since won back-to-back doubles with the Blues and started in the Champions League Final against Barcelona in 2021, aged just 21. She has also represented England at under-17, under-19 and under-20 levels. In 2018 at the Under-20s World Cup, Charles made an impression as she helped the young Lionesses win bronze. That same year, she was voted “Rising Star” at the North-West Football Awards. Her debut for the senior side came in a friendly against France in 2021 and she has since added six more caps, a total she will be seeking to increase further in Australia and New Zealand this summer. Read More Keira Walsh: England’s deep-lying playmaker in profile Millie Bright: England women’s football captain in profile England women World Cup fixtures and route to the final

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has ruled out signing another forward when the January transfer window opens next month, despite lacking options up front.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against an Alabama fisherman convicted of stealing valuable information related to prime fishing locations, saying that when his trial was conducted in the wrong place, the proper fix was to retry the case in the correct venue.

Against all odds, none of which need naming, London’s food scene is still thriving. Proof is in the unfathomable number of new restaurants that open every week in the capital, and the thousands of diners still clamouring for a booking. It’s almost impossible to keep on top of. But, as a professional eater (or, more aptly, snob), here’s a non-exhaustive list of favourites that have sparkled in the past 12 months. Some of our recommendations are as follows. Get elbow-deep in a steaming cauldron of seafood at Brat-famous Tomos Parry’s Mountain in Soho (the only one to earn five stars from us, if the accolade exists). Gorge on goat curry in The Good Front Room, Dom Taylor’s well-earned prize for winning Channel 4’s Five Star Kitchen. Go classic at Paris-abroad eatery 64 Goodge Street or Mayfair’s grandiose 20 Berkeley, an ode to the brilliance of British produce. Or have fun at Papi, the new home for pandemic troublemakers Matthew Scott and Charlie Carr. There’s much more, and surely more to come. Stay tuned (and hungry). Mountain ★★★★★ Brat is back. Well, more specifically, its head chef and co-founder Tomos Parry is, with his new opening Mountain, in Soho. The formula is much the same as what gave the 2018 hit its cult status: wood-fired cooking combining Spanish influences with Parry’s Welsh heritage, plus excellent wine. Well, if it ain’t broke… And it certainly ain’t. Sobrasada toasts with honey and guindilla pepper pray at the altar of salt, spice, smoke and fat. I never thought a bowl of tripe would get people so excited, but apparently it does. A spider crab omelette, its innards submissively oozing out like one of those satisfying TikTok videos, has even the egg-adverse at the table gleefully tucking in. Another in our party, fists to the table, demands bread – baked onsite, of course, the butter organic, cultured, from Cardigan. But among many myriad must-haves, there is one that’s truly worth shelling out for: the Anglesey lobster caldereta (£90 for three to four or £120 for four to five). A steaming cauldron (hence the name) of charcoal-roasted Welsh lobster chunks bathing in a broth made satiny from the velvet crab and grilled salt cod stock. Get elbow deep, don’t wear white, let them demand bread. If turbot put Brat on the map, this is the dish that will define Mountain. And just like that, Brat grew up. There’s no elbow-grazing Shoreditch hipsters here, for one thing. Everything that made its younger sibling over-hyped (my DMs are closed) makes Mountain glorious. Take your friends, take your dates, or both, order the hits, go off-menu for wine, then saunter off into Soho for the evening quite content. 6-18 Beak St, London, W1F 9RD | mountainbeakstreet.com| bookings@mountainbeakstreet.com The Good Front Room ★★★★☆ The lack of variety in London’s melting pot of fine dining cuisines has long been a point of contention and one that hardly needs arguing. Do we really need another French bistro? It’s possible to get bored of bon bons and beurre blanc, believe me. What’s not boring is curried goat that falls apart at the slightest tap of a fork in a sauce as thick as blood, mopped up with still warm roti bread or smeared with fingers or straight-up slurped from the bowl. Can I take a bath in it? Salt cod and ackee (that oddly savoury, scrambled egg-like fruit) fish cakes with confit garlic and scotch bonnet aioli. A single dark rum-caramelised king prawn in a nest of dasheen salad and coconut sambal. Unwrapping a banana leaf like a gift to find ginger marinated sea bream. Even dessert has me salivating at the memory: a toasted spiced bun with sweet blue cheese, sour cherries and plantain chutney. Dessert should always have a hint of savoury. No, I’m not in Brixton. I’m in The Good Front Room at the five-star West End hotel The Langham, chef Dom Taylor’s prize for winning Channel 4’s Five Star Kitchen, in a room with ceilings as high as a church, rubbing elbows with punters more familiar with paying £200 for dinner than under £20. Taylor’s real triumph, though, is his menu, inspired by Caribbean flavours and a south London upbringing, which is the perfect cure for fine dining’s chronic case of aridity in the capital. Curried goat belongs here. It’s also the best possible justification for never seeing a French menu again. 1C Portland Pl, London W1B 1JA | langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/london/good-front-room | 020 7636 1000 64 Goodge Street ★★★★☆ In a world full of innovations, sometimes it’s nice to revel in the classics. And call me Jackie Collins but is there anything as classic as a vol-au-vent? They’re still enjoying their moment in the sun and it shines particularly brightly at 64 Goodge Street, the newest opening from the Woodhead Restaurant Group, who can be reliably called upon for reliably brilliant eateries. Actually, it’s pretty dimly lit at 64 in a Parisienne sort of way – sans red and white tablecloths – which is precisely the point. To steal a phrase from Diana Henry, it’s hard to eat this well in Paris. The aforementioned vol-au-vent is thankfully not stuffed but exists as an extremely fluffy mopping up tool for the very French sauce américaine. The lobster tail that comes with it might be one of the best I’ve had. Elsewhere on the French classics bingo card are snail, bacon and garlic (need I say more?) bon bons, which are teed up like gooey golf balls. Nicoise makes a rare appearance, but correctly dumps tuna for rabbit. What would a counterfeit French bistro be without beurre blanc? This one is thicc and slides under perfectly plump scallops and lentils. Sea bass or saddle of lamb are tempting, but instead we mistakenly tuck into overly salty squab pigeon, which is somewhat rectified by a scoop of ice cream for dessert. Really, it’s the exclusively burgundy wine list that got me through the door. I don’t want to develop a habit of eating my words but perhaps there’s room for one more excellent French restaurant in London. Already in its groove when I visit just a week after opening, 64 Goodge Street could be it. Head chef Stuart Andrew has nailed French food without the faff – just don’t look at the bill and it’s no different to dining in Paris. 64 Goodge Street, London, W1T 4NF | 64goodgestreet.co.uk | 020 3747 6364 20 Berkeley ★★★★☆ Eschewing the kitsch party-restaurant theme that seems compulsory in this part of town, at Mayfair’s 20 Berkeley, executive chef Ben Orpwood and the Creative Restaurant Group promise “the feeling of being in a home, the British Isles your back garden”. Well, if your home is an enormous Georgian-era country manor house in central Mayfair, that is. Navigate this veritable warren and unfold the origami-style menu, though, and you’ll realise this isn’t the same kettle of fish as, ahem, Sexy Fish, Amazonico, Annabel’s or Bacchanalia, to name a few of its noisy neighbours. If the menu is a love letter to excellent British produce, then the language of love is a plump scallop scantily clad in a sliver of lardo, canoodling a hot-in-the-middle black pudding tortellino in a bath of foamy sorrel veloute. It’s the crunch of a deep fried courgette blossom, the slick ooze of the smoky cheese within, a lick of elderflower honey. It’s gently teasing the flesh of a slow-grilled turbot away from the bone, using confit potatoes dribbled in aioli to mop up its juices. We longed for the Herdwick lamb, jutting pink and proud from a tomato fondue, or the brazenly butch rib-eye that prompts sighs of content from a neighbouring table. Alas, bellies full, we allow the Nipperkin bar below and its serious slinger of seriously good cocktails Angelos Bafas (formerly of personal favourite Soma in Soho), to envelop us. First a highball concoction of whisky, meadowsweet, strawberries, Earl Grey and strawberry “paper”, then martinis that don’t mess around, and then… I forget. You know it’s a night to remember when you simply don’t. Mayfair has been calling out for a place like this, and thank god 20 Berkeley answered. 20 Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8EE | 20berkeley.com | 020 3327 3691 Papi ★★★★☆ My visit to Papi, from Hot 4 U’s Matthew Scott and Wingnut Wines’ Charlie Carr, in London Fields, turned out to be a lesson in why pairing your guest with the restaurant is just as essential as pairing Cab Sav with steak. As a not at all cool person, I wanted to bring a cool friend along to cool new Papi – not realising the menu was so heavily seafood focused and forgetting her aversion to anything remotely fishy. At the two-chef counter, within bantering distance of Scott and co, I had a front row seat to all the delicious things we weren’t ordering. A mound of clams drenched in bright, briny red pepper romesco. Huge langoustines, naked but for dashi vinegar and roe. Oysters… sigh. And though I am forced to make decidedly unfishy choices, the food, as the kids say in the part of town, slaps. Rebel coppa with mustard seeds gets us salivating. Hunks of winter tomato (better than summer’s, I’ll be taking no further questions) and shredded shiso leaves are glazed in a holy trinity of kecap manis, black garlic and black vinegar. We lick the plate clean. Scott points out a bottle of the stuff on the counter. I consider necking it. I’m happy to be persuaded out of my resentment for garlic bread when a grilled, fermented (squidgy and cute) potato cake topped with whipped ricotta and wild garlic arrives. If the food is fun to eat, the wine is just as fun to drink (when isn’t it?). For guaranteed great vibes with a dose of nostalgia, you’re in the right place. They’re just as serious about food and wine as they are about a good time. Go hungry, get a counter seat, but, most importantly, don’t take someone who doesn’t like seafood. 1F Mentmore Terrace, London Fields, E8 3DQ | papirestaurant.com | 07961 911 500 Portrait Review by Lucy Thackray ★★★★☆ It’s possible that you’ve never paid much attention to London’s gallery and museum restaurants, but once you start looking for them, there are many. They’re not the edgiest joints in town, nor somewhere you’d drop in for an impromptu bite. Instead, what they’re great for is a gift – an art fix and a posh lunch or dinner as a day out. I have such a food-and-art pairing in mind when I take my dad to The Portrait, the new Richard Corrigan restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery, the final touch to a major three-year renovation of the gallery that finished in June. It certainly is a glow-up, but the light and minimal design lets the view (which is pretty spectacular) and the food do the talking. Here’s what it has to say: instantly intriguing things about artichoke with crab mayonnaise and kombu, “snails bolognaise” over conchigliette, a duck heart vol au vent, pig’s trotter with borlotti beans and something described only as “cauliflower, yeast, seeds” (we skip that one). Much of it is what you’d expect from Corrigan – earthy flavours from the UK and Ireland, plenty of fish and veg, but with a few curiosities thrown in. With dainty-portioned mains at £22-32, there are no bargain bites, but the style of food and the option of set menus (£28 for two courses, £35 for three) feels nicely suited to an exhibition ticket as a present or treat. A meal here can be as good value and restrained or lavish and decadent as you make it – surely true of any day out in the capital. The Portrait Restaurant, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE | theportraitrestaurant.com | 020 3872 7610 Read the full review here Llama Inn ★★★☆☆ That a pisco sour isn’t the first thing on the menu at Shoreditch’s new modern Peruvian restaurant Llama Inn suggests they might be doing things a little differently. The first cocktail on the list is actually a gin “mini-tini” (a trend I shan’t be supporting) with a blue-cheese stuffed olive, which I’m sure would have made for an interesting aperitif had they not run out of blue cheese on the night. Starting my meal with a shot of brine isn’t my usual modus operandi. Ceviche, anticucho and saltado do abound elsewhere, though, with welcome (and some less so) twists. I’m repeatedly recommended the summer fruits ceviche as the best thing on the menu, though I can’t fathom why as vinegary slices of nectarine and melon leave quite a lot to be desired. They should instead recommend the two anticuchos, the cabbage and the octopus, which are chargrilled to perfection and drizzled with delights: sweet miso on the former, spicy-sour on the latter. We swerve the “un poco de todo” (a bit of everything) section on account of two of the four dishes containing pork and my non-pork-eating guest not being swayed by bok choy salad or courgette stew (an oversight that needs correcting). Instead, we’re stunned by the whole fish patarashca, which comes with a quaffable fruity-spicy curry sauce. But for the Gram, you should get the lomo saltado – a mound of stir-fried beef and fries to be wrapped in scallion pancakes. The NYC outpost might have earnt a Michelin Bib Gourmand, but London’s version might struggle to compete. That said, where Llama Inn ever so slightly misses on food, it makes up for in vibes. The hideaway terrace is a romantic spot to while away the last hours of summer. Better to stick to the theme and order a pisco sour. Llama Inn, 1 Willow Street, London, EC2A 4BH | llamainnlondon.com | reservations@llamainnlondon.com Zapote ★★★☆☆ Modern Mexican isn’t typically a catchline that gets me going. Haunting visits to Chiquitos and Wahaca as a teenager haven’t placed the cuisine high up on my list of frequent cravings. There’s a lot of bad tacos out there. But at Zapote, the brainchild of Mexican chef Yahir Gonzalez and hospitality veteran Tony Geary (you can thank him for Sketch), I’m prepared to eat my words… and a fair few tacos. The tortillas are knocked out fresh every day for the purposes of mopping up smooth and zingy guacamole, surfing under yellowfin tuna and spicy crab (piquant, fishy, delicious), and hosting beef tartare, which comes with a side of roast bone marrow in case you felt the bread-to-meat ratio was off. Arguably its best role is in a basket alongside thick slices of just-charred lamb neck on a smoked aubergine and tamarind puree. Some are hits, others are misses. Cutting a single tortilla in half to share with my date in full view of an open kitchen full of chefs seems like sacrilege, though. Stray from the tacos, however, and Zapote comes into its own. The scallop ceviche, that so overdone dish, here shines with persimmon, orange and grilled corn. Sweet white crab and black bean pozole, served in the shell, initially confuses the palate, then develops in flavour like a polaroid of old Mexico. Baby artichokes that cut like butter are also very good, served with a dollop of pipian verde, that bedrock mole. Wash it down with a Mezcal margarita and you’ll be saying, “Wahaca, who?!” If the food could do with some finessing, so could the setting. A backdrop of terracotta walls, murals and cacti fails to make the extraordinarily large space, formerly occupied by the ill-fated St Leonards, feel as intimate as its menu. When they say there’s a “bar area”, what they mean is they’ve just cordoned off some of the tables with a little curtain. There’s simply more they could do with the space. And yet, where most middling dining experiences put me off a return visit, there was just enough mystery that I could be tempted back. 70 Leonard Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 4QX | zapote.co.uk | 020 7613 5942 Epicurus Review by Kate Ng ★★★☆☆ Camden has long been known as the spiritual home for misfits. It’s also where punky pair and Israeli chefs Shiri Kraus and Amir Batito have opened their restaurants, The Black Cow and the newer Epicurus, just minutes away from each other. Like its older sister, Epicurus takes its culinary cues from across the pond – this time putting an Israeli twist on the all-American diner. The punny menu includes delights such as the “Oof Gozal” – chicken wings coated in a yellow Amba mango and Scotch bonnet sauce. Despite the fearsome chilli, these wings are barely spicy, favouring the flavour of the Scotch bonnet over the heat. They are incredibly moreish and the fact that your fingers end up being absolutely covered in sauce is only an invitation to get licking. You should also definitely get the “Papi Chulo”, a mix of crunchy deep-fried okra and soft padron peppers covered in spices that come with a lemony-garlicky-chilli aioli for dipping. Another honourable mention goes to the Epicurus single decker burger, which is also available as a double. It contains some of the richest, fattiest ingredients I’ve ever seen between buns, like bone marrow aioli and Baron cheese, and it does border on being a bit too unctuous. Boy, am I glad there’s no calorie counts on this menu. Is it worth elbowing your way through the thronging crowds of Camden Lock Market to get to Epicurus? I think it will be. Never mind the cheap tat and endless boba tea shops, head to Epicurus for a tasty escape. Unit 90, The North Yard, Camden Stables Market, NW1 8AH | epicuruscamden.co.uk | 07843 199560 Read the full review here Casa do Frango ★★★☆☆ Just a few months ago, I was touring the Algarve on the trail of authentic piri piri (I know, it’s a hard life). Days were well spent gorging on the local speciality of reverse-spatchcocked chicken brushed thrice with chilli oil and glugging local vino verde. It rained most of the time, if that helps. Back in London, though, and similar offerings are slim but the weather is much the same. Portuguese, alongside Spanish and those other misunderstood Mediterranean cuisines, and particularly the food of the Algarve is not well represented in the capital. Except at Casa do Frango, which literally translates to “chicken house”, and is strictly Algarvan. Say no more, I’m there, at their newest location in Victoria, to be precise. Don’t expect mind-blowing, out-there cuisine but do expect a truly authentic taste of the Algarve. The perfect order looks like this: order something drenched in their secret recipe piri piri oil to start (the prawns will do) and dip hunks of sourdough into it because… obviously. The main event is the piri piri half chicken (also comes in oregano or lemon and garlic for the spice intolerant/wimps out there). Shred that between two of you along with the African rice – with chorizo, plantain and shards of crispy chicken skin – and a salad, then finish with a chocolate mousse, an Algarvan classic found in most chicken houses. Stay within these strict parameters and you’ll understand why millions of Brits flock to Portugal’s southern tip every year. There’s various other things on the menu and seasonal updates but let’s not pretend like you’re here for anything other than chicken. Like I said, minds won’t be blown but a good time will be had. The wine is also decent – strictly Portuguese with some great Douro Valley reds but the wonderfully acidic world of vino verde, particularly their exclusive Boa Pingo, is worth a visit. Sir Simon Milton Square, London, SW1E 5DJ | casadofrango.co.uk/victoria | 020 3943 7777 | victoria@casadofrango.co.uk Read More The dish that defines me: Michele Pascarella’s Neapolitan ragu Seven super simple recipes for each day of National Rice Week Three healthy recipes to get back on track after summer Is bottomless prosecco going to be killed off by climate change? Budget Bites: Three ways to pimp up university student classics Epicurus: American fast food meets the Middle East in Camden Market

Diablo 4 Patch 1.04 will add Uniques to the Helltide Chests loot table, a wanted change that should help with item farming.

Kylie and Kendall Jenner have left some of their fans baffled after joining up to dress as an obscure double act for Halloween. With the spooky holiday upon us, celebrities everywhere have gone all out on their costumes, dressing up as everyone from Britney Spears to Morticia Addams. Many made reference to pop culture icons such as Tina Turner and Marilyn Monroe with the costumes, but sisters Kylie and Kendall caused confusion after dressing as Sugar and Spice from Batman Forever. In a TikTok video, the pair wore their black and white costumes and reenacted a Halloween-themed scene from the film Mean Girls. Kylie wore a black leotard with a red and black wig, while sister Kendall wore a white leotard and white cape with a curled blonde wig. However, it seems some fans were not clued up on who the Jenner sisters were supposed to be dressed up as, as one person commented on social media, saying: “Who are they though?” @kyliejenner sugar & spice Who are Sugar and Spice from Batman Forever? In the 1995 film, Batman Forever, Sugar and Spice were two female characters portrayed by the actresses Drew Barrymore and Debi Mazar. They were characters created to be lovers and molls for Two-Face (aka Harvey Dent), played by Tommy Lee Jones, and able to appeal to both his good and bad side. Sugar and Spice also made an appearance in season 4 of Harley Quinn this year, making it the first time the character pair have been featured in a DC project in 12 years. Despite not knowing the reference to the characters they were dressed as fans of the Jenners nonetheless heaped praise on the pair. On TikTok, one fan commented: “I don’t know what this is but it ATE”. Another person wrote: “I [definitely] thought they were trying to be the drag twins Sugar and Spice lol.” Someone else commented: “For the ones asking Sugar and Spice costumes are inspired by the Batman Forever movie!” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

In Manchester City training sessions, the staff can already sense the same mood that was so striking before the games against Arsenal and Real Madrid. There is that “right kind of conviction”, that is so specific to the circumstances of the fixture. For the 4-1 over Arsenal, it was the aim of reclaiming the title they felt was theirs. For the 4-0 over Madrid, it was revenge for what happened at the Bernabeu last season. Now, it is the memory of 2021, and finally putting right what has always gone so wrong in the Champions League. That focused intensity can be seen in the players, above all Kevin De Bruyne. The feeling is that City will come out at thFce Ataturk Stadium with full fury, and not give Internazionale even a chance to settle, let alone get on the ball. If that is the case, it could well be worse than either Arsenal or Madrid. The 68th Champions League final could even be one that surpasses the four-goal victories of 1960, 1989, 1994 and the 1974 replay. It’s hard not to think City could render it a procession by the first half-hour, just as they have done so often in the last three months. What Simone Inzaghi is banking on, though, is if that doesn’t happen. If it gets to even 25 minutes and Inter have dug deep to not let City in, there is the chance that doubt could creep back in; that it could feel like it's going to be another of those nights; that there is something about this competition that is now fated for Pep Guardiola. That is when we might see one of those occasions when players like Alessandro Bastoni and Andre Onana stand defiant, when Inter display the kind of emotional intensity that characterised their own last victory in the Champions League, in 2010. That is when we might have a game, rather than a last formality to be fulfilled for City. It says much, however, that so much of the discussion around whether Inter can win ultimately goes to the nebulous; to football’s inherent capacity for unpredictability. City have already done quite a job of brutalising that concept this season, just as they have brutalised most of the best opposition. That has been just one factor in making this the most mismatched final since at least 2002 and that between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, but probably even much further back. Inter may be one of the great European names, aiming for their fourth Champions League, but they can only be described as a good team at best. That has meant they have defied a lot of modern football norms to even get this far. By contrast, City are the most lavishly funded project the sport has yet seen, to the point a feat as traditionally elusive as the treble now almost seems an inevitability. The club’s hierarchy have certainly planned it like that since the 2008 takeover. While the first decade was intended to provide the platform to win repeat Premier Leagues, the second has been intended to win repeat Champions Leagues. City now stand on the brink of the club’s first European Cup, and becoming the 23rd different name on the trophy. That will be celebrated with relish and relief by a group of superb players who have been through a lot. The club and Guardiola may have a long history of frustration in the Champions League, but the depth of feeling has partly been because they have so often been the best side in Europe. City should have lifted the trophy in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, and in 2020 certainly shouldn’t have lost to Lyon. The wider point is that a feat of this scale could have easily happened in almost any of those years. And if it doesn’t happen this year, it could well happen next year. Or the year after that. It would still be wrong not to admit that 2023 is as good a chance as City will ever have to win it, certainly in this way. And if the Champions League final is itself an occasion that naturally serves as a barometer for where the game is, few bring together as many strands as this one in Istanbul. The time and place are telling, especially as regards the use of the game by political and financial influences. President Recep Erdogan’s government finally gets its grand showpiece after two Covid-enforced postponements, but amid criticism for “democratic backsliding”. Uefa had no confirmed guest list as of Friday evening, but it was understood that invitations were extended to several heads of state. One of those who was reported to have accepted, to congratulate Erdogan on his election win, is United Arab Emirates president Mohamed bin Zayed. He is the elder brother of City’s named owner Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, although the club is now widely seen as an Abu Dhabi “sportswashing” project. It would be a historic landmark for a state club to finally win the European Cup. It also wouldn't necessarily be for the good of the sport. This is very different to the City that historically charmed the sport, or even their great title winners of 1968. Many have raised related issues about Inter, though, since financial issues of the past few years have ensured the club is part-owned by the Chinese state through a holding company. That may not be for reasons of “soft power” or “sportswashing”, and there is no influence, but it should feed into an ongoing debate about the ownership of football clubs and where the game is going in that regard. For this final, it has created another strand that reflects so much about the state of the sport in 2023. That is a huge financial gap, of the type that has now economically tiered football to an unprecedented degree, and fed into the very erosion of unpredictability that makes a City victory feel so likely. The game is meanwhile facing a series of legitimacy issues, one of them involving the potential European champions. City have been charged with 115 breaches of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules, to go with Barcelona being charged regarding payments to former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira and Juventus having 10 Serie A points deducted in a new ruling by the Italian football federation’s court after an investigation into the club’s transfer dealings found evidence of false accounting. Such complicated stories are a long way from the elemental glory this grandiose fixture has traditionally conjured. This is where we are. The current players and managers would of course say that all they can do is go out and perform “on the pitch”. That is where there is still some intrigue to a fixture so many see as a foregone conclusion. Guardiola has after all undercut foregone conclusions in the past by overthinking. Back in 2021, the final that frames so much of this, Thomas Tuchel was “shocked” when he got the City team sheet on the Chelsea bus and saw there was no defensive midfielder on the screen. It has this week led to some jokes among the City players and staff for Guardiola not to do similar. The Catalan even acknowledged this with a laugh on the club’s media day. It just shouldn’t be an issue this time. Guardiola has never been so clear on his team. This is, despite 52 goals, maybe the main value of Haaland. It is so obvious where he has to play that Guardiola ultimately worked back from that to come up with a formation that has made City almost unstoppable. It fittingly involved going back to the Catalan’s football roots, too. After hours in front of screens, Guardiola realised the way to maximise his attack with Haaland was to introduce the “defensive box” that Johan Cruyff did to win Barcelona their first Champions League in 1992. The current City manager played at the top of that. It gave him his only Champions League medal as a player and may now give him his third as a manager, bringing so much full circle. That is, of course, unless Inter square that circle. While it would obviously be preposterous to say Inzaghi’s side are the last that City would want to face, they do have qualities that pose very specific challenges to Guardiola’s approach. The Catalan and his staff always seek to impose their game on any team but with very specific adaptations for the opposition within that. Inzaghi has made that difficult because Inter are almost a throwback in how they constantly adapt to the opposition to such an extreme degree. The manager never plays the same way twice, in the words of those within the squad. Inzaghi knows this game is only really going to go one way, and probably quite furiously from the off. The vast majority of the match will take place within 30 metres of Onana’s goal. That is where Haaland may prove his most symbolic value, as he offers that finish that City have so often lacked on such occasions. It is also why one of Inter’s main defensive approaches will be to draw the Norwegian into physical battles so as to distract him. Inzaghi does have plenty of individuals who can stand up in such ways. There are a lot of “old warriors”, ready to rise to the occasion or looking for some kind of redemption. Much will revolve around two forwards with so much knowledge of the Premier League, in former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko and the on-loan Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian was lampooned for his World Cup performances but they were a product of rushing back too quickly. The flip side is that he is now in his best form since leaving Inter the first time. Lukaku is one player who is capable of wreaking havoc in the space left by City. Federico Dimarco is then capable of suddenly surging in out of nowhere. This is all what Inzaghi is seeking to play on, as he gets his team to focus on their own qualities rather than fixate on City’s. Inter certainly aren’t looking at this as an occasion they should just be happy to be involved in again. They are enjoying a real momentum from this run, going right back to an extraordinarily difficult group, and see themselves as a classic Champions League team. That means they see themselves as winners. Most people looking on can’t see anything other than a City victory. Judging from the atmosphere around Istanbul compared to previous finals, it is difficult to remember one where there was so little sense of contest, if not occasion. That might all just be set-up, though. This stadium’s only other Champions League final offered up the greatest sensation in the competition's history, with Liverpool's 3-3 comeback against Milan in 2005. This one might similarly display football’s eternal ability to amaze us. Or, it might be a landmark for how it’s going in the future. Read More The trick that made Erling Haaland the ultimate finisher – in more ways than one How to cure ‘City-itis’? Pep Guardiola has new template to end Champions League woe Inter and the impossible task of the Champions League final Erling Haaland’s best time of all comes in the competition Man City signed him to win The fresh perspective driving Kevin De Bruyne to Champions League glory How John Stones sparked his Man City revival by looking in the mirror

Who has the advantage in head-to-head matchups: Ohio State or Notre Dame? Discover the answer and delve into the history between these teams.

The Sudanese government has declared United Nations envoy Volker Perthes "persona non grata", two weeks after the army chief accused him of stoking the country's civil conflict and sought to...