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Who is in Europa League?

Twelve teams qualify directly for the league phase of the Europa League, with one slot also reserved for UEFA Conference League title holders, Crystal Palace.

A further 12 sides secure their places by qualifying through the play-off round. The 36-team line-up is completed by 11 losing teams transferring from the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round and play-offs.

Qualified teams: AC Milan, AZ Alkmaar, Bayer Leverkusen, Bournemouth, Celta Vigo, Crystal Palace, Hoffenheim, Juventus, Marseille, Olympiacos, Real Sociedad, Rennes, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz, Sunderland, Torreense, Union Saint-Gilloise

Teams who could play Europa League if they lose in the Champions League play-off round: AEK Athens, Bodo/Glimt, Celje, Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Fenerbahce, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, LASK, Levski Sofia, Lyon, NEC Breda, Sabah, Slovan Bratislava, Viking Stavanger.

Teams who could play Europa League if they win in the Europa Lague play-off round: Aarhus, Anderlecht, Ararat-Armenia, Benfica, Besiktas, Crvena Zvezda, CSKA Sofia, Egnatia, Ferencvaros, Iberia Tblisi, Jagiellonia, Kairat Almaty, Kauno Zalgiris, Lech Poznan, Lillestrom, Mjallby, OFI Crete, Omonia, Salzburg, Sint-Truidense, Thun, Trabzonspor, Union Craiova, Viktoria Plzen.

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• Premier League fixtures

Who is in Conference League?

All 36 teams enter the league phase via qualifying, with none directly through.

Teams who could play Conference League if they win in the Conference League play-off round: Ajax, Atalanta, Austria Vienna, Borac, Braga, Brann, Brighton, FC Copenhagen, Dinamo City, Drita, Freiburg, Gent, Getafe, Gornik Zabrze, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Hajduk Split, Hearts, Hibernian, Hradec Kralove, Inter Escaldes, Inter Turku, Jablonec, Klaksvik, Kups Kuopio, Lincoln Red Imps, Larne, Lugano, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Midtjylland, Monaco, Motherwell, Nordsjaelland, Pafos, Panathinaikos, PAOK, Partizan, Qarabag, Rakow, Rangers, Riga, Rijeka, Shamrock Rovers, Sion, SK Rapid, St Gallen, Tromso, Twente, Vikingur Rekjavik.

Teams who could play Conference League if they lose in the Europa League play-off round: Aarhus, Anderlecht, Ararat-Armenia, Benfica, Besiktas, Crvena Zvezda, CSKA Sofia, Egnatia, Ferencvaros, Iberia Tblisi, Jagiellonia, Kairat Almaty, Kauno Zalgiris, Lech Poznan, Lillestrom, Mjallby, OFI Crete, Omonia, Salzburg, Sint-Truidense, Thun, Trabzonspor, Union Craiova, Viktoria Plzen.

How does the league phase work in the Europa League and Conference League?

In the Europa League, every club is guaranteed a minimum of eight league-stage games against eight different opponents, with four games home and four away.

In the Conference League though, each side will face six different teams, with three games at home and three away.

In both tournaments, the top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout stages, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure a place in the last 16 of the competition.

Teams ranked 25-36 are eliminated from all competitions.

How many teams can you face from any one nation?

In the league phase, teams cannot face opponents from their own country and can face a maximum of two sides from the same country.

When are the league phase games?

Europa League

Matchday 1: September 16/17

Matchday 2: October 15

Matchday 3: October 22

Matchday 4: November 5

Matchday 5: November 26

Matchday 6: December 10

Matchday 7: January 21, 2027

Matchday 8: January 28, 2027

Conference League

Matchday 1: October 15

Matchday 2: October 22

Matchday 3: November 5

Matchday 4: November 26

Matchday 5: December 10

Matchday 6: December 17

The key dates

The 2026/27 Europa League final will take place on May 26, 2027 at the Stadion Frankfurt in Germany, while the Conference League final is scheduled for June 2, 2025 at Besiktas Park in Istanbul.

Europa League

Knockout round play-offs: February 18 & 25, 2027

Round of 16: March 11 & 18, 2027

Quarter-finals: April 8 & 15, 2027

Semi-finals: April 29 & May 6, 2027

Final: May 26, 2027 (Stadion Frankfurt, Germany)

Conference League

Knockout round play-offs: February 18 & 25, 2027

Round of 16: March 11 & 18, 2027

Quarter-finals: April 8 & 15, 2027

Semi-finals: April 29 & May 6, 2027

Final: June 2, 2027 (Besiktas Park, Istanbul, Turkey) %!s()

That includes a case of deja-vu with an all-Premier League clash between Nottingham Forest and Leeds on Tuesday, as Oliver Glasner's side look to get revenge from their late league defeat at the City Ground only three days earlier.

On Wednesday, you can see Newcastle hope to clinch a first win under Matthias Jaissle when West Brom visit St James' Park, while Tottenham look to bounce back from a 3-0 humbling at Brentford at home to early Championship pace-setters Charlton.

The same night, David Moyes will make his first return to Deepdale since leaving Preston in 2002 when he visits with Everton, before Chelsea host Luton and Fulham likewise with AFC Wimbledon in Thursday's double header.

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Second-round schedule in full

All ties kick off at 7.45pm (BST) unless stated otherwise

August 25

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• Cardiff vs Norwich - kick-off 7pm
• Doncaster vs Middlesbrough - kick-off 7.30pm
• Barnsley vs Crewe
• Blackburn vs Sheffield United
• Blackpool vs Lincoln
• Cambridge vs Millwall
• Fleetwood vs Shrewsbury
• Ipswich vs Leicester
• Plymouth vs Coventry
• Sheffield Wednesday vs Wolves
• Southampton vs West Ham
• Stevenage vs Reading
• Stoke vs Hull
• Walsall vs Leyton Orient
• Watford vs Peterborough
• Birmingham vs Brentford - kick-off 8pm

August 26

• Bradford vs Burnley
• Newcastle vs West Brom
• Tottenham vs Charlton
• Preston vs Everton - kick-off 8pm

August 27

• Chelsea vs Luton - kick-off 7.30pm
• Fulham vs AFC Wimbledon - kick-off 8pm

Catch up with all the goals so far!

Keep across all the first-round ties with drama, action and goals as sides from the Championship, League One and League Two sought a spot in the second round.

You can catch up with all the highlights here

How to watch the Carabao Cup on Sky Sports

Sky Sports customers can watch matches on Sky Sports+, with games available on the Sky Sports app and the Sky Sports website.

In case you can't be in front of a TV, you can still keep up with all of the action with our dedicated first-round blog on Saturday, plus plenty more live blogs throughout the competition.

The competition will continue throughout the season, with round two taking place in the week commencing August 24.

The nine Premier League sides in Europe - Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Brighton, Sunderland and Crystal Palace - come in for the third round.

See the full Carabao Cup first-round draw and schedule on Sky Sports

Carabao Cup 2026/27 round dates

Round two: w/c August 24

Round three: w/c September 7 and w/c September 14

Round four: w/c October 26

Round five: w/c December 14

Semi-final first leg: w/c January 11

Semi-final second leg: w/c February 1

Final: Sunday March 21 %!s()

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Those supporters have seen the side suffer 14 defeats in their last 19 Tests after last week's three-day, innings-and-103-run drubbing by England in the series opener at Headingley.

The tourists were loose and ineffective with the ball, poor with the bat and awful in the field - a damaging cocktail.

• England romp to three-day win on Joe Root's captaincy return
• England player ratings: Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue star
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Ahead of the second game at Lord's from Thursday - live on Sky Sports Cricket (10am on air, 11am first ball) - Osman Samiuddin, a senior editor at Cricinfo and Pakistan cricket expert, joined Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

Samiuddin explained where he thinks things have gone wrong for Pakistan as cricket in the country reaches an "alarm bells stage" with fans "fed up" at how the game is being run…

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Too much change with domestic structure

OSMAN SAYS: "Whichever structure you choose - there has been a great battle in Pakistan over the last 50 years, really, about whether you should have departmental or regional sides - I would pick one and stick with it, say this structure stays for the next 10, 12 years.

"They have changed structure almost every single season since the first first-class season in 1953. There has been no stability.

Also See:

• Listen to the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast

• Stream England vs Pakistan with NOW

• All today's cricket scorecards

• Download the Sky Sports app

"We cut from 16 to six teams in 2019-20, then expanded to 16 teams with four first-class tournaments and three white-ball tournaments.

"When they cut down in 2019, they literally lost half their first-class cricketer pool. There were stories of players taking up driving taxis as, overnight, they didn't have a career.

"That drastic change every season has impacted the quality of domestic cricket, which is where you get your talent from.

"Domestic tournaments used to be played across 16 first-class grounds. For the last few years, they have been at about four or five.

"How are batters like Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq supposed to work out how to play in different conditions playing at four grounds?"

More Tests needed?

Samiuddin also said Pakistan do not play enough Test matches. The side have not had a double-figure number of Tests in a calendar year since 2017, while only Sri Lanka (4), Ireland (3) and Afghanistan (2) played fewer than their five matches in 2025. They are scheduled to play nine games in 2026.

Issues with administration and management of players

OSMAN SAYS: "A lot of it is self-inflicted.

"Since 2021, we have had four chairmen - Ramiz Raja, Najam Sethi, Zaka Ashraf and now Mohsin Naqvi - with very different views and very different levels of involvement in the game.

"The current chairman is also the interior minister of the country. Pakistan has a lot of interior-minister issues on any given day so he is fairly busy with his day job. You wonder how much time he has for cricket?

"Shaheen Shah Afridi, Babar Azam, Abdullah Shafique, Naseem Shah...

"So many of these players have burst onto the scene and then regressed. There is a feeling that golden talents have not hit the heights we are expecting them to hit and maybe never will.

"There is only one reason, really, for that regression and that is how the PCB manages their careers.

"They haven't managed them well enough whether through injury or basic player development stuff. There has been a succession of managements that haven't brought their best players on.

"There is no reason Shaheen and Naseem should not be leading Pakistan's pace attack but Naseem has not played a Test since December 2024 and Shaheen has played nine of 27 Tests since coming back from a knee injury.

"Shaheen injured his knee in a Test in Sri Lanka in 2022 fielding. There was a lot of confusion over the rehab and he was maybe rushed back.

"He has been hit by constant changes in the coaching set-up, never knowing who his coach is, who the bowling coach is, for example.

"He has hardly played a first-class game in three years and a fast bowler, you would think, would need to keep bowling to build your body up. Same for Naseem.

"What has become acute over the last five, six years is how wasteful Pakistan is of its talent. There has always been a certain amount of waste - it is not efficient - but that waste has increased more and more rapidly."

Samiuddin also noted how Naseem and Shaheen - not part of this Test squad - have been unceremoniously dropped at times without explanation, saying that "messes with a player's career."

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Can fans be won back?

It was noticeable in Leeds how sparse the Pakistan support was and Samiuddin says patience with the governance is wearing thin.

He added: "I have heard more from fans anecdotally, not that they are angry at the team or because they are losing, but that they are fed up with how Pakistan cricket is being run. I suspect people will still turn up at Lord's to watch them.

"But it is dwindling and I think we are at an alarm-bells-ringing danger-point where if it goes on like this then you may think cricket will go the way hockey has gone in Pakistan and the way cricket is going in the West Indies, for example."

Watch day one of the second Test between England and Pakistan, at Lord's, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10am Thursday (11am first ball). Stream with NOW.

England vs Pakistan Test series schedule

All games live on Sky Sports; all 11am starts UK and Ireland

• First Test (Headingley) - England won by innings and 103 runs
• Second Test (Lord's) - August 27-31
• Third Test (Edgbaston) - September 9-13

On one hand, the change will align YouTube with the way platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X count their video views. It also eliminates a dual system where longer YouTube videos and YouTube Shorts were measured differently. The new system aligns with that of Shorts, where views include the number of times a video starts to play or replay, regardless of duration.

Under the new metric, for example the record-breaking 718 million views Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s first trailer racked up in its first 24 hours in March would likely be multiples higher were it released today. (And thus any “trailer sets a new record” claims going forward should have a disclaimer about the way YouTube measures views.)

Just as important, however — and maybe moreso to creators and advertisers — is what’s not changing. While the numbers underneath videos will generally be bigger, the metrics underlying whether and how much YouTube creators get paid aren’t tied to them.

Creators still need to have at least a thousand subscribers and a threshold of “qualified” views (for YouTube Shorts) or watch hours (for longer videos) to qualify for YouTube’s partner program. Earnings, in turn, are based on what YouTube calls engaged Shorts views or engaged watch hours. That metric counts viewers who stick around after the first few seconds of a video (not including loops).

Just as TV ratings don’t fully account for the fortunes of a series, raw view counts for YouTube videos have never provided a full window into the (monetary) success of a creator or channel. Changing the public view count just pushes those metrics further behind the curtain. %!s()

Image: Rockstar Games

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We're nearly a week into the unprecedented Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks, with no sign of the perputrators slowing down. The unusual situation has pushed Rockstar, the developer, into totally new territory. And as Cyberleek, the hackers, continue to evade identification, the group has started to become emboldened by the anonymity and leverage.

Normally, when a leak of a high-profile game occurs, publishers submit DMCA takedown requests to prevent media from continuing to proliferate online. GTA 6 publisher Take-Two has done as much, yet the leaks have persisted. A major reason is the way the hacking group is disseminating information. Cyberleek is hosting the leak site via Arweave, a decentralized protocol that retains information permanently. Data uploaded to Arweave is stored and replicated by miners, similar to how cryptocurrency networks operate. In theory, this means that it is impossible to fully remove the Cyberleek website — provided the hackers paid a one-time charge. The nature of this GTA 6 leak is the first of its kind, so there's no precedent for how to control it.

There's been some confusion around this, as some people attempting to visit the website can only see, "Requested content blocked by this node's content policy. Blocked ID: cyberleek." The website, in this case, hasn't been pulled. It is still accessible via different gateways on the storage network. This is why totally new clips of GTA 6 have surfaced online despite what appears to be a takedown.

Image: Rockstar Games

Rockstar and Take-Two haven't sat by idly, however. In addition to last week's subpoenas against Microsoft and Discord in an attempt to uncover the hacking group's identity, the publisher has most recently issued a court order against social media site X to do the same. And though the game proprietors have remained mum publicly, internally, it's a different story. A Bloomberg report claims that leaders at Rockstar are "angry" that the game has suffered a second set of leaks. The game had already suffered a major leak back in 2023, leading the developer to adopt stricter security measures. The new protocols did not help prevent the latest set of leaks. As of yet, the publisher has not determined how the breach occurred. Workers at the company are feeling "frustrated and exhausted," according to Bloomberg.

Since that report came out, things have only worsened. The hacking group changed its Contact page to offer potential ad placements and custom-made gameplay for an undisclosed charge. In addition to holding fan votes on what to release next, Cyberleek has also started monetizing those choices. The recent strip club leak only occurred after fans were able to raise Cyberleek's cryptocurrency to a market cap of $3 million. It seemingly only took hours for the group to raise those millions.

The latest nude town leak goes one step further. In addition to encouraging a fan vote, there is an extra stipulation before Cyberleek will release more footage. "To show support, at least 10 gamers need to show up dressed as leeks in front of Take2/Rock* offices holding game discs during working hours."

The hacking group has asserted that they are motivated by a desire to punish Take-Two and Rockstar for the decision to release GTA 6 without a physical disc. Despite that apparent activist bent, as time has gone on, the hacking group has taken every opportunity to line its own pockets. It remains to be seen if anyone will actually fulfill Cyberleek's demand to mock Rockstar and Take-Two on their own turf, but it's not impossible. Just a few months ago, a YouTuber was arrested after attempting to walk into Rockstar's Edinburgh office.

Polygon has reached out to Rockstar for comment on the escalating situation. %!s()