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Postecoglou Wants Ambition from Tottenham After Europa League Success 

Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - May 25, 2025 Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou with the Europa League trophy during a lap of appreciation after the match. (Action Images via Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - May 25, 2025 Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou with the Europa League trophy during a lap of appreciation after the match. (Action Images via Reuters)
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Postecoglou Wants Ambition from Tottenham After Europa League Success 

Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - May 25, 2025 Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou with the Europa League trophy during a lap of appreciation after the match. (Action Images via Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - May 25, 2025 Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou with the Europa League trophy during a lap of appreciation after the match. (Action Images via Reuters)

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has urged the club to show ambition after ending its 17-year trophy drought as he awaits a decision on whether he will stay on for a third season at the English team.

Tottenham claimed its first piece of major silverware since 2008 by beating Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final last month, earning in the process a spot in next season’s Champions League.

Postecoglou remains in the dark about his future, though, with his status affected by Tottenham’s 17th-placed finish — its lowest since the Premier League was founded in 1992.

In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. published Monday while on a family holiday in Greece, Postecoglou said he hasn’t wanted to let the club “just enjoy the moment” because he “wanted us to think about what’s next.”

“Don’t settle for this,” he told ABC’s Australian Story. “We’ve got a taste of it now. My players have got a taste for it. The club’s got a taste for it. Well, let’s make sure we’re back here again.”

Those comments explain why, during Tottenham’s trophy parade, the 59-year-old Australian declared in front of tens of thousands of fans in north London: “Season three is always better than season two.”

However, away from winning the Europa League, Tottenham has been on a downward trajectory in the Premier League since the team’s strong start to Postecoglou’s first season in charge.

This season, he clearly made Europa League success the priority over results in the Premier League, rotating heavily and protecting the fitness of various key players.

Tottenham lost 22 of its 38 league games and that woeful record has increased the scrutiny and pressure on Postecoglou.

“That was when the laser focus came in,” Postecoglou said when explaining why he essentially sacrificed the league. “Every decision I made was around, ‘Well, how do we navigate this to get to where we want to?’”

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Verona Prepares its Ancient Arena for the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday

A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
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Verona Prepares its Ancient Arena for the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday

A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A city forever associated with Romeo and Juliet, Verona will host the final act of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday inside the ancient Roman Arena, where some 1,500 athletes will celebrate their feats against a backdrop of Italian music and dance.

Acclaimed ballet dancer Roberto Bolle has been rehearsing for the closing ceremony inside the Arena di Verona this week under a veil of secrecy, along with some 350 volunteers, for a spectacle titled “Beauty in Motion," which frames beauty as something inherently dynamic.

“Beauty cannot be fixed in time. This ancient monument is beautiful if it is alive, if it continues to change,” said the ceremony's producer, Alfredo Accatino. “This is what we want to narrate: An Italy that is changing, and also the beauty of movement, the beauty of sport and the beauty of nature."

Other headlining Italian artists include singer Achille Lauro and DJ Gabry Ponte, whose hits could be heard blasting from the Arena during rehearsals this week.

Inside a tent serving as a dressing room, seamstresses put the finishing touches on costumes inspired by the opera world as volunteers prepped for the stage, The Associated Press reported.

“It’s really special to be inside the Arena,” said Matilde Ricchiuto, a student from a local dance school. "Usually, I am there as a spectator and now I get to be a star, I would say. I feel super special.”

The Arena has been a venue for popular entertainment since it was first built in 1 A.D., predating the larger Roman Colosseum by decades. Accatino said the ancient monument will produce some surprises from within its vast tunnels.

“Under the Arena there is a mysterious world that hides everything that has happened. At a certain point, this world will come out," Accatino said, promising “something very beautiful."

The ceremony will open with athletes parading triumphantly through Piazza Bra into the Arena, which once served as a stage for gladiator fights and hunts for exotic beasts.

The closing ceremony stage was inspired by a drop of water, meant to symbolically unite the Olympic mountain venues with the Po River Valley, where Milan and Verona are located, while serving as a reminder that the Winter Games are being reshaped by climate change.

While the opening ceremony was held in Milan, the other host city, Cortina d’Ampezzo, nestled in the Dolomite mountains, was considered too small and remote to host the closing ceremony. Verona, in the same Veneto region as Cortina, was chosen for its unique venue and relatively central location, said Maria Laura Iascone, the local organizing committee's head of ceremonies.

“Only Italians can use such monuments to do special events, so this is very unique, very rare," Iascone said of the Arena.

She promised a more intimate evening than the opening ceremony in Milan's San Siro soccer stadium, with about 12,000 people attending the closing compared with more than 60,000 for the opening.

Iascone said about 1,500 of the nearly 3,000 athletes participating in the most spread-out Winter Games in Olympic history are expected to drive a little over an hour from Milan and between two and four hours from the six mountain venues.

The ceremony will close with the Olympic flame being extinguished. A light show will substitute fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona to protect animals from being disturbed.

The Verona Arena will also be the venue for the Paralympic opening ceremony on March 6. For the ceremonies, the ancient Arena has been retrofitted with new wheelchair ramps and accessible restrooms along with other safety upgrades. The six Paralympic events will be held in Milan and Cortina until March 15.

Sports

Arsenal Blows 2-goal Lead at Wolves to Boost Man City's Premier League Title Chances

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn
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Arsenal Blows 2-goal Lead at Wolves to Boost Man City's Premier League Title Chances

Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn
Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - February 18, 2026 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Edozie celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Chris Radburn

Arsenal blew a two-goal lead at last-place Wolves on Wednesday to give a huge boost to Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title.

The league leader was held to a surprise 2-2 draw at Molineux, having led 2-0 in the second half.

Teenage debutant Tom Edozie scored in the fourth minute of added time to complete Wolves' comeback.

“There was a big difference in how we played in the first half and the second half. We dropped our standards and we got punished for it,” Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka told the BBC.

The draw means Arsenal has dropped points in back-to-back games and leaves it just five ahead of second-place City, having played a game more.

With the top two still to play each other at City's Etihad Stadium, the title race is too close to call.

“(It's) time to focus on ourselves, improve our standards and improve our performances and it is in our control,” Saka said.

Arsenal has led the way for the majority of the season and one bookmaker paid out on Mikel Arteta's team winning the title after it opened up a nine-point lead earlier this month.

But Wednesday's result was the latest sign that it is feeling the pressure, having finished runner-up in each of the last three seasons. It has won just two of its last seven league games.

Having blown a lead against Brentford last week, it was even worse at a Wolves team that has won just one game all season.

Victory looked all but secured after Saka gave Arsenal the lead with a header in the fifth minute and Piero Hincapie ran through to blast in the second in the 56th.

But Wolves' fightback began with Hugo Bueno's curling shot into the top corner in the 61st.

The 19-year-old Edozie was sent on as a substitute in the 84th and his effort earned the home team only its 10th point of a campaign that looks certain to end in relegation.

While it did little for Wolves' chances of survival, it may have had a major impact at the top of the standings.

“Incredibly disappointed that we gave two points away,” Arteta said. "I think we need to fault ourselves and give credit to Wolves. But what we did in the second half was nowhere near our standards that we have to play in order to win a game in the Premier League.

“When you don’t perform you can get punished, and we got punished and we have to accept the hits because that can happen when you are on top."

Arsenal plays Tottenham on Sunday. Its lead could be cut to two points before it kicks off if City wins against Newcastle on Saturday.

Sports

Sinner Sees off Popyrin to Reach Doha Quarters

Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Sinner Sees off Popyrin to Reach Doha Quarters

Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner greets the fans after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in their men's singles match at the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 18, 2026. (AFP)

Jannik Sinner powered past Alexei Popyrin in straight sets on Wednesday to reach the last eight of the Qatar Open and edge closer to a possible final meeting with Carlos Alcaraz.

The Italian, playing his first tournament since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals last month, eased to a 6-3, 7-5 second-round win in Doha.

Sinner will play Jakub Mensik in Thursday's quarter-finals.

Australian world number 53 Popyrin battled gamely but failed to create a break-point opportunity against his clinical opponent.

Sinner dropped just three points on serve in an excellent first set which he took courtesy of a break in the sixth game.

Popyrin fought hard in the second but could not force a tie-break as Sinner broke to grab a 6-5 lead before confidently serving it out.

World number one Alcaraz takes on Frenchman Valentin Royer in his second-round match later.