The Sport Matrix: Thursday 27 November 2014

City could extend Lampard’s stay

Frank Lampard could remain at Manchester City beyond the end of the season after impressing in his loan spell from New York City. The former Chelsea and England midfielder, 36, has played a major role for the champions this season, scoring four goals and supplying the pass which led to City’s penalty against Bayern Munich on Tuesday. His loan is due to end at the start of the MLS season in March.

Saunders confident of beating Eubank

Billy Joe Saunders does not believe Chris Eubank Jnr will overly trouble him when the pair meet in London this weekend. “You take his dad out of the picture and look at it on paper and is he in the same league? No,” Saunders said. “He says the Olympics doesn’t mean anything. A lot of people would want to go to the Olympics at 18 then become British champion. He hasn’t got the experience.”

Moeen hits a ton but England lose

Impressive displays with the bat from Moeen Ali and Ravi Bopara were not enough to save England last night as the tourists went down by 25 runs in the opening One Day International against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Replying to the hosts’ daunting 317 for six, England put up a spirited display, Ali’s 119 from 87 balls the third fastest England ODI ton. Bopara’s quickfire 65 gave Alastair Cook’s side late hope, to no avail.

When nothing else matters but football...

The big match in Brazil tonight is the second leg of the Copa do Brasil final – their version of the FA Cup, essentially – between Cruzeiro and Atletico Mineiro.

If this wasn’t huge enough, it is also a fierce local derby between the two biggest clubs in Belo Horizonte and, although Cruzeiro recently retained the Brazilian league title, Atletico hold a 2-0 lead from the first leg.

Therefore, the city’s biggest broadsheet newspaper, Estado de Minas, decided it doesn’t really care about anything else, amazingly replacing all the news that doesn’t relate to the game with the word “blá” (which roughly translates into English as “blah”).

Robshaw out to edge captain battle

England captain Chris Robshaw admits his battle with Australia counterpart Michael Hooper will be a key component of Saturday’s meeting at Twickenham. “He’s one of the heartbeats of the side, the person who gets things going,” Robshaw said as England seek to end the year on a positive.