Europe

Germany were still waiting for their first-ever Nations League win after they gave a tired performance and were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland on Sunday.

Ilkay Gundogan gave Joachim Loew's side the perfect start with a clinical goal in the 14th minute but Silvan Widmer earned their smaller neighbors a deserved draw just before the hour. In the end, Germany may have been grateful for the result in the League A Group 4 game as the much livelier hosts, unbeaten in their last 17 competitive matches at home, created the better chances.

Last Thursday, 17-year-old Barcelona phenom Ansu Fati was handed his first Spain appearance as a second-half substitute during a 1-1 draw with Germany. On Sunday, Fati was given his second cap and first-ever start as Spain welcomed Ukraine to the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium in Madrid.

If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, here’s the La Masia graduate’s opening 45 minutes.

Barcelona forward Luis Suárez is due to sit a language test on Monday in a bid to obtain Italian citizenship that would enable him to move to Serie A champions Juventus, Italian and Uruguayan media said Sunday.

There have been widespread reports that Juventus are chasing the 33-year-old Uruguayan who, if the moves go through, would line up alongside defender Giorgio Chiellini, the Italy defender he famously bit in a World Cup match in 2014.

When Arjen Robben announced his retirement last year at the age of 35, the world bid goodbye to an outrageously talented winger whose troublesome injury history appeared to have finally extinguished his desire to continue.

One of the finest talents of his generation, Robben certainly wasn’t made of glass — you don’t amass 96 Holland caps sitting in the recovery room — but only once did appear in more than 30 league matches in a single season, and that happened back in 2002-03 with PSV.

Zlatan Ibrahimović has criticized Sweden soccer boss Janne Andersson for starting new Juventus signing Dejan Kulusevski on the bench in Saturday's 1-0 UEFA Nations League loss to world champions France.

Kulusevksi came on for a 20-minute cameo but said in a post-match interview that he was shocked that he did not get to start, and Andersson's surprised reaction to the criticism provoked a strong response from Ibrahimovic, Sweden's record goalscorer.

STOCKHOLM — A slice of luck and a moment of individual brilliance from Kylian Mbappé gave France a gritty 1-0 win away to Sweden in their Nations League A Group 3 clash on Saturday.

Promoted to the competition's top tier following their group victory last year, the Swedes frustrated the world champions for the opening 40 minutes until Mbappé proved to be the difference.

REYKJAVIK — England's Raheem Sterling converted a 90th minute penalty to snatch a 1-0 win away to Iceland in their opening Nations League match on Saturday after the home side themselves missed a spot kick in stoppage time that would have salvaged a draw.

Sterling got the decisive goal from the spot, after a disappointingly drab game, when Sverrir Ingi Ingason was harshly ruled to have handled the England striker's shot.

The Czech Republic will go ahead with next week's UEFA Nations League match against Scotland but will field a different team than the one that beat Slovakia on Friday due to COVID-19 concerns, a team spokesman said on Saturday.

Shortly after their 3-1 victory against Slovakia, the Czech FA said in a statement that Monday's game against Scotland would not take place due to the "current situation with COVID-19."

ANNOUNCEMENT:

LISBON — The Portuguese man behind the Football Leaks website said at the start of his trial on Friday that he was proud to be a whistleblower on European soccer clubs' big-money dealings.

Rui Pinto, a 31-year-old former history student and self-taught computer mastermind, faces 90 charges — from unauthorised access to data and violation of correspondence to attempted extortion — in the case at Lisbon's Central Criminal Court.