It paid to be lucky rather than good for Lionesses in the Euros knockouts but scale of task in Basel will be on another level

England-Spain is the final everyone predicted before the tournament and it is a great match-up. An England victory would be an even bigger achievement than when they won Euro 2022, because this is a harder final than the one against Germany at Wembley.

England should be the favourites purely because they are the holders and have had the experience of winning it. Their belief that they can always get back into a game, no matter how indifferent they’ve been, is the one thing that stands out about England. Sometimes it pays to be lucky rather than good, but we shouldn’t dismiss that or talk it down. Their resilience is their superpower, and although they haven’t always been free-flowing, they’ve found ways to win, which is down to the character of the players and, most importantly, the ‘finishers’ from the bench demonstrating that England have a lot of quality and depth.

England manager says she is learning to ‘enjoy it all a little bit more’ as she approaches her fifth consecutive major final

Sarina Wiegman sits down in the chair left for her in a ring of journalists looking remarkably relaxed, the intensity and energy seen during and in the immediate aftermath of the thrilling last-gasp quarter-final and semi-final wins over Sweden and Italy gone. This is her usual state, calm, and as England prepare for a third major tournament final, against Spain on Sunday, and Wiegman’s fifth consecutive major final, it’s what they need.

Asked to look back on her own development during four whirlwind years in charge, she is reflective. “As every person in this room develops, I develop too, with experiences,” she says. “First my English has improved, so I understand a lot more, but also you learn more about the people you work with. You learn more again about yourself and how you respond to things and, while I’m always working on developing the team and developing or trying to help the development of people, I always try to keep developing myself.

Exclusive: Rayner and Cooper understood to back action as 221 MPs sign letter calling for UK recognition of statehood

Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood by the Guardian to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.

• Fourth Test, day three: India 358; England 544-7

• Root races up to second in all-time Test runs list

It was Joe Root day in Manchester on Friday, where 20,000 people sat and admired a true master at work. Inevitable is a dangerous word in cricket, such is the fickle nature of the sport, and yet all that transpired felt as close to this as is possible: the likeliest of outcomes once Root ­gamboled out in the morning under an azure blue sky.

The first expectation was that England, though still trailing India by 133 runs, would take full ­control of this fourth Test match and, ­sitting 2-1 up, the series as a whole. Ben Stokes, Ben Duckett and Zak ­Crawley had inflicted such damage 24 hours ­earlier that it was going to take ­something ­remarkable from the tourists to turn things around.

Researchers believe humans’ closest relatives may have stored meat from their kills for months before eating it

For hungry Neanderthals, there was more on the menu than wild mammals, roasted pigeon, seafood and plants. Chemical signatures in the ancient bones point to a nutritious and somewhat inevitable side dish: handfuls of fresh maggots.

The theory from US researchers undermines previous thinking that Neanderthals were “hypercarnivores” who stood at the top of the food chain with cave lions, sabre-toothed tigers and other beasts that consumed impressive quantities of meat.