ARTEX-i4232

Brighton required penalties to defeat League Two Newport County during an eventful day on FA Cup third round action.

In the 90th minute, Brighton thought they had won it when Solly March whipped a wicked effort past the impressive Tom King. However, six minutes into second half stoppage time, Newport equalised when Adam Webster diverted the ball into his own net.

Extra time could not separate the two teams with 52 league places between them at kick off, meaning things had to be decided by penalties.

After five spot kicks each the scores were level at 2-2, sending the shootout to sudden death. In the second round, the game was finally settled when Webster made up for his previous error by rolling home the winning penalty, taking advantage of Scott Bennett’s miss.

Elsewhere, Leeds suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of League Two Crawley Town, with second half goals from Nick Tsaroulla, Ashley Nadesan and Jordan Tunnicliffe earning the Reds a famous 3-0 win.

There was never much danger of Tottenham suffering a similar fate at the hand of eighth tier Marine. After their hosts rattled the bar midway with 20 minutes played, Spurs made their extra quality count with Carlos Vinicius netting a hat trick and Lucas Moura curling in a free kick before half time.

After the break, Alfie Devine added another to seal a 5-0 win, becoming his side’s youngest ever goalscorer in the process.

Manchester City made similarly light work of Birmingham City as Bernardo Silva (x2) and Phil Foden grabbed the goals, while Chelsea were also victorious, besting Morecambe 4-0 thanks to strikes from Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Kai Havertz, as well as a first goal in 13 games for Timo Werner.

Elsewhere, Barnsley defeated Tranmere Rovers 2-0 and a late Chris Martin stunner gave Bristol City a 2-1 win over League One Portsmouth. Cheltenham also progressed, beating Mansfield Town 2-1 after extra time.

For the teams that made it through, attention now turns to Monday’s draw for both the fourth and fifth round. The ties will be determined ahead of West Ham’s trip to Stockport County with the event kicking off at 19:10 (BST).

The fourth-round fixtures are set to be held across the weekend of 23 January, while the fifth round will take place on Wednesday 10 February.

Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich lost their first game since September on Friday as they threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to Borussia Monchengladbach.

Hansi Flick’s men were stunned by Hoffenheim four months ago as Andrej Kramaric’s double inspired the underdogs to a shocking 4-1 win, but Bayern made up for that defeat by embarking on a 20-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

It looked like Bayern were going to make it 21 when Florian Neuhaus’ handball was spotted and punished with a penalty, from which Robert Lewandowski made no mistake. Europe’s top marksman now sits on 20 goals from just 14 games.

The good times kept on flowing as Bayern made it two in the 26th minute through Leon Goretzka, whose finished off an excellent one-two with the fantastic Leroy Sane with a rifled strike from long range to ease the pressure on Bayern’s shoulders.

However, it might have done too good of a job of that as Flick’s side were soon punished for taking their foot off the gas pedal. Jonas Hofmann got the comeback underway shortly after the half-hour mark, firing home to ensure Bayern’s run without a clean sheet extends to ten Bundesliga games.

Hofmann snatched another on the stroke of half-time, and it was Gladbach who were frustrated to see the referee blow his whistle for the interval as they could sense Bayern had been rattled.

Whatever Flick said during the break, it obviously didn’t work as Gladbach were ahead after just four minutes.

Niklas Sule’s tame pass was intercepted by Hofmann, whose lay-off allowed Neuhaus to atone for his earlier error with a glorious strike which nestled into the top-right corner of Manuel Neuer’s goal.

The defeat continues a worrying trend for Flick’s side, who have now fallen behind in their last nine Bundesliga games. While they’ve only gone on to drop points in three of those, it’s obviously something which the boss will be keen to fix.

Bayern remain top of the Bundesliga on 33 points, two points ahead of second-placed RB Leipzig. Julian Nagelsmann’s side could jump up to the top spot with a victory over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.

FIFA have released their shortlist for the UT Team of the Year, with a whole host of the world’s top players vying for a place in the final XI.

And the best part is you can have your say in who you think should be included in the squad. But don’t waste time sifting through each category as you aimlessly look for your favourite players – we’ve got the list of every player in each category for you right here.

So enjoy as we provide you with a rundown of all the nominees for the FIFA UT Team of the Year.

Only seven shot-stoppers have been named on the shortlist for the position of goalkeeper in the Team of the Year, but they’re a pretty decent bunch we’re sure you’ll agree.

European champion Manuel Neuer makes the cut (obviously) while Premier League duo Alisson and Ederson are also named among the nominees, with Real Madrid goalkeeper and former Chelsea man Thibaut Courtois also an option.

Goalkeeper nominees:

Alisson
Thibaut Courtois
Ederson
Lukáš Hrádecký
Steve Mandanda
Keylor Navas
Manuel Neuer

No fewer than three Liverpool defenders have been nominated in the defender category, with Virgil van Dijk joined by teammates Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Sergio Ramos also makes the cut though there’s no room for his Real Madrid colleague Raphael Varane, while 20-year-old Bayern Munich wonderkid Alphonso Davies is in.

Defender nominees:

Francesco Acerbi
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Jordan Amavi
Angelino
Alphonso Davies
Stefan de Vrij
Matthias Ginter
Theo Hernandez
Mats Hummels
Jesus Navas
Jordi Alba
Presnel Kimpembe
Aymeric Laporte
Marquinhos
Andy Robertson
Sergio Ramos
Thiago Silva
Virgil van Dijk

This has surely got to be one of the hardest categories to make a choice in. How do you even begin to go about deciding who is the best out of the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne and Thiago?

The midfield category is packed with stellar names, with Joshua Kimmich, Puskas Award winner Son Heung-min and Real Madrid midfield maestro Toni Kroos all in the running.

Good luck picking your final choices from these lot.

Midfield nominees:

Houssem Aouar
Bruno Fernandes
Kevin De Bruyne
Nabil Fekir
Papu Gomez
Robin Gosens
Raphaël Guerreiro
Jordan Henderson
Joshua Kimmich
Mateo Kovacic
Toni Kroos
Luis Alberto
Mikel Merino
Dani Parejo
Renato Sanches
Marcel Sabitzer
Son Heung-min
Lars Stindl
Thiago

Now this is the really fun part.

Let’s be honest, we can indulge in the joys of midfielders and defenders all we like, but the forwards are what we’re really interested in.

No surprise to see Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi yet again fighting it out for a place in the XI, while Neymar and Kylian Mbappe aren’t bad options to have either, and no forward list would be complete without Robert Lewandowski.

And if none of the above take your fancy, you can even vote for former Stoke and Newcastle striker Joselu….

Forward nominees:

Andre Silva
Wissam Ben Yedder
Karim Benzema
Francesco Caputo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Angel Di Maria
Paulo Dybala
Jack Grealish
Erling Haaland
Ciro Immobile
Danny Ings
Lorenzo Insigne
Joao Felix
Joselu
Harry Kane
Andrej Kramarić
Robert Lewandowski
Romelu Lukaku
Sadio Mane
Kylian Mbappe
Lionel Messi
Neymar
Mohamed Salah
Raheem Sterling
Luis Suarez
Jamie Vardy