So far, 14 teams have secured their place in the FIFA World Cup Round of 32, with 18 spots still up for grabs.

Tomorrow, Groups K and L are the last groups to play their respective second matches before the third and final round of the group stage gets underway.

Australia's final group match is against Paraguay at 12pm on Friday (AEST). Data analysts Opta put Australia's chances of reaching the Round of 32 at a precise 93.44%.

The real question: will your boss be letting you watch the match at work?

5
The number of goals that Argentina’s Lionel Messi has scored at this World Cup, after adding another two against Austria this morning (AEST). The first goal was his 17th at a World Cup and moved him past Germany's Miroslav Klose for the most by any man at the tournament, while the second edged him ahead of Brazil's Marta for the most across the men's and women's competitions combined. The 38-year-old scored all three goals in Argentina’s 3-0 win in its opening match against Algeria. 

“I feel absolutely robbed to have not been given a 100m selection. The reasonings I still don’t completely understand after a consistent and what I would say a successful domestic season…”
Sprinter Joshua Azzopardi in an Instagram post after Australia named its Commonwealth Games athletics squad. The 26-year-old was selected for the 4x100m relay team but missed out on an individual 100m spot, despite finishing second in the 100m at April's national championships ahead of two-time Olympian Rohan Browning. The three individual spots instead went to Browning, Lachlan Kennedy and Edward Osei-Nketia. Azzopardi appealed the decision to the National Sports Tribunal, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

Australian high jumper Percy Hobson was the first Indigenous Australian to win Commonwealth gold. At the Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1962, Hobson won the men’s high jump after clearing a bar of 211 centimetres. 

How do you go from PE teacher to Commonwealth Games Wellbeing Lead?

For Lauren Wann, it meant coaching national volleyball teams while teaching, transitioning into high-performance sport at Volleyball Australia, then returning to study with a Master of Sport Management at Deakin.

She built her network, and landed a leadership role at the Queensland Academy of Sport. This year, she's heading to Glasgow as Wellbeing Lead for the Australian Commonwealth Games team - the first time the role has ever been included.

Inspired by Lauren? Your journey could start at here - at the #1 provider for sport in Australia.*

^{*Shanghai Ranking of Sport Science and Departments 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and QS World University Rankings by Subject Transparency: This is a sponsored part of the newsletter - the best way to keep the newsletter free for you.}

🏉 South Sydney fullback Latrell Mitchell will not play any part in this year's State of Origin series after tearing his calf at training on Monday. The Rabbitohs star had sat out for the first two games with a back problem, which coach Wayne Bennett has linked to the new injury, and was trying to prove his fitness in time for the decider. It is a major blow for New South Wales, who travel to Suncorp Stadium on 8 July with the series level at one game each after Queensland's 44-24 win in Melbourne.

🏏 Australia’s women’s cricket team are chasing a fourth straight group stage win when they take on Pakistan tomorrow morning (AEST) in the T20 Women’s World Cup. The six-time champions sit at the top of Group 1 after wins over South Africa, Bangladesh, and the Netherlands, and a victory over Pakistan in Leeds would move them close to securing a semi-final spot. Pakistan are still chasing their first win of the tournament after three losses and have never beaten Australia in 14 women's T20Is. Also tonight, New Zealand will play Scotland, and Ireland will take on Sri Lanka.

🏀 One of the NBA's biggest stars is on the move. The Milwaukee Bucks have reportedly agreed to trade 10-time All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, ending his 13-year stay. The Greek superstar helped Milwaukee win the 2021 NBA championship as Finals MVP. Antetokounmpo's switch lands on the eve of Wednesday's NBA Draft (AEST), with the Bucks set to receive four players, including guard Tyler Herro, and four draft picks, in exchange. The deal still needs to be approved by the league.

Claude, the AI for scientific discovery

Researchers at Australia's Garvan Institute are partnering with Claude to do what wasn't possible before: analyse genomic data at massive scale to understand how our genes cause rare diseases, and accelerate treatments to cure them. When science and AI come together, the future of human health gets a little brighter.

Here’s all the latest on the FIFA World Cup.

In Group I, France and Norway both confirmed their place in the knockout stages. France beat Iraq 3-0, with Kylian Mbappé scoring twice in a match halted for more than two hours by a thunderstorm in Philadelphia. Then, Norway held off Senegal 3-2 behind two goals from Erling Haaland.

In Group J, Lionel Messi scored both goals as defending champions Argentina beat Austria 2-0 to secure a place in the last 32. Meanwhile, World Cup debutants Jordan were beaten 2-1 by Algeria in the day's final game.

Egypt claimed its first win in World Cup history on Sunday, beating New Zealand 3-1 in Vancouver. After the match, security officials blocked the team’s flight to Seattle for their final group stage match against Iran. Instead, the squad was sent back to its base in Spokane, 450 kilometres from Seattle.

After a 0-0 draw with Belgium, Iran left a note in their Los Angeles dressing room that has since gone viral. The note called for "peace, respect, and friendship". Iran has been based in Mexico during the tournament but has travelled to the U.S. for its matches amid ongoing geopolitical tension between the two countries.

Belgium’s Jeremy Doku has become a father, midway through the tournament. The winger left the team’s camp to attend the birth of his first child in London. However, despite the approval from the club, the move drew controversy after L'Equipe TV presenter France Pierron disagreed with the decision. Pierron said that a father’s presence was "useless" at childbirth. The network has since apologised and pulled her off air. Doku is set to return to the team for its final group stage match against New Zealand. 

In Group K, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal will play tournament debutants Uzbekistan as they look to bounce back from a draw in their opening match, while Colombia could cement its place in the knockout stages as they take on DR Congo. 

In Group L, England and Ghana will meet, having both won their respective opening matches, before Panama and Croatia battle it out for their first win of the tournament. 

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Czech tennis star and 2023 Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová has been banned from tennis for four years for refusing an anti-doping test. The sanction comes in the week leading up to this year's Championships. 

Here is what to know.

On December 3 last year, a doping control officer arrived at the Czech player's home to carry out an out-of-competition test. However, the 26-year-old refused to provide a sample, and the tribunal later found there was no compelling justification for the refusal.

Vondroušová argued the officer arrived late at night and did not properly identify themselves. She said concerns for her safety, combined with mental stress, influenced her decision. The tribunal also heard evidence from the doping officer before reaching its verdict.

On Monday, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced Vondroušová's four-year ban following a hearing before an independent tribunal.

Under the World Anti-Doping Code, refusing a test can carry the same penalty as a failed one, which is up to a maximum of four years for a first offence. 

ITIA chief executive Karen Moorhouse said: "We recognise this is a significant ban. You can't have an anti-doping system where a player is in a better place by refusing to take a test than they would by taking a test and testing positive. So that feeds into the structure of the doping rules that provides for a starting point in the four-year ban for refusing to take a test."

The ban runs until 21 June 2030 and covers playing, coaching and attending sanctioned events. However, Vondroušová can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The ruling adds to a run of doping cases involving high-profile players, with Iga Świątek and Jannik Sinner both handed shorter bans recently after establishing they were largely not at fault for positive samples. 

Vondroušová's situation is different. Her incident revolves around her refusal to take the test,  rather than a positive result. 

Now ranked 122nd, she made history in 2023 as the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon, beating Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the final. Her other big moments include a runner-up finish at the 2019 French Open, where she was beaten by Australia's Ash Barty, and a singles silver at the Tokyo Olympics. 

If the sanction stands, she will be 30 by the time it ends and will have spent four years of her prime out of the game.