1) The current Ajax team underlined their potential in emphatic style against Real Madrid on Tuesday, inevitably stirring memories of the Amsterdam club’s years of European dominance. Here they are winning three European Cups in a row, in 1971 against Panathinaikos at Wembley, beating Internazionale a year later and clinching a third against Juventus in 1973. They added another title 22 years later, beating Milan in the 1995 final thanks to Patrick Kluivert’s goal. That had been a cagey, narrow victory, unlike their swaggering semi-final evisceration of Bayern Munich.
2) This week we lost the Prodigy’s little bundle of tongue, Keith Flint. As well as being one of the most compelling frontmen of his generation, he was also a lover of two-wheeled bedlam, as seen at Mallory Park in 1998 and Snetterton in 2012. In 2014 he even launched his own team – Traction Control – in time for the Isle of Man TT races.
3) It’s England v Italy in the Six Nations on Saturday, and 0-0 is unlikely. Last year’s win for England was comfortable, albeit ultimately being a battle between the eventual bottom two, but handsome though that victory was, the gap was a bit wider in 2001. It may be more than an hour and 40 long, but scroll more or less anywhere and points are imminent – there were 103 of them.
4) Fresh from slotting in a penalty for Deportivo Carcha in Guatemala, Luis Acuna clambered up a ladder to change the scoreboard himself – for which he got a yellow card from a referee with a fun-issue.
5) Nicole Hanselmann makes a mockery of a 10-minute gap between the start of the men’s and women’s races at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium. She caught up the men, which resulted in the women’s race being neutralised to allow the slowpokes ahead the chance to get away again. Meanwhile, when jockeys get lost.
6) Ronan O’Gara is 42 on Thursday – here’s a showreel of him at his best, and here he caps off a barnstorming Munster attack against Toulouse in 2000. Thursday also brings up Jordan Pickford’s quarter-century – here’s some of his best work from Russia 2018, soundtracked with typical YouTube user elan.
Twitter: follow us at @guardian_sport
Facebook: like our football and sport pages
Instagram: our favourite photos, films and stories
Our favourites from below the line last week
1) It’s the third game of the 1975 Stanley Cup between Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres … and fog descends. Not something you see at too many ice hockey games. Ditto one of the players killing a bat.
2) Putting ridiculous spin on a ping-pong ball is one of life’s miniature joys. And mercifully most of those on the end of it here take it pretty well too.
3) At the NFL Scouting Combine, hopefuls try and catch the eye for a crack at the big-time: one of the drills involves bench-pressing 225lb repeatedly. Stephen Paea manages 42 reps fairly smartly. Nos 43-49 look a bit more painful.
Spotters’ badges: GrahamClayton, Foxxxo, BedfordBlueRaider, whobroughtoranges.
