Tottenham don't need to prove they can win without Bale

Tottenham don't need to prove they can win without Bale, says Villas-Boas – video

Tottenham Hotspur are in Italy to defend a 3-0 lead in the Europa League against Internazionale on Thursday without Gareth Bale, but manager André Villas-Boas says proving they can win without him is not a concern. 'I don't think the squad will try to prove somebody, or to prove anything without him,' says Villas-Boas

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Grand slam deciders

Grand slam deciders, sporting comedy and Francesco Totti's 225 Serie A goals

This week's round-up also features stop-motion rallycross, Tony Gubba, the dangers of handball and a remarkable try

1) Ahead of Wales v England in the Six Nations, some final-round matches of yore: Wales secure their first slam for 19 years by beating Scotland at Murrayfield in 1971; a spine-tingling Flower of Scotland is belted out before Scotland's triumph over England in 1990; England resist French flair – just – to secure glory a year later; Scott Gibbs and Wales stun England at Wembley in 1999 (parts one and two); Ireland are crushed at Lansdowne Road by Martin Johnson's England (causing commotion pre-match during the handshakes and then during the match); and Ireland's 2009 slam, a first for 61 years, edging out Wales 17-15 in Cardiff.

2) We love attention to detail, so here's some ace stop-motion rallycross from the tischrallycross channel: two examples – Martin Schanche v Frode Holte and a race from this year's Trophée Andros at Val du Oy-Ten.

3) This try for Newcastle Falcons against Bedford is ridiculous: post, bar, post, bounce, interception, try. It also reminded us of this beauty.

4) Tony Gubba RIP (here he is commentating on the Leeds-Wolves FA Cup semi in 1973 and the 6-2 Southampton-Spurs replay in 1995. Plus some more football bits and bobs: Diego Maradona and Barcelona beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 on a pre-season Camp Nou quagmire in 1983; ITV's excellent First Among Equals – the Laurie Cunningham Story; George Best interviewed on Swedish TV in 1972; and some Djimi Traoré gold!

5) Retro stepping back into our childhoods dept: Animalympics, the brilliant 1980s cartoon film in full.

6) Some Guardian videos you may have missed this week: Independente's Johnny Dos Santos karate kicks a referee in the faceduring a match in Brazil; the woodwork in this Greek match gets hit four times … with a single shot; Mor Diouf scores a goal-of-the-season contender in South Africa; and a pine marten stages this year's best pitch invasion, during a football match in Switzerland.

Our favourites from last week's blog

1) All 225 of Francesco Totti's Serie A goals (if you have a spare hour).

2) It's Red Nose Day on Friday, so here is a trip down sporting comedy memory lane: Father Ted's tribute to a retiring Jack Charlton; the All Priests Over-75s Five-a-Side Football Challenge; Del Boy's Ajax welcome; Fry & Laurie's Question of Sport sketch (plus their F1 drivers one); and Marty Feldman's football commentator sketch.

3) James Willstrop and the extraordinary squash triple fake winner.

4) The dangers of handball: a fan falls from the stands directly on to player Ivett Szepesi during Gyuri Audi ETO v FTC Rail Cargo Hungaria in Hungary.

5) RefCam gets a run-out in Australian rugby union.

6) Dunk of (at least) the week: DeAndre Jordan posterises Brandon Knight (on loop). Everything sounds better with a Jim Ross dub, mind you.

Spotters' badges: stoltissimo, kisbie, SquashMan, RedThunder, cmb1981.Gu

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Chelsea team selection tricky with packed fixture list

Chelsea team selection tricky with packed fixture list, says Benitez - video

Speaking ahead of a tricky Europa League second leg tie against Steaua Bucharest, Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez says team selection is becoming challenging while his team are playing a game every three days. Benitez says some players such as centre-backs can play more games in a row, but players in positions like full-back or who operate on the wing need to be rested more often

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England risk falling to third in Uefa coefficient rankings

Aggregate defeat for Arsène Wenger's Arsenal against Bayern Munich means there will be no English representative in the Champions League last eight for the first time since 1996. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images

England is at risk of falling behind Germany to third in Uefa's coefficient rankings by the end of the season following the worst performance in 17Champions League campaigns, with no Premier League side left in the competition.

Arsenal's aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich on Wednesday night assured the Bundesliga leaders a quarter-final place along with Borussia Dortmund and means there will be no English representative in the last eight for the first time since 1996.

English domination among Europe's elite has markedly dropped in the last two seasons. Last year only the eventual winners Chelsea made it to the quarter-finals but in the five previous campaigns 16 of the 40 teams to reach that stage were Premier League sides.

England began the current campaign on top of the Uefa coefficient rankings with 84.41 points, narrowly ahead of Spain who had 84.186 and Germany with 75.186. The latest official standings after last week's European matches had Spain ranked first with 85.882 points, England second with 79.820 and Germany third with 76.757.

An association's ranking is based on the results of each association's clubs in the five previous Champions League and Europa League seasons. It is done by an average figure, calculated by dividing the number of points obtained by the total number of clubs representing an association in that season's two club competitions.

Each team earns two points for a win and one for a draw in both the Champions League and Europa League and one additional point for each knockout round you progress in, although in the Champions League teams get four points for participating in the group stage and four points for qualifying from their group.

Arsenal accrued two points following their victory in Munich last night, despite losing the tie overall. However, with no English team left in the Champions League and as Bayern and Dortmund appear capable of going all the way this season, Germany could move up the national coefficient rankings by May.

If England are to hold on to second spot then they will need their teams competing in the Europa League to progress. Tottenham, Newcastle and Chelsea all play tonight and could advance to the quarter-finals, while Stuttgart will have to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Lazio to avoid exiting the competition.

While Germany leapfrogging England in the rankings may be symbolic and significant regarding the current status of the Premier League and Bundesliga, it would not impact on the number of Champions League places awarded.

Michel Platini, the Uefa president, may change the format beyond the 2015-16 campaign but presently the top three nations in Uefa's coefficient ranking are given four places in the tournament for the season after next, meaning this year's results will only come into effect during 2014-15.

Italy in fourth are some way behind the top three with 63.147 points and any threat from Serie A is unlikely, although Juventus are still in the Champions League.

Chelsea could potentially overtake Manchester United in the individual club rankings if they progress to the latter stages of the Europa League. The European champions are ranked fifth in the standings but are exactly six points behind United in fourth going into Thursday night's match with Steaua Bucharest.

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Caerphilly Castle Ladies FC exits league after 43-0 loss

The team take their name from Caerphilly Castle, but their form has crumbled

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A football team that suffered a 43-0 defeat at the weekend has withdrawn from the league it was playing in.

Caerphilly Castle Ladies' results in the Women's Welsh Premier League will be wiped out.

This season the side, whose first team walked-out last summer, found itself on the wrong end of 36-0, 28-0 and 26-0 scorelines as well as the 43-0 loss.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) said the club had taken the move "with regret".

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Caerphilly Castle Ladies: results until withdrawal from league

• 0-5 v Northop Hall
• 0-18 v Port Talbot Town
• 0-10 v Wrexham
• 0-18 v Cardiff Metro University
• 0-26 v Llandudno Junction
• 0-36 v Newcastle Emlyn
• 0-21 v Port Talbot Town
• 1-14 v Caernarfon Town
• 0-28 v Aberystwyth Town
• 0-43 v Cardiff Metro University

SOURCE: Welsh Premier League

The team, known as the Castle, found itself in the headlines following its latest defeat, which meant the side had let in 219 goals and scored just one in 10 games.

Club officials had said earlier this week they were putting a "brave face" on the results and had no intention of giving up but the statement issued through the FAW indicated the club will focus on bringing on youth players.

It said: "With regret, the club has decided to withdraw its membership from the Welsh Premier Women's League with immediate effect.

"Caerphilly Castle is very proud of its tradition of nurturing young footballing talent over the years but the club has found it difficult to compete at the highest level of Welsh Women's Football this season.

The senior team's results will be wiped from the records but the club wished the 11 sides remaining in the league luck for the rest of the season."The committed officials of the club fully intend to continue their passion of developing players throughout the different age groups and hope to return to the Welsh Premier Women's League as soon as possible."

In terms of numbers participating at all levels, Caerphilly Castle rival Cardiff City for the title of biggest women's club in Wales.

They finished mid-table in the last two Welsh Premier League seasons, and in 2010 lifted the Welsh League Cup.

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Galatasaray fans caught trying to dig tunnel into Schalke's stadium

Galatasaray fans react at final whistle after their win over Schalke. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Schalke's sporting director Horst Heldt has confirmed that a group of ticketless Galatasaray fans were caught trying to burrow into their stadium using their bare hands ahead of Tuesday's Champions Leaguematch.

With the away section heavily oversubscribed and tickets trading hands at prices of up to €1,000 before kick-off, the group resorted to desperate measures, trying to dig through frozen ground under a perimeter fence.

Heldt confirmed the incident before the game, which ended with a 4-3 aggregate victory for the Turkish club, saying: "Yes, that's right. Some supporters have tried to dig a tunnel with their bare hands."

Galatasaray, featuring Didier Drogba up front, won the game 3-2, with Hamit Altintop scoring a stunning 30-yard goal to set them on the way. The Germans dominated the closing stages, but Umut Bulut snatched a win for the visitors in injury time.

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Millwall's Danny Shittu scores to put Blackburn Rovers out of FA Cup

Millwall's Danny Shittu scores the winning goal at Ewood Park in the FA Cup sixth-round replay against Blackburn. Photograph: Philip Oldham/Colorsport/Corbis

A Danny Shittu header put Millwall into an FA Cup semi-final against Wigan Athletic at Wembley in what will also double as a play-off for next season's Europa League. That is unless Chelsea finish outside the top five, though as they are seven points ahead of sixth-placed Liverpool this appears unlikely.

Kenny Jackett, the Millwall manager, said: "We'll start planning straight away. It's a big achievement to get there but we want to go there and do well. We want to go there and win. That's what Wembley is all about – it's about winners."

Played before a paltry 8,635 crowd – the lowest of recent memory for a quarter-final – this replay was scoreless until the 42nd-minute mark, when Shittu finished a Chris Taylor corner, meaning the teams had played for more than two hours (132 minutes to be precise) with no goals after the first match ended nil-nil.

The "closest" either team came to scoring before this came when a Leon Best shot went straight into David Forde's hands and a David Dunne curled effort went past the Millwall goalkeeper's right post.

Before what was Shittu's second of the season Dany N'Guessan had what looked a credible claim for a penalty for handball turned down by referee Mark Clattenburg after his shot hit Jason Lowe.

The corner Taylor won just before Millwall scored looked doubtful – whether there was a deflection from a Rovers player was moot – but when the former floated the kick in, Shittu scored with a thumping header. Of the corner, Jackett added: "We've had plenty of decisions go against us, it may have been a crucial one but it was a great header by Danny."

The second half featured Millwall playing for passages in the Rovers half, which was rarely the case before the break. Still, the sense was that Michael Appleton's Blackburn side might have the edge.

Best had Rovers' clearest opportunity to equalise. But after impressive dribbling to find an opening, his effort was cleared off the line by Shane Lowry.

In his team selection Appleton had confirmed the writing was definitely on the wall for Danny Murphy. Despite the manager having six players injured, and two more cup-tied, he still plumped for Anton Forrester and John O'Sullivan on the bench, two teenagers yet to make a debut, ahead of the erstwhile captain, who was told before the first instalment of this contest by Appleton that he is now "planning without him".

As this sixth-round replay and the opportunity to face Wigan at Wembley next month wandered away from Rovers, the manager may have wished for the experience of Murphy to bring on as a replacement to try and spin the match round. Asked about this, Appleton was adamant: "If there was one place we didn't struggle tonight it was the middle of the park."

Jackett now has a chance to emulate Dennis Wise as a Millwall manager who has led the club to an FA Cup final. If Jackett does so the Lions will almost certainly be in Europe again, as they were the following season after Wise's men lost the 2004 showpiece 3-0 to Manchester United.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Kean; Lowe, Dann, Hanley, Marcus Olsson (Gomes, h-t); King (Forrester, 74), Pedersen, Dunn, Martin Olsson; Rhodes, Best.

Subs not used: Sandomierski, Givet, Rekik, Goodwillie, O'Sullivan.

Millwall (4-5-1): Forde; Dunne, Shittu, Beevers, Lowry; Keogh, Trotter, Smith, Taylor, N'Guessan (Abdou, 64); Hulse.

Subs not used: Taylor, Marquis, Tyson, Smith, Osborne, Saville.

Yellow cards: Shittu (42), Dunne (44), Keogh (60).

Referee: Mark Clattenburg. Attendance: 8.635.

Man of the match: Danny Shittu.

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