Daily Weekend. What does football live on during the international break?

The national football championships have now gone on a brief pause as international matches are played. On Thursday, we learnt the teams that will continue the fight for a ticket to the European Championships, and over the weekend there were several top friendlies. Here's a quick digest of what happened in the world of football and sports in general last weekend.

France failed to beat Germany for the second time in a row

One of the most high-profile signings of last weekend was the friendly between France and Germany in Lyon. Julian Nagelsmann's side were coming into the match with a run of three consecutive winless matches (two draws and one defeat), while Didier Deschamps' side had not lost in four consecutive matches (three wins, including a 14-0 win over Gibraltar and one draw).

It is noteworthy that the tricolours last lost to Bundestim on 12 September 2023, when the hosts won 2-1 in Dortmund. Already in Lyon, the French were looking to take revenge for their misfire against the Germans, but before the stopwatch had gone full circle, Florian Wirtz had already put his name on the scoreboard.

After the break, Kai Havertz consolidated the German advantage and, unlike in Dortmund, Deschamps' men had no answer for the Bundesti's two accurate strikes. The German national team breaks another winless streak of the French and for the first time since 2018 did not lose in two matches with the tri-colour in a row.

The Lakers played their highest-scoring game in 37 years

On 2 January 1987, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Phoenix Suns 155:118 in an NBA game. But the next time the team scored at least 150 points was 37 years later. On the night of 25 March, the Lakers hosted Indiana, but unlike that game, the score gap was not so significant

The home team scored 150 points in this game, but the opponents were able to show a more competitive game and were able to score 145 points. In addition to repeating the achievement of the Lakers, the match will be remembered for the fact that as of now it has become the most productive in the current NBA season.

A future Real Madrid player brought Brazil their first win over England in nearly 15 years

The England and Brazil national teams have not met each other very often recently. The last time the teams played an official match was at the 2002 World Cup, and since then they have played friendlies. One of them took place on Saturday at London's Wembley.

The game was close to a dry draw, and it seemed that for the third time in a row the teams would not determine the winner, but thanks to a goal by future Real Madrid player Endrick 10 minutes before the end of the match "Seleçao" defeated the "originators of football".

The last time one of the teams won was back on 6 February 2013, when England won 2-1. Soon the teams met two more times: 2 June 2013 and 14 November 2017, but then in both matches were recorded draws: 2:2 and 0:0 respectively.

The Brazilians beat England for the first time in more than 14 years. The last time the Seleção beat this opponent was on 14 November 2009 with a score of 1:0 at home.

The Australian Grand Prix ended with an unexpected result

The weekend also saw the Australian Grand Prix in Formula 1, which gave us an unexpected outcome to the race. The main surprise was the fact that two of the most famous pilots of our time, namely Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did not finish the race.

Both had technical problems, which, in fact, and did not allow them to overcome the entire distance. The last time this happened at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021, when both pilots collided with each other and for them the race ended almost halfway through the distance, namely on the 26th of 53 laps.

Also, early departure from the distance for Verstappen marked the fact that he for the first time in 44 races did not score points and failed to win a tenth consecutive victory. But the Dutchman has nothing to grieve, as after the Grand Prix of Australia, he will still retain leadership in the overall standings of Formula 1.

The Austrian broke Podolski's record, which held for more than 10 years

On 29 May 2013, in a friendly match between Germany and Ecuador, Bundesteam forward Lukas Podolski managed to score in the seventh second of the match. For almost 11 years, this goal was the fastest at national team level, but the record fell on 23 March 2024.

The Polish-born German managed to improve the achievement of his Austrian neighbour Christoph Baumgartner. The RB Leipzig midfielder's solo pass from almost the centre of the pitch in the friendly match against Slovakia resulted in a goal in the sixth second of the game. As a result, the Austrians defeated their opponents 2-0.