World Cup 2014: Daniel Sturridge ready for 'do or die' game

England striker Daniel Sturridge is prepared to do almost anything to avoid an early World Cup exit in Thursday's "do or die" meeting with Uruguay.

Sturridge will be up against Liverpool team-mate Luis Suarez, who infamously handled on the line in the closing seconds as Uruguay beat Ghana on penalties in South Africa in 2010.
While he insists he will stay within the rules, Sturridge said: "I'm going to do anything in my power to win.
"I'm talking anything. I'm serious."
Sturridge, 24, said he was feeling "hungry and confident" after scoring in England's 2-1 defeat by Italy on Saturday.

Daniel Sturridge not fixated on Luis Suarez

He added: "I'm prepared to do anything to win this next game. It's do or die. It's a World Cup."
Liverpool team-mate Suarez missed Uruguay's 3-1 defeat by Costa Rica following his recovery from a knee operation on 22 May but is ready to face England.
"I'm 100%, otherwise I wouldn't be here," he said. "I feel in good condition. I never thought I would miss the World Cup."
Sturridge has not been in touch with his club-mate, saying his focus is solely on Thursday's game in Sao Paulo.
He added that he would be "devastated" to exit the tournament at the group stage and said the England players would "work our socks off more than we've ever done before".
The former Chelsea player added: "I'm not saying I'm going to dive or do anything that's not within the laws of the game, but I will do anything - like my team-mates - to win this game."
In a reference to the 2010 World Cup, when Suarez denied quarter-final opponents Ghana a match-winning goal by stopping Dominic Adiyiah's header with his hand, Sturridge said he would never do the same thing.
"It's not in my nature," he said. "Within the rules of the game, I'll do anything, just like every Uruguayan player will. They're hungry and want to go through and we want to go through."

Last season with Liverpool (Premier League)
Daniel Sturridge, 24	Luis Suarez, 27
Appearances: 29	Appearances: 33
Goals: 21	Goals: 31
Assists: 7	Assists: 12

Sturridge insisted England want to maintain their reputation for fair play.
"We're an honest country and go about our business in an honest way," he said. "No disrespect to other countries, but we play within the laws of the game. We don't bend the rules. We play by the book.
"That's how I was brought up. We don't like to break the rules. We don't like to cheat to win."
England team-mate Danny Welbeck, meanwhile, agreed with comments from BBC Sport World Cup pundit Rio Ferdinand, a former Manchester United team-mate, that he should take more risks in front of goal.
Welbeck, 23, said: "I take what Rio says on board. He's seen me grow up and develop from a young kid, from 13. He's helped me a lot as a footballer. If he's telling me to take more risks, I will take more risks."
He said he had spoken to Ferdinand before and after the game against Italy, adding: "He just wants me to be the best I can. He says I need to be a bit more positive at times."

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World Cup 2014: Wayne Rooney will cope with drama - Gary Neville

England coach Gary Neville has backed Wayne Rooney to cope with the "drama" surrounding his role at the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

Rooney's position in Roy Hodgson's team has been the subject of intense debate, which heightened after Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Italy.

BBC pundits on Rooney's best position after Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Italy

Neville told the BBC: "Our country love it, creating a drama around one player.
"This time it's Wayne Rooney but that comes with the territory of being an important player in a big nation."
Rooney, 28, was played in a wide left role by Hodgson in the Group D match with Italy.
Despite setting up Daniel Sturridge's equaliser, Rooney attracted criticism for his performance and was a largely peripheral figure.
The Football Association has confirmed that he had extra training  on Monday at his own request.
A number of the players involved against Italy completed two-day post-match recovery work but Rooney did a session with the rest of the squad.
BBC pundit and former England captain Alan Shearer and former England manager Graham Taylor have called for Rooney to be played in his preferred central position.

Wayne Rooney's touch map against Italy

Former Manchester United defender Neville has been to seven major tournaments with England as a player or coach and said the scrutiny Rooney was facing was not new, comparing it to that received by Paul Gascoigne and David Beckham.
"I've never known there not be an obsession around one player," Neville told BBC Radio 5 live.
"It was Gascoigne from 1996 to 1998, Beckham from 2000 to 2006. From 2006, it was Rooney and Beckham. Now it's Rooney to 2014.
"Unfortunately - or fortunately, because he is a big player - this time it's Wayne Rooney."
Neville described his former team-mate, who has scored 39 goals in 92 games for England, as a "street footballer".
He added: "You can't get him to do a light day's training. That's his character. He just wants to play every second of every day.
"He has an enthusiasm for football that is incredible and he's been like that since the moment I played against him when he was a young Everton kid."
Defeat in their opening match increases the pressure on England ahead of Thursday's clash with Uruguay.

Play Wayne Rooney up front - Rio Ferdinand

Neville said the disappointment of the result was tempered by the quality of England's performance in Manaus, particularly when compared with the defeat they suffered against Italy in the 2012 European Championship.
The 39-year-old said: "Two years ago, we were on the ropes with our gloves up, defending for 12 rounds but losing on points.
"The other night, we won a few rounds. It doesn't win you the football match but, in terms of the bigger picture, we see where we're going.
"Some of the football was the best I've seen from England in 10 or 15 years in a World Cup or European Championship match.
"As we came off the pitch, we weren't thinking anything other than the team played pretty well, but we got the fine lines wrong."

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Julian Draxler: Schalke midfielder turned down Arsenal move

Schalke midfielder Julian Draxler says he turned down a move to Arsenal in January and plans to remain with the Bundesliga club this summer.

The 20-year-old Germany international was linked with a move to the Gunners during the transfer window.
Draxler, who signed a five-year contract with Schalke in May, said: "In January, there was the offer of Arsenal, but I decided to stay.
"I will do the same this summer. I want to play one year more in Schalke."
Draxler's current contract reportedly contains a 45m euros (£38m) buyout clause. 
He has played on the left of midfield and in a central attacking midfield role, scoring 15 goals in more than 100 appearances.

Draxler factfile

Age: 20
Born: Gladbeck, Germany
Germany caps: 11 (1 goal)
Schalke appearances 2013-14: 38 (6 goals)

Draxler was an unused substitute as Germany beat Portugal 4-0 in their opening World Cup group game in Salvador on Monday and is confident his country can win the trophy for the first time since 1990.

"We were a little bit nervous before the game," said Draxler. "But we know we are very strong and we wanted to show the world we can win the title.
"There are many other great nations and teams here, but we are one of the favourites."
Thomas Muller scored a hat-tick to add to the five goals he scored in earning the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup.
"He is so dangerous in front of goal," said Draxler.
"He always knows where he has to be. That's his secret. He knows where he has to be to score goals."
Draxler said the 24-year-old Muller has the potential to become a Germany great given his striker rate and age.

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World Cup 2014: Messi & Ronaldo face career-defining moment

To claim that Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo are somehow lacking something as footballers seems almost perverse.

These are the twin tornados of today's football landscape, chasing each other in a statistical arms race, tearing up records, making the impossible mundane.
But as their third World Cups come around, there remains a sense of incompleteness, of a final summit still to climb.
What separates Argentina's Messi and Portugal's Ronaldo from footballing immortality? Certainly not goals, whether in quantity or style, or club honours, or individual accolades won. By those measures both match Pele and Maradona, arguably surpass Zinedine Zidane and Johan Cruyff.
What it is missing is a World Cup: not a brilliant solo goal, nor a single great win, but a tournament that they have dominated and defined.

100 great World Cup moments - Teenage Pele shines in 1958

Diego Maradona achieved that grail in 1986, dancing and driving Argentina to the title. Pele perhaps did it twice, as spearhead in 1958 and embodiment of his team's brilliance 12 years later. Even in defeat Cruyff (1974) and Roberto Baggio (1994) owned a tournament.
This is the power of a World Cup. Reputations are transformed. Legacies are gilded.
"Mexico changed my life, quite literally," says Gary Lineker, whose six goals won him the Golden Boot in 1986. "It made a massive difference to me - a player going from one who was not assured of a starting place in the England team to suddenly, after that World Cup, being known by everybody wherever I went."
Messi and Ronaldo have achieved far more in club football than Lineker. Between them they have five Champions League trophies and all six of the last Fifa World Player of the Year or Ballon D'Or awards.
Unlike Lineker they are already global superstars. Yet unlike the former England striker, or his successor as Golden Boot winner, Italy's Toto Schillaci, they lack such a clearly defined peak.
Deep into their careers, at an age where pace and influence are yet to fade, they will never have a better chance.

Lineker's verdict on Messi & Ronaldo

In 571 minutes at World Cup finals Messi has scored just one goal, the same number as Matthew Upson and Gary Breen. In 754 minutes, Ronaldo has only one more than the England and Ireland centre-halves. To put that into goalscoring context, Denmark's comparatively prosaic forward Jon Dahl Tomasson has five. Pele ended with 12, and the Brazilian Ronaldo had 15.
"For the true greats of all time, you have got to make a name for yourself at a World Cup, if you are lucky enough to have been born in a country where you can," says Lineker.
"If you are a great player for a country like Argentina, Italy, Germany or England you've got to prove it at a World Cup - not necessarily to win it, but to make yourself one of the greats of that tournament.
"It is probably the one thing that counts against Messi at the moment when set against the likes of Pele and Maradona. He has not got that World Cup under his belt - but neither had Maradona until he came to this stage of his career. Maybe Messi will now do the same."
In some ways it's a cruel yardstick. World Cups, by definition, are only a periodic barometer of greatness.
Some of the finest players in history have been denied the opportunity to display at the greatest expo of all, whether through nationality (George Best, Alfredo di Stefano, George Weah), injury and insult (Bernd Schuster) or tragedy (Duncan Edwards, Valentino Mazzola).
Others have peaked in intervening years, been dragged down by less liberated team-mates or found themselves neutered by the sort of dedicated on-field attention that the most dangerous opponent routinely attracts. All three could yet happen to Ronaldo and Messi.
In the 21st century, there is an argument that the Champions League is a more accurate gauge of a superstar's influence: more matches, more sustained pressure, a higher and more consistent calibre of opposition.

100 great World Cup moments - Maradona stuns England in 1986

Messi has three winner's medals from European club football's greatest competition, Ronaldo one each from two clubs. In each triumph, each man played a pivotal role; both have scored key goals in two separate finals.
These feats are not achieved by many, let alone the ordinary. And while the Champions League final attracts a far smaller global audience than the World Cup (the 2013 final had an average audience of 150 million, the 2010 World Cup final six times that) its cumulative reach across four years narrows the gap.
Then there is over-familiarity that modern media saturation can bring. Very few of us have seen Pele live, whether in person or on television. Even Maradona we know primarily from World Cups and video compilations.
You can watch Ronaldo and Messi every week, should you have the right satellite subscription. You can watch them at any moment via video-sharing sites on your mobile and tablet.
Has this removed the untouchable aura that surrounds their antecedents? Do we associate Pele with genius because 'best ofs', by definition, do not include the average or off-form?

Head to Head
	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
Date of birth (age)	24 June, 1987 (26)	5 February, 1985 (29)
Clubs played for	Barcelona	Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid
Total league matches played	277	386
Total league goals scored	243	264
International debut	17 August, 2005 v Hungary	20 August, 2003 v Kazakhstan
Caps	84	110
International goals	37	49
Club honours	Six league titles, three Champions Leagues, two domestic cups, two Club World Cups	Four league titles, two Champions Leagues, three domestic cups, one Club World Cup
Individual honours	Four Ballon d'Or awards	Two Ballon d'Or awards

The caveat most often used by those wishing to contextualise the remarkable goal-scoring feats of today's two prodigies is that the currency of the Primera Liga is devalued, in part by the financial dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona and thus in part also their on-pitch supremacy.
In which case, Pele's famous 1,283 goals in 1,366 appearances for Santos, Brazil and New York Cosmos are the equivalent of old copper coins - some invaluable, some (like those accrued in endless friendlies and promotional matches) near worthless.
Were the defences that Pele came up against as organised and fit as those that face Messi and Ronaldo? Are those two free to work their magic in a way that the often brutalised Maradona never was?
Which is why we come back to the World Cup. You can only judge a man in his historical context. Pele and Maradona made tournaments their own. Messi and Ronaldo, deferential to their sport's past, understand instinctively.
"Messi would give all the medals he has won at Barcelona to win one World Cup," says Argentina's 1978 World Cup winner Osvaldo Ardiles. Ronaldo already has his own museum in which to house the greatest honour of them all.

Could Messi, Ronaldo or home favourite Neymar prove the defining figure in Brazil?

Providence and history call for both.
For Ronaldo, his country's captain, the astonishingly dominant force in their qualification (all four goals in Portugal's play-off against Sweden came from their number seven), 29 years and 110 caps into his career arc, now is the time - not in 2018, never again.
For Messi, less adored at home than the ragamuffin talents of Maradona or even Carlos Tevez, serendipity is on his side.
Argentina coach Alex Sabella has built his team around the Barcelona man in a way that his predecessor in 2010, Maradona, never did.
And with the tournament hosted by his nation's arch-rivals, politics and culture are on his side too - not quite as they were for Zidane in 1998, when his ethnic origins as much as his two headers in the final made him the incarnation of the 'Black Blanc Beur' philosophy, but in a way that creates the perfect backstory for his deeds.
Only one, of course, could win the old gold pot. So what will be enough - a glorious but doomed soliloquy, as with Baggio two decades ago, or a semi-final, perhaps the Golden Boot?
Should one be crowned world champion, it might even be enough to swing the eternal argument about which is the superior player. That's what World Cups can do: complete careers, crown kings.

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Queen's 2014: Dan Evans and James Ward earn first-round wins

Aegon Championships

• Venue: Queen's Club, London
• Date: 9-15 June

Coverage: Live on BBC TV, HD, Red Button, online, mobile, the BBC Sport app and Connected TV. TV coverage: Monday-Friday 13:00-18:00 on BBC Two, Saturday 13:15-16:00 BBC One & 16:00-17:30 BBC Two, Sunday 14:00-17:30 on BBC Two (all times BST)

British pair Dan Evans and James Ward both earned opening-day wins to move into the second round of the Aegon Championships at Queen's.

British number two Evans won 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-2) against Austria's world number 51 Jurgen Melzer.

Match stats

Melzer		Evans
Match time: 2 hr 11 mins
11	Aces	18
4	Double faults	7
67%	1st serve %	58%
78%	1st serve win %	89%
39%	2nd serve win %	43%
2/6	Break points	3/6

Ward also beat a higher-ranked opponent, winning 7-5 6-4 against Slovenia's Blaz Rola.

Third seed Andy Murray plays Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round on Wednesday.
The British number one, who was beaten by Rafael Nadal in the French Open semi-finals on Friday, was given a first-round bye.
Murray took part in two practice sessions on Monday, but it was the performances of Evans and Ward on Centre Court which caught the eye of the home spectators.
Evans, ranked 112th in the world, fought back from a break down in the final set to beat Melzer and set up a second-round match against South African seventh seed Kevin Anderson on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old Briton started impressively against the former world number eight, going a break up in the third game to race into a 4-1 lead, eventually serving out at 6-3.
The pair exchanged breaks in successive games in the second, before 33-year-old Melzer took advantage of two double faults from Evans in the tie-break to take the match into a deciding set.

Austria's Jurgen Melzer, who lost to Dan Evans, reached a career-high ranking of eighth in April 2011.

Melzer made a breakthrough in the opening game of the third, but Evans hit back instantly as both players regained composure to hold serve in the next 10 games and go to a final set tie-break.
Evans secured an early mini-break and, after a wild shot by Melzer, secured victory with a thunderous ace.
He is joined in the second round by compatriot Ward, who started the tournament with a straight-sets success over world number 91 Rola.

Match stats

Ward		Rola
Match time: 1 hr 28 mins
2	Aces	5
3	Double faults	2
71%	1st serve %	64%
67%	1st serve win %	76%
62%	2nd serve win %	30%
3/4	Break points	1/3

The British number three, ranked 64 places below Rola, broke his opponent's serve to lead 6-5 before holding his own to clinch the opening set.

A double fault from Rola, who was playing his first professional match on grass, in the ninth game of the second set allowed Ward to serve out for the win.
It was the Briton's second victory in three weeks against Rola after a gruelling French Open qualifier last month.
The 27-year-old wildcard will now face Bulgarian world number 13 Grigor Dimitrov, the number four seed, on Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, France's Mathieu earned a 7-6 6-4 win over Aljaz Bedene to set up a second-round meeting with defending champion Murray.
Australia's Bernard Tomic, who could meet Murray in the third round, started his Queen's campaign with a 6-4 3-6 7-5 success against Tim Smyczek of the United States.
Elsewhere, four-time Queen's champion Lleyton Hewitt needed just one hour and nine minutes to win 6-3 6-3 against Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

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Amelie Mauresmo is the latest strong female in Andy Murray's life

Ever since Judy Murray started to organise indoor games of tennis for a very young Andy and Jamie, the Wimbledon champion has had a strong female influence on his career.

In those days, the ball was a balloon filled with a few grains of rice and the net a piece of rope stretched between the radiator and the wall. But the games evolved, and Judy - who remained heavily involved in coaching Andy up until the age of 17 - still frequently attends his matches.
Boris Becker once suggested that Mum should travel less, and Andy's decision to appoint Amelie Mauresmo as his coach will have raised some eyebrows so high that you just hope the wind doesn't change any time soon.

Andy Murray explains why he chose new coach Amelie Mauresmo

Not that Murray will mind. In fact, it turns out that he was actively seeking a female coach.
He turned for advice to Darren Cahill, with whom he's worked closely as part of the Adidas player development programme.
"I mentioned to him that I was thinking about possibly a female coach," Murray told BBC Sport at Queen's Club, on the eve of his Aegon Championship defence.
"I didn't know a lot of the females that were playing around the last 10 years or so, and he thought Amelie would be a good fit. We also came up with a few other names, and after I spoke to her I just had a good feeling about it."
His next answer was the most revealing.
"I've found, with my mum especially, that she listened extremely well and that was something that I felt right now that I needed," he said.
"I've started to listen to my body a lot more and I think it's important that the people you work with respect that and understand and listen to how you are feeling. You can't just be pushed extremely hard every single day. I need to pick my moments during the year when I really go for it in training."
Murray added that Mauresmo appeared 'extremely calm' when they spoke on the phone. The reason he was happy to tell the BBC - on the eve of the French Open - that he had a "first choice candidate in mind" was the one-and-a-half hours they spent together just before the tournament began. As six-time Wimbledon champion Billie Jean King points out: "It is not the gender of the coach that is important, it is the strength of the relationship between the coach and the player that will make the partnership work."
Mauresmo is said to have a good sense of humour, which is a very important quality to Murray, and brings with her the experience of two Grand Slam titles and the world number one ranking.
She did though let some winning positions slip in Grand Slam finals and, as the current French Fed Cup captain, can't be expected to have a deep knowledge of the men's tour.
The arrangement is initially for the grass court season, but if both pass their probationary period, then it's a relationship which Murray hopes will flourish.

Murray's mother Judy guided him for much of his early career and cheered him to his 2004 victory in the US Open junior tournament

The 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash was one of those surprised by the news, but points to another advantage of employing such a classy grass court player.
"I believe he still has plenty of room to improve around the net. That would make him a better player - and Amelie's a fantastic player around the net," the Australian said.
"If he can improve 10 or 20% around the net, and continue attacking, then he doesn't need to get into long grinding matches."
Will the relationship be a success? Check Murray's Grand Slam tally when Mauresmo's work is done.

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Chris Froome keeps Criterium du Dauphine lead

Britain's Chris Froome made it two wins out of two at the Criterium du Dauphine to build a 12-second lead after the second of the eight stages.

The defending champion, who also won Sunday's opening time trial, won the 156km run from Tarare to Col du Beal in four hours, 24 minutes, 41 seconds.
Alberto Contador was second and is also second in the overall standings.
The race is seen as a warm-up for next month's Tour de France, where Froome is also the defending champion.
Froome triumphed in stage two when a breakaway by Alessandro de Marchi, who was two minutes and 40 seconds clear going into the final ascent, was reeled in with 7.5km remaining.
Tuesday's third stage is a 194km ride from Ambert to Teil.
Stage Two result:
1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 4:24:41"
2. Alberto Contador (Spain / Tinkoff - Saxo) ST
3. Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands / Belkin) +4"
4. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Belgium / Lotto) +10"
5. Andrew Talansky (U.S. / Garmin) +12"
Other:
8. Adam Yates (Britain / Orica) +42"
Overall standings after stage 2 of 8:
1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 4:37:44"
2. Alberto Contador (Spain / Tinkoff - Saxo) +12"
3. Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands / Belkin) +21"
4. Andrew Talansky (U.S. / Garmin) +33"
5. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Belgium / Lotto) +35"
Other:
9. Adam Yates (Britain / Orica) +1:31"

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