The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Arizona teenager Auston Matthews with the No. 1 pick in the National Hockey League draft Friday as a record 12 Americans were chosen in the first round.

Cristiano Ronaldo awoke from his Euro 2016 slumber in time to rescue Portugal from an early exit, but faces a greater challenge against a classy Croatia side that Portugal coach Fernando Santos called “sharks”.

Experience forged in the German league will help Switzerland’s Bundesliga stars when they face Robert Lewandowski’s Poland in the last 16 at Euro 2016 today.

Dominika Cibulkova will play her first final on grass after crushing qualifier Monica Puig 6-2, 6-1 yesterday at the WTA Eastbourne event.

Novak Djokovic’s vice-like grip on Grand Slam silverware will be put to the test at Wimbledon next week but such is the world number one’s dominance few look capable of loosening it.

Rio de Janeiro will be “the safest city in the world” during the Olympics Games in six weeks time, organising committee spokesman Mario Andrada has insisted.

Mark Cavendish will get the chance to claim a long-awaited Olympic medal in Rio de Janeiro this year after being named in Britain’s track cycling team on Friday.

Two small British nations clash for the momentous prize of a Euro 2016 quarter-final berth today when Gareth Bale’s Wales meet Northern Ireland in a post-Brexit clash in Paris.

England football great Gary Lineker led a host of sports stars expressing their anger at Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union yesterday.

South America, by turning its flagship Copa America into a joint effort with the northern half of the continent, has definitively taken its showpiece tournament into the 21st century.

Chile face Argentina in tomorrow’s Copa America final for the right to call themselves South America’s dominant team but perhaps an even bigger question for football fans the world over regards whether Lionel Messi can finally win a major international title.

Steve Cishek’s wild pitch to Ian Kinsler with the bases loaded and two outs in the 10th inning scored pinch runner Cameron Maybin from third base to give the Detroit Tigers a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday and a sweep of their four-game series.