There were 907 days between Lewis Koumas’ first senior appearance for Liverpool and his second. But for the 20-year-old, it was worth the wait.

“This is the peak,” Koumas told Liverpoolfc.com, the club’s official website “It’s quite emotional, to be honest.”

Two and a half years ago, and just three days after Koumas, then aged 18, had watched from the bench at Wembley as some of his academy team-mates played their part in Liverpool’s 1-0 Carabao Cup final triumph over Chelsea, he had his own chance to make a mark in a fifth-round FA Cup tie at home to Southampton in February 2024.

Named in the starting XI on the left of the front three, he scored the opening goal of a 3-0 victory after 44 minutes — a clever strike from the edge of the box that nestled into the corner. He became the fourth-youngest player in the club’s history to score on his debut.

Fast forward to St James’ Park in Newcastle this past Sunday, and the desire to make an impact and help his team win matches has not changed.

Koumas embracing manager Jurgen Klopp after his Liverpool debut in 2024 (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)

With Liverpool 2-1 down and searching for an equaliser, Andoni Iraola introduced the Welsh youngster with 13 minutes remaining. The instructions were simple: add energy, make runs in behind and try to make something happen.

Koumas may not have played a part in the winning of the penalty which led to the added-time equaliser and an away point, but he provided more of the drive and intensity that underpinned his pre-season. It is why there is a strong chance he remains a Liverpool player beyond the close of the transfer window next Tuesday night.

Pre-season offered youngsters an opportunity to stake a claim for starts, with Iraola new to the job and several senior players away on their post-World Cup breaks. Koumas returned after his summer holiday the week before the first-team players not involved in the World Cup did, alongside the rest of the under-21 squad.

Iraola was already present at the training ground and kept watch. Koumas continued to make an impression on his new boss when he took part in first-team training the following week. His fitness levels stood out, as did his application and work rate.

That translated into his performances on the pitch. Koumas scored the final goal in the 4-2 defeat of Sunderland in Nashville, and backed that up with another positive showing in the win against Wrexham in New York.

He was part of the second-half collapse against Leeds in the final fixture of the trip in Chicago, but the belief and trust Iraola has in him was evident when he was selected as part of a strong starting XI in the friendly against Monaco at Anfield a week later, when his performance contained everything but a goal.

Koumas’ versatility should also be a huge positive for Iraola and his coaching staff: he played in all of the front-four positions at varying points through pre-season, and came on as the No 10 against Newcastle.

He is, as many will be aware, the son of Jason Koumas, a talented forward who began his career in Liverpool’s academy before making over 300 league starts for Tranmere Rovers, West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City and Wigan Athletic, as well as playing 34 times for Wales.

The now 20-year-old left Merseyside neighbours Tranmere’s academy to join Liverpool as an under-11. They had to fend off interest from Everton, Manchester United and others.

Koumas grew up watching the team he supports alongside his father — who the youngster said in an interview with Sky Sports in 2025 wasn’t too involved in the early stages of his career as he wanted him to “just have fun as a kid and make sure I was enjoying it” — as well as playing for them at youth levels. He has leaned on him for advice, given the career he had.

Lewis Koumas’ father Jason (right) playing for Tranmere against former club Liverpool in 2001 (Clive Brunskill/Allsport via Getty Images)

Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com after the weekend’s draw with Newcastle, Koumas credited his mother for the sacrifices she made, especially during the early days of his footballing career.

“It just takes me back to the very first moments, where it was my mum sacrificing absolutely everything to get me to any session I could be at,” Koumas said.

“I remember being at Crewe, being at Tranmere, and my mum was just doing everything. So ultimately, it’s her to thank for being able to put myself out there, and now we’ve reached this stage. It’s just a happy family moment, and I’m just really happy she could see it.”

Koumas progressed through the younger age groups at Liverpool, playing predominantly as an attacking midfielder.

Ahead of his first full season with the under-18s, as a 16-year-old, their head coach Marc Bridge-Wilkinson deployed him as a striker in the final two pre-season games because of a lack of alternatives. The experiment continued into the first game of that campaign proper, and Koumas scored four goals in a 6-2 win against Middlesbrough.

However, a season that started so positively was interrupted by an injury which kept him out for over three months. When he returned, he ended the campaign in sparkling form once more. Five goals and two assists in the final seven matches of the Under-18 Premier League meant he only failed to score or assist in two of his 13 league appearances.

After a handful of training sessions with the first team in the 2023-24 pre-season, he was named in a 32-man group which travelled to Germany for a training camp.

It was another impressive campaign for the now 12-time Wales international as he scored 16 goals and recorded six assists in 27 appearances across a variety of competitions at youth level.

The reward was a first-team debut against Southampton in the FA Cup, and at the end of the campaign, a first senior call-up for Wales. He made his debut off the bench in a friendly away to Gibraltar in June 2024.

There was plenty of interest in taking Koumas on loan that summer, with regular first-team football key to the next stages of his development. Championship side Stoke City stood out. There was an impressive pitch from sporting director Jonathan Walters, who had done his research on Koumas.

It proved far from the ideal environment for a young player experiencing their first loan, however, with manager Steven Schumacher sacked after only five league games and replaced with Narcis Pelach.

That can sometimes push loan players out to the fringes as the new head coach assesses the squad he’s inherited, but Koumas adapted to Pelach’s more possession-based approach quickly and became a fan favourite.

He hit the headlines for an acrobatic goal against Bristol City in the October, but it was his all-round game that impressed the coaching staff. Work was done on timing runs in behind defences, and he was able to integrate into the dressing room and was part of a group of players who stayed in Stoke on a Friday evening before home games the following afternoon and went out for a meal together.

Koumas scoring for Stoke against Bristol City in October 2024 (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Koumas had another manager to impress when Mark Robins was appointed on January 1, replacing the short-lived Pelach, who had been dismissed five days earlier. He was still playing regularly, but he did not start as many games in the second half of the season. Still, he finished with 49 appearances (starting 31) and almost 3,000 minutes of game time (the equivalent of almost 32 full matches) in all competitions, six goals and three assists.

Last season was an opportunity to build on that, and he joined promoted Birmingham City, again in the Championship, late in the summer. Koumas started three of the first four league games after his arrival — he was substituted after 44 minutes in the third one due to team-mate Jack Robinson’s red card — but would be in the XI for only one of the next 18.

Manager Chris Davies did use him regularly from the bench in that time, but entering January, sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, told The Athletic that discussions began to take place about his future. Ironically, he started the final three games of his stay, scoring in a 3-2 win against title-bound Coventry City, before what was initially a season-long loan got cut short.

Several Championship clubs were interested, but one of the surprise packages of the season, Hull City, proved to be his next destination. His impact was immediate.

Joining a side in the thick of play-offs contention, Koumas made his debut from the bench against Blackburn Rovers on January 31 and within four minutes had netted the winner.

Coming in and earning a starting spot in a team already doing well was always going to be difficult, and with the exception of a run of four starts in five games between the end of February and mid-March, he was again a regular contributor as a substitute. Hull secured a play-off place on the final day of the season and then promotion; as with that Carabao Cup final against Chelsea two years earlier, Koumas was an unused replacement in a 1-0 Wembley win, this time over Middlesbrough.

All three loans have taught him plenty, and he is using the experience gained to make his mark in a Liverpool shirt.

He will be hoping the time between his second and third appearances is nowhere near as long as the wait to play again after his debut.

If Alex Fitzpatrick wanted a glimpse into just how life changing winning on the PGA Tour would be, he did not have to wait long.

While celebrating victory at the Zurich Classic pairs event, in tandem with his older brother and world number four Matt, at a golf club just north of Palm Beach, Florida, Alex felt a congratulatory hand on his shoulder.

“I look over and it’s Michael Jordan,” Fitzpatrick says. “I’m like ‘wow’, it’s insane.

“He walks past the table. He’s got a bag full of cigars, t-shirt untucked, he looks like the coolest person ever.

“He walked past me, saw Gary Woodland, who won the previous week, and was like ‘wow, it’s a room of winners in here’. That was the coolest thing ever.

“When I started to really love basketball, I watched videos of him. I love his shoes. I loved everything about him. It was surreal having that moment.

“I’m not someone who gets starstruck but Michael Jordan, having him say stuff to me, it was a different world.”

It is a world though where Fitzpatrick is looking very much at home.

In addition to his maiden DP World Tour win at the Indian Open in March, Fitzpatrick has five top-10 finishes in 13 starts on the PGA Tour.

While cynics were questioning the merit of receiving a two-year tour card as a result of winning April’s Zurich Classic, 2026 has seen Fitzpatrick prove his place alongside the world’s best.

And so sure is he of his spot among the elite, Fitzpatrick hasn’t actually leaned much on 2022 US Open champion Matt for advice.

“The truth is, we haven’t spoken that much about a lot of stuff. I’ve picked his brain once this year, maybe twice,” he says.

“I feel comfortable out here and comfortable around the group of people playing on this tour.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, I’ve been playing golf since I was four.

“I haven’t asked him a lot of questions about how things work, maybe how to get better with certain things.

“He’s always someone I can text or call but he’s still my brother and that’s more important than the golf side.”

It’s been a long summer of football thanks to the 2026 World Cup, but now the UEFA Champions League is back. Almost, anyway.

With four rounds of qualifying now over, the league-phase draw will take place today (Thursday, August 27), with the competition proper’s initial stage kicking off on Tuesday, September 8.

Last season’s final was one to forget for Arsenal fans as Paris Saint-Germain won their second successive Champions League title, beating the Londoners 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Budapest.

All 36 qualified teams will be dreaming of reaching the 2026-27 final, which will be played in June at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid. The league-phase draw will determine how that path unfolds, so let’s have a refresher on how it will all work.

When is the Champions League draw?

The draw for this year’s league phase is happening today (Thursday, August 27, from 5pm BST/12pm ET) at Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. This follows the final round of qualifying games that concluded the night before.

As for the equivalents in the second-tier Europa League and third-tier Conference League, they will take place a day later, starting at 12pm BST on Friday, August 28.

To watch the draw, you can find it on UEFA’s website, UEFA.com. For readers in the United Kingdom, it will also be available on TNT Sports 1 and the TNT Sports YouTube channel.

(Harold Cunningham/AFP via Getty Images)

How does the Champions League draw work?

The 36 teams are divided into four pots of nine based on their UEFA club coefficient rankings, which are determined by performance over the past five years, with Pot 1 being for the highest-rated sides and Pot 4 containing the lowest.

Starting with Pot 1, balls representing each club will be drawn out individually, usually by former or current football stars who are special guests of the ceremony. UEFA’s supercomputer then automates the team’s league-phase opponents, who will consist of two from each of the pots — making eight matches in total, with four of them to be played at home and four away. However, no sides from the same country can meet in this initial stage.

Which pot is each team in?

Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City are in Pot 1, along with back-to-back European champions PSG plus Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Inter.

Manchester United and last season’s Europa League winners Aston Villa, both in Pot 2, are the only English teams not in Pot 1.

In Pot 4 are Champions League debutants Como (Italy), Sabah (Azerbaijan), LASK (Austria), Viking (Norway) and Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia).

Pot 1

• Paris Saint-Germain (France)
• Bayern Munich (Germany)
• Real Madrid (Spain)
• Liverpool (England)
• Inter (Italy)
• Manchester City (England)
• Arsenal (England)
• Barcelona (Spain)
• Atletico Madrid (Spain)

Pot 2

• Borussia Dortmund (Germany)
• Roma (Italy)
• Sporting CP (Portugal)
• Aston Villa (England)
• Porto (Portugal)
• Manchester United (England)
• Club Brugge (Belgium)
• Real Betis (Spain)
• PSV (Netherlands)

Pot 3

• Feyenoord (Netherlands)
• Lille (France)
• Bodo/Glimt (Norway)
• Napoli (Italy)
• RB Leipzig (Germany)
• Villarreal (Spain)
• Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
• Galatasaray (Turkey)
• Fenerbahce (Turkey)

Pot 4

• Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)
• Stuttgart (Germany)
• LASK (Austria)
• Como (Italy)
• Lens (France)
• Sabah (Azerbaijan)
• Viking (Norway)
• Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)
• AEK Athens (Greece)

When are the fixtures announced?

According to UEFA’s website, all match details, including dates and kick-off times, will be announced by Saturday, August 29.

The league phase starts on Tuesday, September 8, and concludes with an 18-match bonanza, when all 36 teams play simultaneously, on Wednesday, January 27.

Who could each club play?

Each team could play any two opponents from each of the four pots — except any from the same country as them.

A new rule being introduced for 2026-27 places further restrictions on potential opponents, too. Two clubs cannot play the same individual league-phase fixture for three consecutive seasons.

Found in paragraph 16.03 of last season’s Champions League regulations, the rule kicks in now that we are into year three of the tournament’s current format.

“The UEFA Club Competitions Committee has determined an additional condition that may be applicable to the UEFA Champions League draw for the 2026-27 season, deciding that any individual fixture between the same two teams may not be repeated in the same competition with the same home team for three consecutive seasons,” the regulation states.

This affects two of the five English clubs: Arsenal and Liverpool.

Arsenal have played Inter at Milan’s San Siro in the league phase of the Champions League in each of the past two seasons (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Arsenal have met Inter at Milan’s San Siro in the previous two league phases, a 1-0 loss in November 2024 and a 3-1 victory in January this year. That means they cannot play the reigning Serie A champions away for a third time in a row in the coming league phase, so they will definitely be drawn against one of the other non-English Pot 1 sides — PSG, Bayern, Madrid, Barca or Atletico — away from home, but can still face Inter at the Emirates Stadium in north London.

In the previous two league phases, Liverpool have hosted Madrid and won both matches, 2-0 in November 2024 and 1-0 12 months later. So their Pot 1 opponents at Anfield this time will be PSG (who have visited in the knockout rounds in successive seasons), Bayern, Barca, Atletico or Inter.