Jermaine Beckford scored a hat-trick as Preston North End secured promotion to the Championship with a 4-0 demolition of Swindon Town at Wembley.

The Deepdale outfit travelled to the national stadium hoping to end their play-off hoodoo, having failed in their last nine attempts to win promotion via the end-of-season knockouts.

But manager Simon Grayson is a promotion specialist having climbed out of League One with three separate clubs twice via the play-offs and the former Blackpool, Leeds United and Huddersfield Town boss proved to be the lucky charm Preston needed.

It is Beckford, though, who will dominate the headlines and the striker had Preston in front after just three minutes, diverting home from a free-kick under pressure from Nathan Thompson.

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Kylian Mbappe was on target but Antoine Griezmann missed a penalty as France edged past Sweden 1-0 in Solna to get their Nations League campaign started with a win.

Paris Saint-Germain attacker Mbappe converted France s only shot on target in the 41st minute of the Group A3 match, threading the ball through the narrowest of gaps between Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen and the near post.

The 21-year-old s goal was a bitter blow for the hosts, who earned promotion from League B in 2018-19, given they had the better of the chances up until that point.

Sweden made a late push for an equaliser before Victor Lindelof was caught out by the pace of substitute Anthony Martial, but Griezmann blazed the resulting penalty over with the final kick of the game.

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It comes after ESPN reported the Premier League giants doubted whether Juventus or Real Madrid – the clubs the France international has been most heavily linked to – could afford the 27-year-old.

Pogba came off the bench as United were knocked out of the Champions League with a 3-2 loss to RB Leipzig on Tuesday.

ROUND-UP

Real Madrid managed to reach the last 16 to ease the pressure on head coach Zidane. However, Diario Gol reports Zidane has made it clear to Madrid president Florentino Perez he is likely to leave at the end of the season, regardless of what happens. The report says Zidane was promised the signings of Pogba, Liverpool star Sadio Mane and Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.

Under pressure, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s future at…

Emiliano Martinez was the unsurprising star of a dramatic penalty shootout as Aston Villa edged past Lille and into the semi-final of the Europa Conference League.

The Argentina goalkeeper, who helped his country win the World Cup 18 months ago, produced some similar heroics in France, saving spot-kicks from Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin Andre to earn a 4-3 shootout win after the quarter-final had ended 3-3 on aggregate after two legs.

There was plenty of his trademark dark arts on show as he shushed the baiting French crowd, who had not forgotten what happened in Qatar, and then caused confusion by receiving a yellow card from the referee in the middle of the shootout, having already been booked in normal time.

It happened again.

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOff…

Paris Saint-Germain remain hopeful of reopening contract talks with Kylian Mbappe and want him to win the Ballon d Or with the club, president Nasser Al-Khelaifi declared.

Al-Khelaifi also dismissed speculation that PSG want to replace head coach Mauricio Pochettino with Zinedine Zidane.

Speaking after Lionel Messi became the first player from the club to win Ballon d Or honours – largely attributed to him winning the Copa America with Argentina – Al-Khelaifi made his position known about the burning issues affecting PSG.

There have been deep worries that Mbappe will walk away on a free transfer at the end of the season, when his current deal expires. Real Madrid wanted him in the last transfer window and are expected to move again. Unless Mbappe commits to…

Besiktas have confirmed the signing of former Liverpool and Ajax winger Ryan Babel on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

The Dutchman had been searching for a new club following the expiry of a short-term contract at Deportivo La Coruna, for whom he scored four goals in 11 LaLiga appearances.

Babel s move to Besiktas represents a return to Turkey for the 30-year-old, who spent two seasons at Kasimpasa from 2013 to 2015.

The 42-cap Netherlands international scored 14 goals during that spell and will hope to rediscover that form as second-placed Besiktas chase the Super Lig title.

The defending champions are one point adrift of surprise leaders Istanbul Basaksehir after 16 matches.

Babel will be paid €1.2million during the 2016-17 season before pick…

Liverpool have joined the race to sign Belgium international Axel Witsel,.

Zenit St Petersburg were tempted to cash in in the summer but pulled the plug on a potential sale to Juventus after not having a replacement in place.

Juventus are ready to go in for the twenty-seven year old again along with the Reds and their Merseyside rivals Everton though they may wait until the end of the season with his contract expiring in June.

Witsel, who began his career with Standard Liege, moved to St Petersburg from Benfica in the summer of 2012 and has since racked up one hundred and fifty-six appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring a total of twenty-one goals.

He has been capped seventy-one times for his country and was part of the squads for bot…

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer expects Alexis Sanchez to stay at Manchester United and grasp the opportunity created by Romelu Lukaku s departure.

Lukaku left for Serie A side Inter in a deadline day move understood to be worth €80million (£73m).

United did not replace the striker, increasing the expectation for goals on Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and teenager Mason Greenwood.

Help could come from Sanchez if the Chile forward finds the form that has eluded since him swapping Arsenal for Old Trafford in January 2018.

The 30-year-old has scored three goals in 33 Premier League appearances for United and requires further time to regain fitness after injuring his knee at the Copa America in July.

Alexis has come in and trained well, Solskjaer said.