A tale of two countries in the nations league — a win for northern ireland, but a defeat for scotland. Steve clarke had said his side were about evolution after their early exit from the euros in the summer, but they began their campaign with a 3—2 defeat to poland in group a at hampden. Poland went ahead early through sebastian szymanski. Scotland had a goal ruled out, then gave away a penalty, which robert lewandowski took to make it 2—0. Billy gilmour struck back for scotland straight after the break. The comeback gathered steam and scott mctominay got his side back on equal terms. But poland won another penalty and nicola zalewski fired it home for the 3—2 win. Scotland travel to portugal next on sunday in belfast, it was a very different match with northern ireland getting their group three campaign off to a good start with a 2—0 win over luxembourg. Luxembourg were on the back foot from the off and paddy mcnair gave the hosts the lead after ten minutes. Their superb start continued, and after a quarter of an hour they got a second through dan ballard. Northern ireland are off to bulgaria on sunday. San marino made history by winning a competitive match for the first time with victory against liechtenstein. The world's lowest fifa ranked team also ended the longest winless run in football, stretching back two decades and 140 games to when they won a friendly back in 2004 — which was also against liechtenstein and by the same scoreline. 19—year—old nicko sensoli, who plays in the italian fourth tier, was the scorer. England play ireland on saturday, and wales get their campaign under way on friday against turkey at the cardiff city stadium in what will be new manager craig bellamy�*s first match in charge. He says he's determined to enjoy the occasion, but won't be sentimental about it. You don't pay me to be emotional. You pay me to try and make the best decisions possible on the side. And that's the business i have to be in. Yeah, of course i'm proud. And i'm fully aware. Um, the moment, it's going to obviously catch me, um, but it has to leave very, very quick. Um, because, um, there's a big responsibility, and the players need me as well at that moment. Um, and you would have heard me say on numerous times, i'm going to enjoy this. This is not going to, um, make me old very quick. Um, i'm going to sit back and i'm going to enjoy this because you know why? i've worked hard. Next, to the oval where england are preparing for their final test of the domestic summer, which gets under way tomorrow. Head coach brendon mccullum has been laying out his expectations for the future, having recently extended both his contract and his role. Mccullum will now take charge of england's white ball teams, as well as the test side. He says he expects ben stokes to be all in with his commitment. And mccullum has bold ambitions for england's global success. Our sports correspondent joe wilson reports. The rain sent training indoors at the oval, didn't stop the fun. In the midst of the football group, the key man, brendon mccullum, will soon coach all england's cricket teams. He's simultaneously one of the lads and the leader. It's his style, and the serious point, chasing india to be the world's best cricket nation. Theyjust keep producing talent after talent after talent. Um, and they've got obviously sheer numbers as well. But there's no reason with the passion for the game in this country, the history and traditions of the game in this country, the fact that it's incredibly well supported and the talent structure and the talent pool that sits within this country, there's no reason why it can't be challenging india in that regard for, all the major titles. There's no reason why not. I guess that's ultimately, that's probably myjob. I've got to work out. Well here and now, there is a test series to complete. Sri lanka are here. 2—0 down. They spent the last match watching joe root make hundreds. And to be honest, their captain seemed a little deflated. Yes. You know, simple things. We have to do our basics right. You know, we had to put the ball in the right areas and batsmen need to get runs. Joe root has made a big difference in this series, hasn't he? if you get him out, will you smile then? yes. Of course. You know, the bulk of the runs. I thinkjoe made the bulk of the runs for the english team, i think. Yeah, we have to get him out early. Makes sense. Well, one series will soon end in england's quest for improvement will move elsewhere. But in london, september, the pace of progress, as ever, will depend on the weather. Joe wilson, bbc news at the oval. Meanwhile, white ball captain jos buttler has been ruled out of the upcoming three—match t20 series against australia, starting next week, and is a doubt for the five one—day internationals afterwards. Buttler hasn't played since the t20 world cup injune because of a calf injury. Phil salt will step in to captain england for the first time in the t20s, whilst harry brook is in line to step up, if needed, in the odis. We're at the semifinal stage of the us open in new york, and it is the presence of a brit in the final four of the men's draw that is sparking excitement. Jack draper is the first british man to get there since andy murray back in 2012. And that ended in murray lifting the trophy. Parallels being drawn with 2021 us open winner emma raducanu, too. Well, draper came through his quarterfinal last night against alex de minaur in straight sets to line up a semifinal against the world number one jannik sinner. Here's our tennis correspondent russell fuller. The element of surprise is a lot less. Its still very exciting when a player starts to realise their potential at the highest level. But with emma radacanu, she was just a teenager. She had to qualify. She was well outside the world's top 100, and she went on and won the title. Jack draper has also had that enormous potential for many, many years. Along with radacanu, the two young players when they were in their mid—teens, the people in british tennis were very excited about. Butjack draper has taken a more conventional route. He's had problems with his body, with his fitness, with stamina. But over the past year, he's been on the tour regularly and he started to do the things that you should be doing if you're going to win big titles one day. He reached a couple of low—level finals on the atp tour. He lost them. When he had his third opportunity to win a title in stuttgart injune, he took it. He became the british number one, and now he's gone further than he ever has done before at a grand slam, notjust to a quarterfinal, but now, after that win over alex de minaur, to a semifinal where he faces the ultimate test. He's going to have to play brilliantly. I don't thinkjannik sinner is at his absolute best, but he is certainly doing a very passable impression of the world number one and beat daniil medvedev, the only former champion left in the draw in four sets. Draper says he can improve, and i think that's true even though he's not dropped a set so far, he has been fortunate with the draw. Diminaur was not fully fit and before that he hadn't played a seeded opponent. But actually, the first serve, which is such a powerful weapon for him, he's not been landing it with as much regularity as he can. So, he's going to need to serve exceptionally well. He's going to have to play to his strengths. He has that raw power, that ability to really hit through players, including the world number one potentially. But he's going to have to do that to a very high level for five sets, perhaps. World athletics has paid tribute to the ugandan marathon runner rebecca cheptegei, who has died at the age of 33, saying she was a talented athlete with lots left to give. Cheptegei died in hospital after being brutally attacked by a former boyfriend on sunday. World athletics president sebastian coe said, our sport has lost a talented athlete. Adding. . . Medals continue to stack up for paralympics gb in paris. Dan pembroke smashed the world record twice as he retained his f13 javelin title. Pembroke set a new record with a throw of 71. 15m — but then threw 74. A9m to move almost five metres into the lead, and become a double gold medalist. In the pool, becky redfern made it third time lucky with gold in the sb13100m breaststroke final. Redfern, who is visually impaired, had finished second in the event at the past two paralympics but is the current world champion. The 24—year—old turned well ahead of her rivals and controlled her pace to win in one minute 16. 02 seconds. Alice tai has picked up her second gold, and herfourth medal of the games. She recovered from a bad start in the women's s8 50m freestyle, to take the lead in the final ten metres, and then held on to win by half a body length. The youngest member of the paralympics gb team — 13—year—old iona winnifrith — has picked up a silver. The teenager was just a few seconds behind gold medalist, mariia pavlova who finished with a world record time. Winnifrith battled hard to take second place in the sb7100m breaststroke. That's it from us. Thank you for watching sportsday, more on the bbc sports website. Hello. The weather across the uk is certainly pretty varied right now. Looking back at thursday, some places got to see blue skies and sunshine. Gorgeous scenes there in the highlands. Compare that with the heavy downpours that affected not only kent, but many southern counties of england, the southern half of wales as well. It's all because the low pressure is swirling to the south of us. Instead of this area of low pressure moving through and clearing away, it willjust continue to churn around, and that means further outbreaks of rain across southern counties of england, pushing up into the south of wales and the south midlands. Further north, though, yes, some areas of low cloud, mist and fog, which may lingerfor some northern and eastern coasts. But further north and west, we see a good deal of sunshine, whereas these showers and thunderstorms will continue down towards the south right through into the late afternoon. Just to the north of that band of rain, 25—26 degrees. We could also get to 26 in western scotland, and it is going to feel quite humid. Now through friday night, this band of showers and perhaps still the odd thunderstorm drifting a little bit further northwards. But many spots will be dry with some mist and murk, again, some areas of fog. It's going to be another pretty warm and humid night. A humid start to saturday with our area of low pressure still churning to the south. That means there is the chance that we'll see further outbreaks of rain pushing up from the south across the channel islands into southern counties of england as we go through the day. Spots further north after early mist and murk clears should see, once again, some spells of warm sunshine, although i think it will stay quite grey for some of these eastern coasts. Again in the sunny spots with that humid air, temperatures could get to around 23—24 degrees. By sunday, it looks like our area of low pressure will start to move northwards. That will introduce outbreaks of rain, particularly across england and wales. Could see some of that into southern scotland later on. Some hefty thundery downpours following on into the south. Still quite a warm feel for the time being. That is set to change because as we head into next week, we change the wind direction, we bring the winds down from the northwest, and so things are going to feel very different. Temperatures, if anything, looks set to drop back to values below the average for the time of year, and it will still be quite unsettled. Showers or longer spells of rain and often breezy. This is bbc world news. Secretary of state antony blinken visits haiti in a show of us support as the country expands its state of emergency. The father of the georgia school shooting suspect is arrested. And after months of political deadlock, france names michelle garnier as prime minister. —— michelle barney. America's top diplomat has arrived in haiti, to shore up the country's interim government as it navigates rampant gang violence and a humanitarian crisis. Mr blinken made the comments in a trip to haiti. He has arrived in the dominican republic where he is expected to meet with the president. The trip is