Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Hamilton Wanderers are the surprise early leaders of the men's national football premiership.

Wanderers have beaten defending champions Auckland City 2-0 in Hamilton to sit atop the table after two rounds.

Hamilton are level on six points with Team Wellington, who earlier beat Hawke's Bay United 2-1 in the capital.

The Wellington Phoenix reserves lead a host of teams on three points, following their 4-1 win over Waitakere United in Auckland.

Across town 2019 champions Eastern Suburbs have posted their first win of the season, beating Canterbury United 3-1.

Canterbury and Hawke's Bay United sit at the bottom of the table, heaving yet to register a point.

Spurs go top

Tottenham Hotspur moved top of the English Premier League after a classic Jose Mourinho inspired performance delivered a 2-0 victory over Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.

Goals in each half from Son Heung-min and substitute Giovani lo Celso, secured the three points and a fourth straight league win for Spurs, who are two points ahead of second-placed Chelsea.

The victory was the first time Mourinho has enjoyed back-to-back wins over his old rival Guardiola.

Earlier Chelsea had gone top after a 2-0 victory at Newcastle United courtesy of an own goal by Federico Fernandez and Tammy Abraham's second-half effort.

Aston Villa missed a chance to go top after a 2-1 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, who celebrated their first Premier League victory since September.

Manchester United's risen to ninth after a controversial 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford.

- Reuters

Barca lose while Juventus and Dortmund cruise

Atletico Madrid have pulled off their first win over Barcelona in Spain's La Liga in more than a decade as Yannick Carrasco capitalised on a blunder from Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to secure a 1-0 victory at an empty Wanda Metropolitano.

The result leaves Barcelona languishing in 10th place, nine points behind Atletico, who are top of the table with Real Sociedad.

Cristiano Ronaldo's first-half double has allowed Juventus to climb to second in Italy's Serie A with a 2-0 win over Cagliari in Turin.

The Portugal forward has now scored eight league goals from just four starts.

And Norway's Erling Haaland has scored four goals in a sensational second-half performance to help Borussia Dortmund come from a goal down to crush hosts Hertha Berlin 5-2 and climb to second place in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund's a point behind Bayern Munich, who were earlier held to a 1-1 draw by Werder Bremen.

- Reuters

Nadal and Djokovic lose semi-finals

Rafael Nadal's dream of adding the ATP Finals title to his vast collection of silverware has ended for another year as the Spaniard was beaten 3-6 7-6(4) 6-3 by Russian Daniil Medvedev in a sizzling semi-final in London.

Medvedev's first career victory over the 20-times Grand Slam champion sent him through to a final showdown against Dominic Thiem who earlier beat Novak Djokovic in another titanic clash.

The 24-year-old Medvedev reached the semi-finals as the only player to post a 100% record in his group, including a superb defeat of Djokovic.

Thiem will attempt to go one better than last year when he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

Defeat means Djokovic will have to wait until the event moves to Turin next year, after 12 years in London, to try again to equal Roger Federer's six titles at the year-ender.

- Reuters

Falcons lead new hockey competition

The Central Falcons are a perfect three from three after the first week of the men's Premier Hockey League.

The Falcons have beaten the Hauraki Mavericks 6-2 in their third round match in Hamilton, having already defeated the Southern Alpiners and Northern Tridents.

Former Black Sticks striker Nick Wilson struck twice for Central in their run away win.

Earlier, the Northern Tridents secured their first points of the competition, beating the Southern Alpiners 4-3 in a shoot-out.

The match had finished 2-2 after 60 minutes with the Tridents scoring a late equaliser.

The four-team competition will resume early next month, with a further three rounds of matches before the finals.

England too good for Ireland

Winger Jonny May scored twice, including a superb solo try, as a dominant England overwhelmed an inexperienced Ireland 18-7 to make it two wins out of two in the Nations Cup.

England top the group A standings with nine points with one game remaining away to Wales next week and remain on course for a potential competition decider at home against France or Scotland, who meet tomorrow.

It was something of a strange performance from England, who were always in control but barely fired an attacking shot in the second half, seemingly content to display their admittedly impressive defensive organisation and aggression as Ireland banged away in midfield.

Nonetheless, it was their fourth successive win over Ireland and gave Eddie Jones another useful pointer about where his team need to develop.

Teenage winger Louis Rees-Zammit scored a maiden try on his first start as a youthful Wales ended a six-game losing streak with an 18-0 victory over Georgia in Llanelli.

Wales remained third in Group A, five points behind leaders England, who they host next Saturday, and they handed debuts to flanker James Botham, grandson of former England cricketer Ian, scrumhalf Kieran Hardy, centre Johnny Williams and teenage flyhalf Ioan Lloyd.

Georgia showed improvement from their 40-0 drubbing by England last time out, but were surprisingly outmuscled in the scrum and have now scored only seven points in their last three tests.

- Reuters