and hungry for more success, chris froome tells us he's focussing on winning a fifth tour de france title. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the footballing news that italy have failed to qualify for next year's world cup in russia. it'sthe first time since 1958 the azurri have missed out on the sports showpiece event after losing out on aggregate to sweden in their two legged qualifier. the second leg in milan finished goalless despite the best efforts of the hosts to manufacture a goal meaning the 1—0 win for the swedes in stockholm last week proved the difference, while the italian manager gian piero ventura, who has only been in charge for 17 months, will now come under serious presssure and 39—year—old goalkeeping legend gianluigi buffon has announced his retirement from the international game. a short time ago i spoke to football journalist mina rzouki who questioned what type of italian team this was. i'm not entirely sure there is that

much talent. the very good players are the experienced veterans who did so are the experienced veterans who did so well, and a large role of ventura bringing him in was to bring through the young talent and give them the chance to show their stuff and mix with the veterans and bring in a new generation to take italy forward but he didn't manage that to be honest. in many ways this isn't a great thing to happen to italian football but perhaps it's needed, if they can make an look at this as a blessing in disguise and an opportunity to rebuild. that means from the top as well, getting rid of the men who have held onto power for well, getting rid of the men who have held onto powerfor so long, men who were brought in because people thought they might do us a few favours here or there, or at least that's what they've been accused of, weather that be true or not. but gian piero ventura, perhaps not. but gian piero ventura, perhaps not at the right age at 69 to be able to adapt to the level required of the national team. there are nowjust three spots left at the world cup in russia next year.

one of those will go to either the republic of ireland or denmark on tuesday night. the second leg of their playoff is in dublin, with honours even after a goalless draw in copenhagen. denmark had the better of the chances in the first leg, while ireland were criticised for a lack of creativity. you have to try and cover all eventualities but it only takes a second to score a goal, so the minute a goal is scored in the game, that eradicates a lot of things, it iraq decay is extra time, it eradicates penalty kicks and things like that —— it eradicates. we may need a couple of goals to keep out denmark for two games might be tough. we talk about a game that takes us to the world cup so of course we have to fight and have them on to go through that even if it goes to extra time. we can fight with them if we want to fight, we take that up, but that's not our game plan,

it's to get it down, play on the floor, move it around and hopefully we score before that. world number one rafael nadal has withdrawn from the season ending atp world tour finals in london. it comes after the spaniard lost his opening match to belgium's david goffin in a tough three set match that took more than two and a half hours to complete against the 26—year—old before succumbing late on, meaning nadal‘s fellow spaniard pablo carreno busta comes in as the alternate for the next two matches. iam off, i am off, my season is finished. yeah, i had the commitment with the event, with the city, with myself. i tried hard. i did everything i had to do to try to be ready to play but i'm really not ready to play. i really fought a lot during the match but knowing that probably it was a big chance to be the last match of

the season. grigor dimitrov is another man who has a first win on the board in london. the bulgarian beat austrian dominic thiem over three grueling sets in his first appearance at the tour finals. chris froome has told the bbc that he's targeting more tour de france victories and is not considering retirement. froome won the event for a fourth time injuly and then followed it up by winning the vuelta a espana. now 32, he says he's hungry for more success. it's a good question. i definitely don't feel as if i'm there yet. i guess i'll know when the time is right. but for the time being i'm still hungry, still motivated to keep trying to win another tour de france and i'm just going to take it one year at a time. so long as the body's able to do this then i'm going to keep going. obviously there's the five tour de france

wins, which is currently the record if you like of number of tour de france wins. so that would naturally be my focus for next year, it's to try and join that very elite club of four guys who have ever done that before. but having said that, i'm not necessarily fixated, i'm trying to reach a certain of tour de france wins, i'm trying to do the best i can do in this short window as a professional cyclist and if that's four tour de france wins that i currently have now and are not able to win any more, so be it, i'm going to win any more, so be it, i'm going to give it my all and if i can win another few that will be fantastic as well. on going to give it everything i have and that's going to be the biggest goal for me everything i have and that's going to be the biggest goalfor me —— i'm going to. six months ago matthew bryce was stranded at sea for two days after his surfing trip went disastrously wrong. matthew almost died, and was rescued more than 20 km off the coast of northern ireland, vowing never to surf again. well, time is a great healer, and matthew has decided he's ready

to get back in the water. alex gulrajani has been along to meet him. a moment matthew bryce thought would never happen again.|j a moment matthew bryce thought would never happen again. i knew i was going to die. it wasn't a question, it was a fact. lucky to be alive, that's how belfast coastguard have described a surfer rescued from the irish sea last night. matthew bryce was picked up 30 miles off the argyll coast. i was convinced i was going to die, didn't think i would see the sunrise. i had totally given up, i'd resigned myself to the fact i was going to die. i'm sitting here in the dark, i can't describe how cold... it's not as if you went out for a snowball fight and your hands a bit cold, it's like life is just being sapped out of your core. six months on, matthew bryce is ready to get back into the water. but any fear and apprehension he had has been replaced by pure excitement. how are you feeling? excitement, i'm going to go in now,

the wind is about to come so i'm going tojump in right now. i'm buzzing. and with the support of his friends, he was back where he once said he would never venture again on a surfboard. how cool was that seeing him back out there? or some. to see him back out there? or some. to see him back out there? or some. to see him back in the water, keeping him passion going and everything, it was great. —— awesome. eventually he even found his feet. not bad for six months away. there was a couple of points when i was getting tossed around and you think, hang on, but it's fine. and reunited on water with the surfboard has saved his life. and this board, matthew, must mean a lot to you? it's a special board for me. i can never get rid of this. if i lost it, ifi never get rid of this. if i lost it, if i hadn't been able to get back to it, if the leash snapped or if i threw it away i would have died. it

was the only thing keeping me safe. evenif was the only thing keeping me safe. even if i stop surfing it would have gone on the walk. i'll always keep it. there are no plans to hang it up just yet. in fact, the ocean is calling. matthew and his friends will be back in the sea this weekend determined to not give up on his passion. i want to go and live as much as i possibly can. i hope to god i'm never going to experience anything like that again, i would never wish it on anyone either. if i can take some positives out of it and geta can take some positives out of it and get a message out for people to be safe, go out with friends, don't go surfing alone, don't be reckless like me, some good can come from it. alex gulrajani, bbc news. a wonderful outcome indeed, good to see. a recap on our top story, four—time champions italy failed to reach the world cup for the first time since 1958 after a play—off defeat against sweden. there's been plenty of reaction on social media. the gazetta dello sport doesn't mince its words, this was their headline not long

after the match finished, saying that it's an apocolypse. zlatan ibrahimovic, the former sweden international and now manchester united player, recovering from injury posted a picture of the team saying, "we are zweden." while the official italy twitter account tweeted a quote from gigi buffon saying, "blame is shared equallly between everyone. there can't be scapegoats. win together, lose together." quite simple indeed! a stunning victory for sweden. no italy at next yea r‘s world cup victory for sweden. no italy at next year's world cup in russia for the first time since 1958. quite amazing. that's all we've got time for on this edition of sport today. from me, tulsen tollett, and the wonderful sport today team, goodbye. hi there. yesterday was a pretty chilly day, with temperatures between five and seven celsius.

it was even cold enough for a bit of snow in scotland. i know many of us go nuts for snow, but these scenes are likely to be short—lived, because the air is going to be turning a little bit milder today. the cold weather we had yesterday was due to these northerly winds moving down across the uk. but we've had a change of wind direction over the last 12 hours orso, dragging in much milder conditions. a weak weather front lying across central portions of the uk will thicken the cloud up, to bring us some spots of light rain or drizzle. but still, for most of us it is a cloudier, milder kind of day. now, first thing in the morning, these are the kind of temperatures you'll be contending with as you head outside the door, typically around 6—10 degrees. a little bit colder than that around rural parts of england, and perhaps cold enough for a touch of frost in sheltered parts of northern scotland first thing. but, for most of us, it is quite a mild start to the day. it is mild because it is cloudy, so cloudy skies for england and wales. notice that cloud thick enough to give us some bursts of rain, particularly across wales, but also some dampness at times getting across the midlands

and into east anglia. north—east england, particularly over the pennines, also pretty grey. a lot of cloud first thing for northern ireland. 10 degrees in belfast, mild conditions here. best of the early—morning sunshine will be across much of scotland, although there will be a few showers in the far north. through the rest of the day, slow changes overall. it will brighten up, though, for north—east england. the best of the sunshine continues to be in scotland. otherwise, a lot of cloud for northern ireland, england and wales, continuing to be thick enough for occasional patches of rain, not really amounting to too much. temperatures up on those of yesterday, still a little on the cool side to the north and east of scotland. now, for tuesday night, if we see some cloud breaks, you may well see things turning rather foggy. otherwise, it stays cloudy for england and wales, and that cloud will help keep temperatures up. 8—11 degrees, the colder conditions there in scotland, again, with a frost, and probably coming a little bit sharper, as well. bear in mind, though, for wednesday, some of us may well start off with some dense patches of fog. the thickness of the fog will depend on the length of those overnight cloud breaks.

but, even if it doesn't start off foggy where you are, across england and wales, it will be grey — fog or cloud being the order of the day. further west, after a bright start in scotland, we will see a band of rain moving into western areas. still quite cool for north—eastern parts of scotland, but otherwise temperatures around about where they should be, really, for this time of year. on thursday, we keep cloudy conditions for much of the country. a band of rain slips southwards. cooler, fresher conditions for the north—west. that's your latest weather, bye for now. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: from raqqa to safety. a special report on the secret deal that let hundreds of is fighters escape. it is here that they realised they

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