BEB Weekend Sports: News!

Chelsea inflict first league loss of season on Man City


Chelsea bounced back from the disappointment of losing at Wolves in midweek to end City's 21-game unbeaten league run stretching back to April, and a sequence of 14 unbeaten games away from home.

The defending champions paid for a lack of ruthlessness as they dominated the first half, only to be struck by a smash-and-grab right on half-time as N'Golo Kante fired high past Ederson from Eden Hazard's pass.

Chelsea gained confidence and momentum and improved after the break, securing the win with 12 minutes left when David Luiz's glancing header following a corner bounced in off the far post.

They closed out the win to give Sarri his first triumph over Guardiola, whose team are replaced at the top of the table by Liverpool.

Despite slipping a point behind the Reds, the Spaniard rejected the notion his team had an "off day".
"If you think that, you didn't see the game," he told BBC Sport. "In the first half, we were exceptional. 
"In general, we were fantastic. I don't have any regrets. We came and showed we wanted to win. We created chances. They had one in 44 minutes and we conceded a goal. Sometimes that happens."
City could not recover from Kante's sucker punch, and it was Chelsea who were the more dangerous side in the second half.

Guardiola's men must now regroup after a defeat that will be a major disappointment but one hardly likely to set them back for too long.

Cameroon stripped of hosting 2019 Africa Cup of Nations


Cameroon have been stripped of hosting next year's Africa Cup of Nations, says the Confederation of African Football.

African football's governing body (Caf) says it is because of delays in the progress of Cameroon's preparation for the tournament, due to start in June.

Officials made the decision at a meeting on Friday in Accra, Ghana, that lasted more than 10 hours.

Caf president Ahmad Ahmad says it will work to "determine a new organising country by the end of the year".

In a statement, Caf said "a number of compliance conditions have not been met" and it did not want to expose the Africa Cup of Nations to "any issues that could impact on the success of the most prestigious African competition".

Caf added postponing the tournament was not possible due to contractual commitments.

The tournament is set to be the first held in June and July and will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

Ahmad said last year that Cameroon still needed "to convince Caf of its ability" to host the event, with the country playing down fears sanctions would be imposed if preparations were deemed to be behind schedule.

But in August the chairman of Caf's Nations Cup organising committee, Amaju Pinnick, said "nobody is going to take it away from Cameroon".

BBC Sport understands Morocco - having stepped in to hold this year's African Nations Championship after Kenya were deemed not ready - South Africa and Egypt are all under consideration as replacement hosts.

WBC sanctions Wilder-Fury rematch


The WBC has sanctioned a "direct rematch" between heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.

Britain's Fury and American Wilder shared a controversial and thrilling draw in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Both fighters have said they want a rematch, while Fury is pushing for it to be in the UK.

The WBC said in a statement there was a "unanimous agreement" to sanction a rematch in a meeting of the board of governors.
"Wilder and Fury gave boxing one of the best fights in the heavyweight division in a long time, which has created tremendous popular demand for the fans to see a rematch," it said. 
"The WBC is happy to confirm a direct rematch has been approved."
Wilder's mandatory challenger is Dominic Breazeale but this decision by the WBC clears the way for him to fight Fury again next without being stripped of his belt.

Murray to use protected ranking to play Australian Open


Andy Murray will use his protected ranking of world number two to gain entry to January's Australian Open.

The Briton, 31, ended his season early to focus on making "big improvements", having played in six events since returning from hip surgery in June.

He will join last year's semi-finalist Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie in the field for the men's singles.

Serena Williams will return to Melbourne for the first time since winning while pregnant in 2017.
The American reached the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018 and will attempt to equal Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles victories.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, now ranked 259th in the world, has not played since losing to Spain's Fernando Verdasco in the Shenzhen Open in September.

His protected ranking affords him direct entry in up to nine tournaments from the point he returned from 11 months out in June.

However, Murray will not be seeded in Melbourne.

from Bola Esho's Blog

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