BEB Weekend Sports: Latest News!

Guardiola believes Man City’s will win appeal against European ban

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola expects the club to win their appeal against a two-year ban from European competition.

City took their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and expect a result in the week commencing 13 July.

"We are ready," said Guardiola. 

"I have a lot of confidence and trust with the people that we will be allowed to play the Champions League because we want to be on the field during these years."

City were given the punishment, and also fined 30m euros (£25m), by European football's governing body Uefa for "serious breaches" of club licensing and Financial Fair Play rules.

Guardiola added:

"On 13 July we will know the resolution, hopefully, for the club - all the workers, players and everyone here, staff - to try to continue growing up as a club in the next years."

City are still in this season's delayed Champions League and hold a 2-1 lead over Real Madrid after the first leg of their last-16 tie at the Bernabeu.

Gomez retires after Stuttgart secure Bundesliga promotion

Former Germany striker Mario Gomez has retired from football at the age of 34 after helping his first club Stuttgart win promotion back to the Bundesliga.

He got his side's only goal in a 3-1 defeat by Darmstadt 98 that still left Stuttgart in the second promotion spot.

The five-time German champions finished behind Arminia Bielefeld to return to the top flight after one season away.

"It was my last mission for VfB," said Gomez. 

"I always dreamed of finishing my career here."

Gomez, who won 78 caps for Germany before retiring from internationals two years ago, started his club career at Stuttgart, winning the Bundesliga in 2006-07, before moving to Bayern Munich, where he won the Bundesliga twice more and the Champions League once.

Spells with Fiorentina, Wolfsburg and Besiktas followed before he returned to Stuttgart in 2017-18.

Bottas beats Hamilton to Austrian Grand Prix pole

Valtteri Bottas beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position as Mercedes dominated qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix, while Ferrari had a shocking day.

Mercedes seemed unbeatable as the season re-started after a four-month delay as a result of the coronavirus.

The cars, painted black this year to reflect Mercedes' support for anti-racism, were half a second clear.
The fastest Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was in seventh as the sheer scale of their lack of performance became clear.

Team-mate Sebastian Vettel did not even make it into the final part of qualifying and the four-time world champion will start 11th.

It was a toss-up as to which was the biggest shock - the size of Mercedes' advantage over everyone else, or how badly wrong Ferrari have got it with this year's car.

As attention turns to the race on Sunday, there will be a question as to whether anyone can challenge Mercedes, and also a focus on F1's stance against racism, in the wake of the focus on the issue created by protests around the world.

‪Smith and James reunited at Lakers‬

Free agent guard JR Smith has been reunited with LeBron James at the LA Lakers for the rest of the season.

Smith, 34, and James, 35, were NBA champions with Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.

NBA teams will travel to Orlando to begin training camps from 7 July before the season restarts at Disney World on 30 July.

"This guy is a big-time player," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. "He's proven it over the course of his career."

Smith has not played in the NBA since leaving the Cavaliers in November 2018. His last full season was in 2017-18 when the team lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals, which was also James' last season before joining the Lakers.

from Bola Esho's Blog