Picks of the week: Premier League sides remain flawless so far as Vinicius Jr. also stole the show in the UEFA Champions League. Elsewhere, the journey of Nigeria’s Flamingos in the U-17 Women’s World Cup came to a close. In Motorsports, Bagnaia claimed a victory in the Thailand MotoGP rematch as Jack Draper also got a stunning victory to capture his major career title in the Vienna Open.
The Champions League match week was a combination of brilliant individual performances and a clean sweep by English clubs. Barcelona got a statement, dismantling Bayern Munich 4-1. Raphinha delivered a hat-trick that served as a personal vindication. Vinicius Junior’s display against Dortmund puts him more in the spotlight, especially with the Ballon d’Or ceremony on the 28th of October. Real Madrid faced a 2-0 deficit against Dortmund before Vini Jr. decided to take control and bagged a hat-trick. Meanwhile, the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Arsenal all claimed impressive victories without conceding a goal. Meanwhile, in the Europa League, Lazio, Cottenham, and Anderlecht are the only teams who remain perfect, and in the Conference League, Chelsea handled their Greek opponent comfortably.
The journey of the Flamingos, Nigeria’s U-17 Women’s national team in the U-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic, came to an end as their opponent team, USA, secured a 2-0 victory over them in the quarter-finals. Before the quarter-finals, Nigeria had an impressive run in the group stage, winning all three matches against New Zealand, Ecuador, and the host Dominican Republic. The loss marked a disappointing end to their campaign as they couldn’t repeat their 2022 success against the USA side.
Rivers United and El-Kanemi Warriors continued their impressive unbeaten run in the NPFL even after their clash, which ended in a 1-1 draw; Bendel Insurance suffered yet another 1-0 loss at home against Abia Warriors. After a series of games on matchday nine, one away win, six home wins, and a draw with fifteen goals were recorded. Here’s the full-time result and fixture for Monday, 28th October, to wrap up day nine.
The CAF disciplinary board after meeting to deliberate on the AFCON 2025 qualifiers that were scheduled between Libya vs. Nigeria decided that Libya was found to have breached Article 31 of the AFCON regulations as well as Articles 82 and 151 of the CAF disciplinary code, and so the Match was declared lost by forfeit by Libya by a score of 3-0. Libya was also ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 dollars to be paid within 60 days of notification of the present decision. These sanctions came after the match billed for Benghazi on October 15 was called off by CAF when Nigeria decided to boycott the fixture following unfair human treatment by the Libyan authorities and FA, which involved diverting Nigeria’s flight to another airport and holding them hostage without food, water or access to proper accommodation and Internet.
Jack Draper, despite not getting the US Open Grand Slam, has continued to show resilience as he claimed the biggest title of his career with a straight-set 6-4 7-5 victory over Karen Khachanov at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Jack Draper becomes the first man to win the Vienna Open on his debut since Andy Murray ten years ago.
In the same vein, top-seeded Qinwen Zheng claimed the Toray Pan Pacific Open title with a 7-6 6-3 win over Sofia Kenin to clinch her place in the WTA Finals in November, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2-9. The top eight women players in the world would face off in Saudi looking to end their seasons on a high.
On the tracks, Francesco Bagnaia, MotoGP reigning champion, claimed his ninth win of the season in wet conditions at the Thailand Open, thereby cutting Jorge Martins’s lead to seventeen points with two races to go for the season. Martin and Pedro Acosta finished second and third on the podium. Next up is the Malaysian GP, which will take place from 1-3 November.
Ferrari continued their late-season surge as Carlos Sainz claimed a victory in the Mexico GP. While Lando Norris cut down Max Verstappen’s title lead to 47 points after beating Charles Leclerc to second on the podium. Whereas Verstappen was given a pair of 10-second penalties for chaotic incidents with Norris during the 10th lap of the race.
