Emma Meessmann led the Belgian national team to the quarter-finals of the Women's Basketball World Cup in Germany, and the Puerto Rican national team qualified for the quarter-finals after a strong confrontation against Turkey, at the end of the group stage matches on Monday.
Messman scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, leading Belgium to beat Australia 80-68 and take top spot in Group C.
Belgium, the European champion, will rest until Thursday, while Australia will play a playoff match for the quarter-finals on Wednesday against the loser of the Italy-China match, which will be held later on Monday.
Puerto Rico achieved an exciting victory over Türkiye 75-71, after Ariella Gerantes scored 21 points.
Puerto Rico was trailing by seven points at the start of the fourth quarter, but with the brilliance of Imani McGee-Stafford and Pamela Rosado, Puerto Rico led 59-58 on its way to winning by four points.
On Wednesday, Puerto Rico will meet the winner of the Italy-China match.
The four teams that top their groups qualify directly to the quarter-finals scheduled for Thursday, while the teams that occupy second and third places will play playoff matches on Tuesday and Wednesday to determine the other four teams that qualify for the quarter-finals, while the teams that occupy last place will bid farewell to the competitions.
British Lewis Hamilton received a warning that his disagreements with his colleague Charles Leclerc within the Ferrari team were “not good for the team,” after the clash that brought together the two drivers in the Italian Grand Prix within the Formula 1 World Championship, yesterday (Sunday).
Hamilton and Leclerc collided at the first corner of the race, with the British driver accusing his colleague of pushing him off the track.
The race stewards did not impose any penalty on any of the drivers for the incident that occurred on the first lap of the race. But Hamilton said that Ferrari fans "shouldn't worry about me", after Leclerc confirmed that both drivers bear responsibility for what happened, which cost Hamilton six places down.
Hamilton said, holding Leclerc responsible: “We had no say in the matter.” “I don’t drive unfairly, I’ve always driven cleanly and fairly, and I’ve always left space.”
Hamilton, 41, also called for “written rules for dealing with drivers.”
Nico Rosberg, the 2016 world champion and Hamilton's former rival, believes that the British driver was "aggressive," but stressed that the incident was "100 percent Charles' fault."
Leclerc left the race after being involved in an accident on the next lap, while Hamilton finished the race in only sixth place, greatly diminishing his hope of catching Italian Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver, and competing for the world championship title for the eighth time.
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur said: “We will have time to discuss the matter with the drivers, but the result of the first and second turns is not good for the team.”
Hamilton is now 76 points behind Antonelli, which equates to more than three wins, with 10 rounds remaining in the season.
But Vasseur also defended his decision not to give Hamilton the advantage over Leclerc in the title race.
Hamilton was ahead of Leclerc by 28 points in the overall drivers' standings, before the Monza race, before the difference between them now becomes 36 points in favor of the British driver before the scheduled round this week in Madrid.
Hamilton said after the race that it was “too late” for Ferrari to give him priority in the title race.
But Vasseur stuck to his position, and said: “I made a good comparison to last year, when Oscar Piastri was leading the championship at this stage of the season, and if McLaren had decided to put everything behind Piastri instead of his teammate Lando Norris, Max Verstappen would have become world champion.”
He added: “At some point you have to make a decision, but it was too early to make a decision before (Monza). Every team boss in the world wants to let their drivers compete. Freezing positions is not an easy decision. Now I will have time to discuss the matter with the drivers.”
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said that he does not feel any additional pressure to win the Champions League title in his second spell with the club, ahead of his opening match against Inter Milan, the Italian champion, tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The only Champions League title that eluded Mourinho during his first period with Real Madrid.
“No, they are two different periods,” Mourinho said in response to a question about whether he owed the club. “When I left in 2013, we won what we won and lost what we lost and we did our best. That's it. What I have to do now has nothing to do with the past. Back in 2010, we didn't even get to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and it's been a long time since we played in the semi-finals. “Now, we have won six Champions League titles in just over a decade.”
Attention will be drawn to Real Madrid's reaction after its first stumble in Mourinho's second period, following a 1-0 defeat against Real Betis in the Spanish League, last Friday.
He said: “We want to win every match and every tournament, but you have to work hard to achieve stability. Stability... stability... so Real Madrid must reach that very important stability to achieve something big. But Real Madrid will remain Real Madrid, you have to win here no matter what happens.”
Mourinho was ready to speak at length, before directing more pointed questions to his French striker Kylian Mbappe about his relationship with Vinicius Junior, and the atmosphere in the Real Madrid dressing room.
Mbappe responded to a question about a change from last year: “What does improvement mean in the dressing room?” Do you feel like something wasn't right last year? No, the situation is the same as last year. We have a different coach; But the situation is the same.”
The 15-time European champion is looking forward to winning the Champions League title for the first time since 2024, but he is under pressure to perform well this season, after two seasons without any major title, coinciding with Mbappe’s arrival to the club.
