Brighton maintained its winning streak in the English Premier League, and continued to be among the leading teams in the prestigious competition.
Brighton achieved a valuable and well-deserved 2-0 victory over its host Sunderland, on Saturday, in the sixth stage of the competition, at Al Noor Stadium.
The two goals of the match came in the second half, as Maxime De Cuyper opened the scoring for Brighton in the 53rd minute, before the visiting team played with 10 players after its Dutch player, Pascal Streeck, was sent off in the 57th minute.
Brighton challenged the numerical deficiency in its ranks, after Gwen Hijam added the second goal for the team nicknamed “The Seagulls” in the 3rd minute of stoppage time for the match.
With that result, Brighton's tally, which achieved its 4th win in the tournament this season and its 3rd in a row, rose to 13 points in third place, two points behind Manchester City and Arsenal.
On the other hand, Sunderland, which suffered its 4th loss in the tournament this season, compared to one win and one draw, stopped at 4 points in 16th place temporarily until the rest of the stage matches ended, continuing its lackluster start in the tournament this season.
Rudi Föller, sporting director of the German national team, gave hope to Werder Bremen striker Niklas Volkrug about the possibility of being called up again to the ranks of the national team.
Volkrug (33 years old) was excluded from the accounts of the new coach of the German national team, Jurgen Klopp, in the European Nations League matches, but he continued to score against the opponents for the fourth match in a row, in a confrontation that ended in a 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund, on Friday.
Föller said on the Sport 1 channel on Sunday: “Why not?” in response to the possibility of Volkrug being called up again for the German national team, noting that the Bremen striker scored 14 goals in 24 international matches.
He added: “We made sure during the Euro 2024 tournament that the presence of a great striker who is good at heading strikes is very important.”
He continued: “Volkrug’s return to the German League on loan from English West Ham United, and his participation as a starter with Bremen, will enhance his chances of returning to the national team.”
Volkrug, the former Dortmund and Milan striker, scored his last goal for Germany in September 2024, while his last international participation was in June 2025.
Volkrug ruled out the possibility of being summoned to participate in Germany's European Nations League matches in November, after scoring a fatal goal that earned Bremen a draw with Dortmund on Friday.
The German striker said: “I think Klopp took a different path and chose other players.”
Chinese Geng Chenwen, ranked 54th in the world, won her first title in the 1000-point WTA tournament, after defeating young Russian Mira Andreeva, fifth, 7-5, 6-4, on Sunday, in the final of the Beijing Tennis Tournament.
The 24-year-old Olympic champion in the Paris Games decided the match in an hour and 43 minutes against Andreeva, who was playing in her first final since winning the Roland Garros title at the beginning of last June.
Chenwen became the first Chinese player to win the 1,000-point title in the Beijing tournament, which began in 2004, and she also confirmed her return to her best levels by winning the sixth title in her career in the WTA tournaments.
The native of Hubei Province in central China had reached fourth place in the world 16 months ago, but she fell outside the top 100 after undergoing elbow surgery in the summer of 2025 and with fluctuating results during the first half of the 2026 season.
In early September, Chenwine reached the quarter-finals of the US Open after working her way through the qualifiers.
The runner-up in the Australian Open and Masters tournaments, the final of the 2024 season, was competing in her second final on Sunday in the WTA 1,000-point tournaments.
In 2024, she lost the final of the Wuhan tournament in the 1000 category to Aryna Sabalenka, ranked second in the world, and she may meet the Belarusian again in the second round of the Wuhan tournament (October 12-18) this year, according to the draw that was held on Saturday.
Chenwin took advantage of the “wild card” granted to her by the organizers of the Beijing tournament to enter directly into the main table, becoming the fourth player to win a title in this category with a wild card, after the Russian Maria Sharapova (Cincinnati 2011) and the Canadians Bianca Andreescu (Indian Wells 2019) and Victoria Mpoko (Montreal 2025).
On the other hand, Andreeva lost her second final in this category this season, after her defeat in the Madrid final in early May.
The Russian player won her first two titles in this category in 2025, in Dubai and Indian Wells.
On Monday, Andreeva will rise to third place in the world, which is the best ranking she has achieved in her career.
