Category: 6. Sports

TAMPERE (Finland) – Germany became the first team to lock up a spot at the Final Phase with a 3-0 start in Tampere, and it’s been no surprise to see Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner leading the way.

Schroder is averaging 23.3 points and 5.7 assists per game, just ahead in the scoring department with Wagner putting up 22.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals across the three wins, so far.

Since making his major tournament debut at FIBA EuroBasket 2022, Wagner has already played a key role in Germany’s success – most notably, of course, winning the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 title.

But the recently turned 24-year-old is still eager to earn as much as possible from his more experienced teammate.

“Dennis is teaching me some things, giving me a lot of responsibility, and letting me experience what it is like to be one of the main guys on the team and push me into that role a little bit, too,” Wagner said.

“So obviously, as a young kid coming in, it gives you a lot of confidence when you know the best player on the team wants you to get active out there on the court and make decisions for the team.

“I think that transcends our relationship. For me, I would love to be the leader that Dennis is right now, but he’s showing me that you have to be that leader in your own way. Kind of helping me build my own path.”

Following elimination in the Group Phase at EuroBasket in 2013 and 2015, Germany’s wheels began to turn in the right direction under Schroder’s direction, as they finished sixth in 2017, before making the podium in 2022.

Despite being 31, Schroder’s international career still has plenty of legs left. But the elevated status of Wagner has been a huge help, and the floor general is confident the national team will be in good hands for years to come.

“He’s been great,” Schroder says of Wagner. “Since he joined the team, we’ve been successful, and he brings a lot to the table, character-wise, but on the court, he’s just unique, can do a pass, shoot. He’s 6’9”, he’s just unique.

“He’s a winner, I’m going to war with him every single game and making sure that he’s good.

“He’s certainly our future, in terms of the national team. But at the same time, we have so many great players that can lead as well, we are a team and we’re all in it together.

“But Franz is showing everyone what he can do, and I want him to shine in EuroBasket.”

The thoughts of the Sacramento Kings guard are certainly echoed by the German team, as well as his new head coach in the NBA, Doug Christie – who has been a keen onlooker in Tampere.

“Wagner and Dennis, I think they have a one-two punch that’s going to be tough to deal with. Possibly the best in this tournament,” he said.

Daniel Theis, who produced a big performance of his own against Lithuania added pre-tournament: “The opposition is so focused on Dennis and now Franz, that it’s a matter of time before people notice Franz’s big numbers more.

“He’s a great player. Humble, and works hard.”

And there’s no question, if Germany are to claim a first EuroBasket title since 1993 – and second overall, to go with their World Cup triumph – Schroder and Wagner’s partnership will be at the forefront of that success.

FIBA

LIMASSOL (Cyprus) – When Gianmarco Pozzecco was formulating his plan for FIBA EuroBasket 2025 early on this summer, the Italy national team head coach didn’t know exactly what to expect from Saliou Niang.

Let’s just say that they 21-year-old talent has blown away any expectations Pozzecco had for him. And Niang’s Italian teammates have been similarily surprised.

Niang has come out of the gates on fire in Limassol as Italy’s leading scorer through two games with 13.0 points to go with 2.5 rebounds. He shined so brightly in Italy’s win over Georgia, that his 15-point performance – which included eight points in the game-deciding 16-0 run – earned him the TCL Player of the Game honor.

“Maybe I didn’t imagine I’d have this impact from the start. But even in practice, I was able to immediately get along well with my teammates, and I’m happy with how I’m playing and what I am able to give the team, and I’ll try to do that in every game,” said Niang, who is playing his first major competition.

Niang also became the first Italian player under 22 year to have scored 10+ points in multiple EuroBasket games since Alessandro Gentile in 2013.

EuroBasket 2025 is just about Niang’s debut with the senior national team.

He was with the team for the final window of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers in February 2025. He played 11 minutes in the final qualifying game and picked up 3 rebounds.

Niang since then has had a whirlwind ride. He took off after the window back with his club Trento and averaged 10.1 points over the final 15 games of the year after having scored in double figures just once the whole season. He also averaged 5.3 rebounds with a new-found confidence.

That resulted in Niang getting selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the NBA Draft in June 2025. And he played for Cleveland in the NBA Summer League.

“The Summer League helped me a lot to be ready for here. When I go to the court I just do my thing and thinkg how I can help the team: give energy, try to control the defensive rebounds. The simple things that can help the team,” said Niang, who was born in Senegal but came to Italy with his parents when he was 2 years old.

Niang, who will play for Italian powerhouse Virtus Bologna next season, came to the Italy camp and opened eyes right from the start.

“I didn’t know him personally before this summer because I never got to play with him, but he definitely surprised me from the first days of training camp,” Italy’s star forward Simone Fontecchio said before the tournament.

“His level of athleticism is crazy. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it in Italian guys in the last few years. So it definitely helped us and it’s a huge help with high energy and intensity for the second unit.”

After Niang’s showing against Georgia, Fontecchio offered: “I’m not surprised by him any more. He’s been amazing the whole summer. He can only get better and the sky is the limit for him.”

Matteo Spagnolo raved about Niang’s freak athleticism but said there is plenty more to come for him.

“I feel like his role will be bigger and bigger every year, and for sure he could be the main guy or one of the main guys on the team when the time come,” Spagnolo said.

Pozzecco meanwhile couldn’t refrain from cracking a giant smile, big laugh and endearing glance with Niang at the Georgia post-game press conference when asked about his young talent.

“He surprised me. He surprised the whole world. We knew that he could be good and we knew that he could have a future, a big future in front of him. His impact already now is something that we can already use and we will continue to use,” Pozzecco said.

The head coach preaches family in his team and he emphasized how telling it is that Niang has already been so expected in the group.

“Veterans really help him, but to help teammates you have to love them. To love young guys they have to deserve it. In this business, the main business is to love each other. If you are young, you have to earn that kind of love from the veterans. it’s working good. The veterans want to help him,” Pozzecco said.

Niang is showing a maturity level beyond his years and has really been a major help to Italy. And no one else needs to be surprised any more.

FIBA

RIGA (Latvia) – How much difference a day makes? Serbia were feeling fine about their chances after a clutch performance with Nikola Jokic going off for 39 points against the hosts Latvia on Saturday night, but Sunday morning started with devastating news.

The Serbian Basketball Federation released a statement that Bogdan Bogdanovic would not be returning to action during the FIBA EuroBasket 2025.

The 33-year-old suffered the injury during a fast break late in the first half in their game against Portugal. He immediately grabbed his hamstring and left the game, not returning in the second half.

Bogdanovic has been the staple for Serbia ever since he made his FIBA EuroBasket debut back in 2013. He led the team to the Final in 2017, and also picked up two silver medals in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, in 2014 and 2019.

Bogdan has also been a double digit scorer for Serbia in their two most recent Olympic podium hunts, winning silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and bronze in Paris in 2024.

FIBA

LAHORE:

Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s storied fortress, stands half-finished, a monument to ambition and mismanagement. 

The €1.5 billion Espai Barça project, meant to deliver a 105,000-seat cathedral of football, has stumbled through a litany of broken promises for partial reopening: November 2024, February 2025, May 2025, and August 2025—all missed.

Now, with the Valencia clash looming on September 14, even that symbolic homecoming hangs in doubt.

Inspectors from the Barcelona City Council flagged dozens of deficiencies in signage, safety, and lighting during their August 26 visit, despite the club having already filed a partial “certificate of completion of work.”

A decisive meeting on August 31, involving deputy mayor Laia Bonet, the Fire Department, Guàrdia Urbana, and Espai Barça officials, will determine if a partial reopening is viable.

Licensing battles and emergency alternatives

Without a full opening licence, Barcelona cannot legally host fans at Camp Nou. 

Insiders say most issues are minor but numerous, requiring up to three weeks’ work—time Barça simply does not have.

The squeeze is brutal. 

With Montjuïc booked for a Post Malone concert barely 48 hours before the Valencia clash, Barcelona have been forced to consider the Estadi Johan Cruyff, a reserve team ground with only 6,000 seats, as a fallback.

La Liga’s minimum 15,000-capacity requirement may well be waived, as it was for Eibar’s Ipurua, but the optics are stark: a global powerhouse scrambling for a venue.

Meanwhile, UEFA looks set to grant Barça’s request to debut away from home in the Champions League, giving the club more time to prepare their stadium for the second matchday at the end of September. 

The Camp Nou will appear on UEFA’s website as the designated ground, but Montjuïc remains registered as Plan B and can be activated weeks before the first home game if the Lateral stand is not ready in time.

Despite a completed pitch, 39,000 seats installed, and numerous promises, the dream of a homecoming remains elusive.

Fans’ frustration and Laporta’s credibility at stake

PHOTO COURTESY: BARCELONA FC

To cut through the noise surrounding Espai Barça, I turned to Spanish football experts to gauge whether Barcelona’s long-awaited homecoming against Valencia is realistic—or just another false dawn.

Dermot Corrigan, Spanish football correspondent for The Athletic, struck a cautionary note:

“It is looking increasingly unlikely that Barca will be able to host Valencia at the Camp Nou on September 14. The club and the builders have not yet been able to provide the relevant documents to show the Barcelona city council that it will be possible to play the game securely in front of even a reduced number of fans. It’s understandable really – given the size of the project, and the number of setbacks it has suffered over the last few years.”

Similarly, Ruairidh Barlow, editor of Football Espana, weighed in on how the repeated delays at Camp Nou are shaping fans’ perceptions of Joan Laporta’s administration:

“It’s always difficult to tell between the average Barcelona fan and the average Barcelona fan online. It’s hard to imagine that the Camp Nou work has not weakened trust in both the club and President Joan Laporta’s word. Barcelona have confidently put out that they were to return in November 2024, February 2025, May 2025, and then August 2025. September is the next one. It’s hard to see what that was founded on, when in each case, they’ve been some way off a return.

This year, I can see frustration growing if Barcelona return to Camp Nou with 27,000 fans for a prolonged period – that means the majority of season ticket holders will miss out, and members looking to go to games will likely be dealing with sky-high prices. 

With Montjuic, there seemed to be more apathy on the issue, and let’s not forget that Barcelona have banned the most vocal section of their support for criticising the president.

It’s a truism, but no less appropriate, to say that while Hansi Flick’s side produce results on the pitch, the issues off it will be put to one side. Only when success slips away, do these issues tend to hold more weight when it comes to fan reaction and action.”
 

Limak, penalties, and the politics behind Espai Barça

Further commenting on the matter, Barlow also opined on whether the construction company in charge of the Camp Nou renovations, Limak, is actually going to be penalized for these delays:

“As is the case on registration issues, we’re dealing with a democratic institution that has heavy influence on the local media, so it’s hard to sort the truth from the club line at times. Based on the current situation, it’s impossible to expect anything to be done earlier than with a year’s delay.

Over the last four years, Barcelona have sacked, or seen around 35 senior people move on from their roles, and in many cases, complaining of impossible working conditions. 

Several of those have been involved in the Camp Nou renovation or Espai Barca project as a whole, meaning that on some level, Barcelona have been improvising.

The decision to award the Camp Nou project to Limak made little sense other than based on the price they said they would do it for, much cheaper than their competitors. 

Limak had a record of environmental abuses, and little in reputation outside of Turkiye. 

The €1m clause was a manner of reassuring fans at the time that they were dealing with a legitimate firm.

It has been reported that they don’t want to activate it to ensure that relations remain solid, and Limak do not rush the job, but if there had been any real intention of activating the fine in the first place, then Limak would surely have rushed the job anyway.

If they were to do so, Barcelona would now be looking at close to €275m in income, which would resolve significant financial pressure on the club. 

Regardless of what the state of relations were, either the threat was not real, or Barcelona never had any intention of using it.”

This threat of the use of penalties against Limak might just have been another way to deceive the fans about the work being undertaken at their beloved stadium. 

However, this affair could easily be swept to the sidelines as the bigger issue remains the completion of work and reopening of the Camp Nou for the fans.

With all the delays, the unrealized deadlines, and broken promises with the fans, this project of the stadium’s renovation is proving to be a mess, and it remains to be seen whether it will politically benefit or cost Laporta in the next presidential elections of the club. 

But for now, one can only hope that the stadium will be completed and reopened for the fans as soon as possible, even if not for the Valencia game.

The author is the Editor-in-Chief of Sempre Barça

The opinions expressed in this article are author’s and do not refelct The ExpressTribune’s. 
 

Indian veteran Rohan Bopanna and his partner Romain Arneodo of Monaco crashed out in the opening round of the men’s doubles event at the US Open 2025 tennis tournament on Saturday.

The Indo-Monegasque pair were beaten 6-4, 6-3 by the American duo of Robert Cash and James Tracy.

Bopanna, 45, and Arneodo, 33, were broken in the ninth game of the first set, and again in the seventh and ninth games of the second.

Rohan Bopanna, who finished as runners-up in the 2010 and 2023 editions of the US Open, had made it to the pre-quarterfinals of the final Grand Slam of the season last year.

Meanwhile, the 14th-seeded pair of India’s Yuki Bhambri and New Zealand’s Michael Venus progressed to the second round of the men’s doubles without much resistance.

Taking on the USA’s Marcos Giron and Learner Tien, Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus took the first set without conceding a game.

They broke the American duo again in the fourth game of the second set and wrapped up the contest 6-0, 6-3 in an hour and one minute to advance to the second round.

The Indian tennis player and Michael Venus will take on Colombia’s Gonzalo Escobar and Mexico’s Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela in the second round on Monday.

Elsewhere, Arjun Kadhe and his partner Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador exited the US Open after going down in three sets against Croatia’s Mate Pavić and El Salvador’s Marcelo Arévalo.

Arjun Kadhe and Diego Hidalgo earned a break point in the 12th game of the first set to take the opener before losing the second in a tie-break.

The Indo-Ecudorian duo were broken once more in the 10th game of the decider as they stumbled to a 5-7, 7(7)-6(4), 6-4 defeat.

The duo of Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth, who pulled off an upset in the first round, are the other Indians still alive in the US Open. They will face Brazil’s Fernando Romboli and Australia’s John-Patrick Smith in the second round.

LIMASSOL (Cyprus) – The action continues for teams in Group C and D as the Final Phase already beckons for some.

With Gameday 3 on the horizon in Limassol and Katowice, there are a handful of teams looking to continue their perfect run with the Round of 16 already in sight. For others, this marks a chance to get things going with the first win.

Who is going to prevail and who will have to salvage things in the last two games?

Key Storylines

• Giannis, Greece take on Georgia with eyes set on 3-0;

• France, Poland look to extend perfect run;

• Fontecchio and Nurkic go head-to-head.

Group C: Giannis back for Greece

With two nice wins in the books, Greece now take on Georgia with their eyes set on the knockout stages. Be sure to tune in and find out if Georgia’s passion can take down Giannis Antetokounmpo who is returning after sitting out the Cyprus game. Reigning champs Spain, who bounced back on Saturday, want to build on that as they take on the hosts Cyprus. Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina will finish things off with their battle for 2-1 and a Simone Fontecchio vs Jusuf Nurkic matchup.

Did you know?

• Georgia knocked down only three three-pointers in their last game after making eight or more three-pointers in eight of their nine previous games at the FIBA EuroBasket.

• Spain have dished out 20 or more assists in six straight games at the EuroBasket with the longest streak of that kind being seven games.

• Saliou Niang is the only Italia’s player to go into the double digits in the scoring column in each of their first two games at the FIBA EuroBasket 2025.

_{All information has been provided by Opta.}

Group B: France look towards Riga

After surviving the encounter with Luka Doncic, France now look upon the clear pathway to the top of the group. Next stop is Israel, a team at 1-1 who just missed out on making it two from two. Earlier, Slovenia take on Belgium in a must-win game now that they found themselves at 0-2 as hosts Poland will end the day with a bout against heartbroken Iceland, aiming to record their third win and book the stay in Riga.

Did you know?

• Luka Doncic has scored 30+ points in five EuroBasket games since the start of the 2022 event, more than any other player in that span.

• This is the first time that France have started a FIBA EuroBasket tournament by scoring 90+ points in each of their first two games (92 vs Belgium & 103 vs Slovenia).

• Mateusz Ponitka has had three double-doubles at the FIBA EuroBasket, the second-most for any Polish player
  over the last 30 years. Only Marcin Gortat has more with five.

_{All information has been provided by Opta.}

FIBA