Champions League full-time scores

Chelsea 0-1 Valencia

Salzburg 6-2 Genk

Napoli 2-0 Liverpool

Dortmund 0-0 Barcelona

Ajax 3-0 Lille

Benfica 1-2 Leipzig

Westlife announce stadium tour date at Pairc Uí Chaoimh

Chart-toppers Westlife will bring their record-breaking reunion tour back to Ireland with a gig in Cork on August 28.

Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne and Kian Egan admitted that being privileged to play sell-out concerts for their Irish fans is like "being able to relive your youth."

Shane insisted the concert at Pairc Ui Chaoimh next year will be Ireland's only "bespoke concert" in 2020 - though the band held out the prospect of playing further gigs in Cork if the Friday August 28 gig sells out.

They have ruled out further Irish gigs in 2020.

"It is absolutely fantastic to be playing for our Irish fans. It really is like getting to relive our youth," Shane said.

However, the band said the issue of any further concerts has not been decided.

"That is a matter for Dermot Desmond (MCD) - but we would absolutely love to play more concerts for our Irish fans," Nicky Byrne said.

But the band said any further concerts will definitely be at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

Mark Feehily, who is due his first child in just three weeks, said they loved their concerts at Croke Park this year but wanted to be able to bring their new bespoke show outside Dublin to other parts of Ireland.

Kian Egan said they were expecting one of the best concerts they have ever played.

"It is going to be a great night and we are really excited about it," he said.

However, the support line up remains a closely guarded secret.

"We will have a special guest for the concert next year - but that won't be announced until Wednesday," Mr Desmond said.

The band said they are delighted to return to Cork having previously played the Live At The Marquee series.

Promoters MCD and Cork GAA hosted a press conference at 8am today (Monday) to unveil details of the major Pairc Uí Chaoimh concert.

The Cork concert will form part of a world tour aimed at supporting the band's eleventh studio album 'Spectrum' which is being released on November 8.

Westlife admitted they were "absolutely blown away" by the astonishing reaction to their comeback concerts in Croke Park last July.

The two gigs proved a sell-out success at the Dublin GAA headquarters - and Westlife said they were now eager for more Irish concerts.

Westlife said the reaction to their Croke Park shows was "absolutely overwhelming" and "very emotional."

They will now be the third major act to play the €70m revamped Pairc Uí Chaoimh after Ed Sheeran played three sell-out concerts in 2018 and Rod Stewart played a single gig there last May.

The four Irish stars recently completed their comeback 'Twenty' tour which opened in Belfast on May 22.

Across a total of 51 concerts in Europe and Asia, they sold an estimated 700,000 tickets.

It included concerts in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

The tour concluded with a high-profile concert in Hyde Park in London on Sunday night.

It saw them celebrating 20 years of hits including a remarkable total of 14 chart-toppers in the UK.

Last June, Mark Feehily and his fiancé Cailean O'Neill revealed that they were set to welcome their first child.

The singer announced at the band's second Croke Park concert that he and his partner were set to become fathers to a baby girl.

All four singers reformed Westlife last October after deciding to take a break from recording and touring in 2012.

Shane said the break turned out to be "the best thing possible" for the band.

Westlife originally formed in 1998 and were managed by Louis Walsh.

They were initially signed by Simon Cowell in the UK and Clive Davis in the US.

On their comeback tour, the band took the UK by storm before going on to perform across South East Asia with a final concert in Indonesia on September 1.

Westlife have already confirmed a gig for Wembley Stadium on August 20 next which is expected to prove an 90,000 ticket sell-out.

Box Office: 'Hustlers' racks up solid $33 million debut, 'Goldfinch' bombs

Boosted by rave reviews and stellar word of mouth, “Hustlers” beat expectations and now ranks as the best start for an STX film, along with the biggest live-action opening weekend for stars Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. Directed by Lorene Scafaria, “Hustlers” is based on Jessica Pressler’s 2015 New York magazine article about a group of strippers who turn the tables on their wealthy Wall Street clientele after the 2008 recession hits.

Not all newcomers were as fortunate. Warner Bros.’ “The Goldfinch,” adapted from Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, misfired with a disastrous $2.6 million from 2,542 locations. Those ticket sales are well behind projections that estimated an opening weekend near $12 million. The mystery drama, which cost $40 million to produce, stars Ansel Elgort stars as Theo, a young man who turns to art forgery after losing his mother in a freak tragedy. “The Goldfinch” was skewered by critics after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Despite a sour start for “The Goldfinch,” Warner Bros. still dominated box office charts. For the second weekend in a row, “It: Chapter Two” was the No. 1 movie in North America. The scary sequel pocketed another $40 million this weekend, boosting its domestic tally to $153 million. Between “It: Chapter Two” and its predecessor, the franchised based on Stephen King’s horror novel has generated over $1 billion worldwide.

Lionsgate’s “Angel Has Fallen” slid to third place, adding $4.4 million in its fourth weekend of release. At No. 4, Universal’s comedy “Good Boys” picked up $4.2 million, taking its bounty to a solid $73 million in North America. Rounding out the top five is Disney’s “The Lion King” with $3.5 million. After nine weeks in theaters, the remake has amassed a mighty $534 million at the domestic box office.

Reuters

Tyson Fury in hospital for stitches to eye after gruelling Wallin win

The Gypsy King, 31, battled valiantly to beat the Swede southpaw in a unanimous points victory, taking it 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110.

But Fury's win was in doubt from the third round after his vision was hampered following a hefty blow to his right eye.

He was later hospitalised to get stitches on the cut of which he shared the before and after pictures.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic to announce Manchester United deal this week: "It will be this summer's big bomb"

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is set to announce where he will play his football next season on Tuesday.

The much sought after Swede is understood to be joining Manchester United on a bumper one-year deal as Jose Mourinho's first signing as boss.
With speculation ramping up as to where his next destination will be Ibrahimovic was quizzed following the 3-0 win over Wales on Sunday.
It has already been confirmed that Ibrahimovic will be allowed to leave Sweden training when the time is right.
Boss Erik Hamren said: "We have days off. We plan our activities and the players can act based on that. I'm not going to speculate about such things." Ibrahimovic is a free agent this summer after his PSG contract expired. He has been linked with a move to Old Trafford for some time and new United boss Jose Mourinho, who coached Ibrahimovic at Inter Milan, is keen to get a deal over the line before a ball is kicked in France. United will have to pay Ibrahimovic £300,000-a-week but will offset that against no transfer fee as he is a free agent. The deal may include a one year option to extend but it is a huge coup for United. Ibrahimovic may not be getting any younger but he has just enjoyed the most prolific goalscoring season of his career, netting 50 times in all competitions for PSG as they completed a domestic treble.

Jamie Vardy urged to wait 24 hours for Leicester's last-ditch offer before deciding on £20m Arsenal switch

Jamie Vardy has been asked to wait 24 hours until Leicester make a counter offer in a desperate attempt to stop him going to Arsenal.

That is the delay in the £20m move even though Arsenal remain hopeful and very confident that they will get the deal done.
Gunners striker Olivier Giroud has even claimed he has been told Vardy wants to join Arsenal and the switch is “good news” despite the threat to his own position. Leicester will move for Watford striker Troy Deeney if they lose Vardy but they still have not given up hope on persuading the England striker to stay.
Leicester will move for Deeney if Vardy departs. Arsenal have held negotiations, made it clear they will meet the £20m release clause and offered Vardy a contract believed to be worth £120,000-a-week over three years with the option of a fourth. That is double what 29-year-old Vardy is on at Leicester and the Premier League champions are fighting to keep him and have asked him to delay a decision until they try and match it. Those close to Vardy believe he is leaning towards moving to the Emirates but has yet to make a final decision. Arsenal are now waiting on Vardy with the ball firmly in his court. Vardy is due to fly out with England to the Euros on Monday.
Arsenal were hoping to do a medical and complete negotiations before he went to France as Roy Hodgson does not want transfer talk disrupting his plans but the England boss may allow him to do it before the tournament actually starts.

Markets react to petrol market liberalization

… Naira depreciates further by 7.7% … Petroleum stocks bounce back … Money market yields in mixed reaction
By Emeka Anaeto, Economy Editor

Financial markets across segments have reacted to the quantum increase in the price of petrol with foreign exchange rate and petroleum stocks in the upbeat while money market rates moved in mixed direction.   In the foreign exchange market the Naira extended its losses against the US Dollar on Friday following continued demand pressure which had started a day earlier on the heels of the pump price adjustment closing at N350/ USD1, bringing its total depreciation to 7.7 per cent in the first two trading days after the pump price adjustment. Though analysts had also fingered the speculative spur arising from federal government’s hint that the official foreign exchange market would be overhauled for flexibility, currency traders said there has been sudden scarcity of the US Dollar, apparently due to sudden surge in demand coming from oil marketers setting out to import the products. Government had announced a liberalization of petroleum imports on Wednesday, directing fuel marketers to import products sourcing the foreign currency payments from sources other than the official foreign exchange market controlled by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. On the official market, the exchange rate is quoted at N197.50/ USD1, and with last Friday’s rate in the unofficial market segment the parallel market premium has now widened to over 72 per cent, about one of the highest in the world. Reacting to the development analysts at United Capital Plc, a Lagos based investment house, said “the autonomous dollar supply has always been available but the major bottle neck prior to now appears to be more around pricing with most holders preferring to sell at the parallel market rate, while buyers understandably favor the official window. With oil marketers now forced to look at the parallel market, we believe potential supply at that market is robust enough to take-in increased demand at current price”. Consequently, the present sharp depreciation and the wide premium on parallel market, according to them, will be short-lived. Also reacting to the forex market developments on the heels of petroleum marketing liberalisation analysts at Vetiva Capital Limited, another Lagos based investment house, said “we are aware of the arrangement between oil marketing majors and related upstream companies but anticipate that as other independents enter the market, the currency could come under pressure outside of the official window and expect the premium between both markets to further widen. “We liken this to a pseudo-devaluation or possibly, the takeoff of a formal two-tier foreign exchange market”.    In the stock market, investors swopped on the stocks of oil marketing companies leading to their domination of the top gainers chart. Aside Nestle Nigeria Plc the top five gainers in the Nigerian Stock Exchange as at last weekend were all   major petroleum product marketers, with Mobil Oil Nigeria, Total Oil Nigeria, and Forte Oil, appreciating by N14.34, N10.40 and N4.50 to close at N175.00, N170.00 and N225.00 per share respectively. The other top five gainer was Seplat Petroleum which is not into fuel marketing. Reviewing the impact of last week’s liberalization on the stocks of petroleum marketing sub-sector, analysts at Vetiva Capital said “for years, Downstream Majors had lobbied for the deregulation of the sector in a bid to rid themselves of huge subsidy receivables that had stifled profitability. We think the liberalisation of the sector will allow Majors leverage economies of scale to dominate the fuel import market. “We note that in the revised pricing template of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, retailer, transporter and dealer margins were increased from N5.00, N3.05 and N1.95 to N6.00, N3.36 and N2.36 respectively.    “Following from this, we expect to make upward revisions to our coverage”. Consequently Vetiva analysts recommended the following target stock prices: Total Oil (TP: N208.77 BUY), Mobile Oil (TP: N150.46 SELL) and OANDO (Under Review). Vetiva said it expects consensus ratings on stocks not covered by its ratings which include Forte Oil, Conoil and MRS, to be revised upward as well. In the money market attention was on fixed income segment where, in the Nigerian interbank treasury bills, true yields (NITTY) moved in mixed directions. Yields on 1 month and 3 months maturities increased to 4.63% and 8.16% respectively, while 6 months and 12 months yields fell to 10.04% and 12.97% respectively. Meanwhile, Nigerian interbank rates increased across all tenor buckets on sustained financial system liquidity strain. Nigerian Interbank Offer Rate, NIBOR, for overnight funds, 3 months and 6 months increased to 0.96%, 0.27% and 0.15% respectively. Analysts see yields likely to continue upwards in the near term.