welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. hello this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: our top stories: raheem sterling scores a late winner in a var dominated win 0n the brink, a convoy for manchester city in germany. of trucks helps evacuate while var also plays a big part civilians, from the last piece in the first leg win of syrian territory still held for atletico madrid by islamic state. overjuventus in spain. kurdish forces say is is close to defeat. and sentimental steve as stricker is named the next us ryder cup captain. bangladesh dismisses suggestions that shamema begum might hello and welcome to the programme, be allowed to enter the country. where we start with news after britain removes her uk from the champions league citizenship, ms begum says last 16 stage. it was a night where var was used she expected more sympathy. i thought they'd be a bit more sympathetic, because of my situation. in both matches played but most i did explain that i didn't know tellingly in manchester city's late fully what i was getting into and i made a mistake. 3—2 win in germany against schalke, the british prime minister holds as raheem sterling scored more talks in brussels the winner in the 90th minute. as three of her conservative mps our football correspondent resign in protest at how she's handling brexit. john murray reports. i think ithinki i think i am a landlubber. after a most eventful night of champions league football manchester city remain as they started, strong

favourites. but they have to beat themselves out of a real hell and germany's mining country. city were leading before the goal and the match was turned on its head when mcgrath directed into penalties before half—time. first a penalty awarded by the ar, but not by the on—field referee because the pitch site tv broke down. he got worse as may was later sent off for a second booking. but trailing the city rallied with brilliant goals from leroy —— leroy sane with a brilliant goal against his former club. the second one is a penalty two. an off—side, too. we complain about the acro one, maybe outside. but it's penalty and the red card can be read card. so the result is incredibly good. three goals away, so good. but we gave the first goal and we gave the second one. and we get the red card. so on that level, we have a

chanceis card. so on that level, we have a chance is not really to fight for the champion fleet. in the night's other game, atletico madrid beatjuventus 2—0 — and var played its part in that game too. juve had the better of a goalless first half — but the match really came to life after the break. first, atletico's alvaro morata — who's on loan from chelsea — had a goal controversially ruled out for a foul, after the referee consulted the pitch—side monitor. but they put that disappointment aside by scoring twice in a five—minute spell to claim a vital victory. afterjose gimenez put them in front... his fellow—uruguayan diego godin made it 2—0 with a shot that took a deflection off cristiano ronaldo. the italian champions have it all to do in the second leg in three weeks' time. there was also one game played in the europa league on wednesday. sevilla are the first team through to the last 16. they beat lazio 2—0 in spain — for a 3—0 aggregate victory. on to golf — and after that heavy defeat by europe in last year's ryder cup in paris, the usa have named steve stricker as the man to try and help them re—gain the trophy in 2020.

stricker has been involved in six previous ryder cups — three as a player, including a win in 2008, and three as a vice—captain. on wednesday — at a news conference in milwaukee — he spoke of his pride at being named us captain for next year's tournament at whistling straits, in his home state of wisconsin. thank you to the pga and at the ryder cup committee. for giving me this opportunity, first of all. i'm an emotional guy. but truly, truly a dream come true. an honour to represent the pga, the competition itself. truly humbled by this... how are you doing? doing great. truly humbled by this opportunity because

i'm very passionate about this competition. some people see this and they don't think i'm very passionate about, or fiery about playing the game of golf and what i do for a living. deep down i am very competitive. we want to win this more than ever. i'm here to help in any way i can. i'm very blessed and happy to be here. thank you. tennis — and angelique kerber was a big—name casualty in the third round of the dubai championships on wednesday. she lost to hsieh su—weh of taiwan. the world number 31 came from a set down to beat the wimbledon champion and number five seed 5—7, 6—4, 6—love. hsieh now plays another former world number one — karolina pliskova — in the quarterfinals. the number four seed from the czech republic beat alison riske of the usa in straight sets — but both sets went all the way to tie—breaks. pliskova reached the final in dubai four years ago — but lost to simona halep. pliskova's on course to face

fellow czech petra kvitova in the semi—finals. but the number two seed was given a scare by the qualifierjennifer brady, who took her to three sets. after losing the first set 7—5, the american — who's ranked 117 in the world — raced through the second 6—1, to level the match and set up a decider. kvitova was relieved to come through the third set 6—3 — and she'll face another unseeded player, viktoria kuzmova from slovakia, in the last eight. in the other half of the draw, the number three seed simona halep is also through to the quarterfinals. the former world number one — who won the dubai championships in 2015 — beat ukraine's lesia tsurenko in straight sets. halep won 6—3, 7—5 — and now plays belinda bencic who beat the number eight seed aryna sabalenka. and the number six seed elina svitolina is through to the last eight. the ukrainian thrashed the former world number one garbine muguruza for the loss ofjust three games.

svitolina won 6—1, 6—2 — and plays another spaniard, carla suarez navarro, in the quarterfinals. cricket — and england have beaten west indies by six wickets in the first 0ne—day international of their five—match series in barbados. the home side batted first after winning the toss and chris gayle smashed 135 off 129 balls as they made 360 for eight from their 50 overs. that was gayle's 24th 0di century, and his 41st in all formats of international cricket — a world record. but it wasn't enough. jason roy and joe root both hit centuries in england's reply as the tourists reached their target with eight balls to spare. the second 0ne—dayer is on friday — also in barbados. the williams formula one team admit that it was "embarrassing" for them to miss two days of preseason testing because their new car wasn't ready on time. the 2019 williams, driven by 21—year—old rookie george russell, finally made it on to the track in barcelona after lunch on wednesday — with just a day and a half left

of the four—day test. russell was 13th—fastest — eight seconds off the pace set by the toro rosso of daniil kvyat. you don't get to miss two days of testing without more than one issue. which we had, but we are not going to be discussing those issues in public. we need to concentrate our energies on getting this test done and getting as many laps on the board as possible. and then we will do our review, after testing. bilal khan is a young man from the north of england who excelled at school, before becoming an investment banker — working in london's financial district. but he soon felt that it wasn't for him — and quit hisjob to pursue his childhood dream of wrestling. he was signed by the wwe last year and is now one of their regular superstars. sabbiyah pervez has been to meet him in his hometown of dewsbury in west yorkshire. 0n the streets of dewsbury, he is a 28—year—old former investment banker. from shrewsberry england, at

£185, a merejordan. banker. from shrewsberry england, at £185, a mere jordan. he enters the ring transformed. a wwe superstar known as amirjordan. bilal khan left his lucrative career in banking to pursue his childhood dream of wrestling and he has never looked back. it was difficult but it was something that after the first training session i knew i wanted to doa damn. training session i knew i wanted to do a damn. it was all wasted at the time because i was enjoying myself even though i was not making much money. last year he was assigned to the wwe but his journey from thinker to wrestler came with challenges. there was quite a lot of disappointment from my parents specially because he had a lucrative investment banking career. from them it was hard to accept him walking away from it. when he got signed to wwe that is where the switch happened. we are really proud of him. it is inspiring to see a

salvation boy from a small town who had a dream and he went for it. within our culture we have set things that are set for us to do. that is ok if that is what you want to do. but if there is something else you want to do, don't be scared to go out and get to be risk and work out for it. i am a prime example of taking that risk and not knowing what was going to happen, but still deep down inside having the faith that something would happen and i would get a break. so from his home to his fans around the world, bilal khan's story is one of guts, glory and courage. as a young man who gave up everything to fulfil his dream. your winner, amirjordan! my his dream. your winner, amirjordan! my favourite was always the undertaker. i used to love that guy. let's recap our top stories. champions league round of 16 first leg matches play on wednesday.

atletico madrid when he zero at home againstjuventus. var being used heavily in that game. also another game with manchester city scoring a late winter through raheem sterling in germany. everything else on the website. until then, bye—bye. hello. as advertised for several days, temperatures are now on the up. there will be sunnier days to come. but we are not there yet. for thursday, expect a good deal of cloud around. it is reallyjust later in the day, it starts to brighten up. regardless of cloud or sunshine, it will be milder. it's all about where the air is coming from, that is a bit of caribbean air coming our way through thursday. by the end of the week and start of the weekend looking to northwest africa and the canaries for the source of our mild air. temperatures will be several degrees

above normal for the time of year. nowhere particularly cold as thursday begins. this chart gives you an indication of how much cloud there will be. damp and drizzly as well in places to begin the day. you can still see a bit of patchy rain in northern scotland and northwest england into the afternoon, before it clears a way. you can pick out the land appearing among the cloud into the afternoon. these are gradually some sunny spells developing. we have established that this is a feed of mild air coming from the south. it is fairly breezy with average speeds and a few gusts of stronger winds, where you are closer to low—pressure out in the atlantic. again it is a feed of mild air, temperatures are above normal. with some decent sunshine in northeast scotland, maybe 18 degrees is possible. but widely temperatures are in the mid teens. clear spells around on thursday night. this weather front edges closer to northern ireland and western scotland with a strengthening wind. you could start to see a few spots of rain out of that. this is a fog developing across parts of east anglia, the midlands, southern and especially southeast england. as ever, it will be patchy in nature but some of it could well be quite

dense as we start the day on friday. there isn't much wind here because you are closer to this area of high pressure. still this weather front close to northern ireland and western scotland. more cloud around here at times on friday. maybe a few showers. more breeze in the west compared to elsewhere. some of the fog towards the southeast may even linger into the first part of the afternoon in some spots. for many on friday, it is blue sky and sunshine. and of course, when you have the sunshine, it will contribute to that very mild feel to the weather. some snow affecting parts of southeast europe, low—pressure close by. elsewhere for many, dry with high—pressure. not just here but elsewhere in europe. there is air coming from the canaries into the uk over the weekend. there could be some rain affecting parts of northern island and western scotland at times. still some dense fog patches across parts of england to start the day.