Poland forward Robert Lewandowski and Switzerland's Xherdan Shaqiri, who have yet to shine at Euro 2016, will have another chance to brighten up the tournament when their teams clash in St Etienne in the last 16 on Saturday.
Neymar wasted little time in living up to his billing as Brazil's World Cup spearhead when he scored twice to lead the host nation to a 3-1 comeback victory over Croatia in a terrific opening game of the tournament on Thursday.
A true global superstar, the depth of Kobe Bryant's popularity quickly surfaced as reports were confirmed that the Los Angeles Lakers great had been killed along with his daughter Gianna and seven others when his helicopter crashed in a remote field near the city of Calabasas.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday.
This and more from the happenings in the world of football
Paceman Steven Finn's five-wicket haul put England on the brink of a 2-1 Ashes series lead over Australia on Thursday with the tourists facing a desperate battle to avoid a humiliating third Test defeat.
Calls grow for action against Aus captain, Gavaskar, Laxman urge match referee's intervention
Australia returned to the top of the Test world rankings on Wednesday after Steve Smith and Adam Voges steered the tourists to victory in the second Test against New Zealand to seal a comprehensive 2-0 series win.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
Two teenagers were on Tuesday charged with brutally attacking and robbing a 20-year-old Indian student in Australia who suffered serious head injuries in the incident.
Nepal rode on leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane's five-wicket haul, which included the first hat-trick in the tournament, to beat Ireland by eight wickets and book their maiden berth in the Super League quarter-finals of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, in Fatullah, on Saturday.
Aseem Chhabra introduces us to the best of Berlinale.
The visitors will have to play out of their skins to arrest the slide and level the series ahead of the last T20I in Hyderabad on October 13.
While Pa Ranjith proved yet again to be the salt of the earth in his land mafia film, Zoya Akhtar took a haphazard route to make something that was hardly rooted in Asia's biggest slum, feels J Jagannath.
After 138 years of its origin, Test cricket, is about to get a makeover in this week's first-ever day-night Test match between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide.
Hungary made their first appearance at a European Championship for 44 years a memorable occasion by grabbing their goal chances to score a 2-0 win over old rivals Austria in a Group F clash on Tuesday. Austria, riding a wave of national euphoria following an impressive qualifying run, were the better side for most of the game but left the pitch still dreaming of their first-ever win in the finals. The two teams, meeting for the 138th time, started the tournament with reasonable hopes of emerging from a group that also features Portugal and Iceland who meet later on Tuesday in St Etienne.
IMAGES from football matches played in the Spain, Germany and Portugal on Wednesday.
Juergen Klopp's side remain seventh, six points behind the Champions League places, after only their second defeat in the 12 games since the German took over in October
Sergeant Rupert Frere, who transferred from a role in bomb disposal to become a photographer in the Royal Logistic Corps, won no fewer than five of the professional categories.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Cristiano Ronaldo bagged his first five-goal haul in Real Madrid's 9-1 hammering of Granada while title-chasing Bayern Munich and Chelsea won again in Germany and England.
Rattled by embarrassing domestic defeats, Chelsea looked jittery before Olivier Giroud settled their nerves with a close range tap-in shortly after halftime at StamfordBridge following good work by N'Golo Kante and Willian in the build-up.
Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek had a Europa League night to remember by scoring the first hat-trick of his career as the midfielder inspired them to a 3-1 home win over Belarus champions BATE Borisov on Thursday.
Records fell on the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday as Manchester City beat Southampton 1-0 to become the first team to reach 100 points and Mohamed Salah established a new Premier League goalscoring mark as Liverpool clinched a top-four spot.
Rajneesh Gupta throws up all the numbers from Test encounters between India and South Africa.
Sukanya Verma gives us a recap of the 91st Academy Awards.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Matt Henry shrugged off the disappointment of missing out on selection for next month's World Twenty20 with a hostile spell of pace bowling that helped New Zealand ease to a 159-run win over Australia in the first one-day international on Wednesday.
The 92nd Annual Academy Awards hardly had any surprises up its sleeves. Here's a quick look at the winners.
Tim Sherwood's hopes of becoming Tottenham Hotspur's next permanent manager were boosted after his attacking team came back to win 3-2 at stuttering Southampton in an enthralling Premier League encounter on Sunday.
Can you guess even one of them?
Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund suffered a shock first defeat of the season, letting in two late goals to slump to a 2-0 loss at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.
In a three part series, Rajneesh Gupta highlights all the important numbers from cricket World Cups held between 1975 to 2015.
Rain prevented a result at Oval during the ICC Champions Trophy match, in London, on Monday.
Eric Choupo-Moting scored his third Ligue 1 goal of the season on Sunday but the Paris St Germain forward's incredible miss later in the game was the moment that will be remembered from his performance in Sunday's 2-2 draw against Racing Strasbourg.
Pakistan cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq was fined 15 per cent of his match fee showing dissent to the umpire after his dismissal in the second one-dayer against New Zealand in Sharjah.
World champions Germany survived a late scare to see off Saudi Arabia 2-1 on Friday and claim a first victory this year, putting a five-game winless run behind them as they finalised their World Cup preparations.
India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be gunning for the No.1 spot in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers as an interesting contest promises to develop with Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who wrested the top spot following a 10-wicket haul in the Lord's Test that ended on Sunday.
Poland's Arkadiusz Milik scored the winner as they downed Northern Ireland 1-0 in their Euro 2016 Group C opening match in Nice on Sunday.
Australia stunned world champions New Zealand 27-19 to claim a first Rugby Championship title in the fourth year of the competition and a welcome boost ahead of the World Cup on Saturday.
