Newcastle United closed in on the top four with a 2-0 victory at Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday and Arsenal slipped to seventh after a goalless draw at Bolton Wanderers stretched their winless run in the Premier League to four matches.
Atletico Madrid earned a 1-1 draw away to Girona in a chaotic and entertaining Copa del Rey last 16 first-leg match on Wednesday, leaving the tie finely balanced.
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes fired home a late penalty to rescue a point for the visitors in a lively 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Friday.
The year is drawing to a close, and so it seems is meaningful government activity. The state of flux has engulfed the entire UPA government that appears totally adrift. It is as if no one is charge, with the ministers pulling in different directions and industry threatening to pull out investments for safer bets abroad, writes Seema Mustafa.
The desperation of the middle class in heralding Anna Hazare as the Second Gandhi is symptomatic of a typical Indian mindset, says Navneet Anand
Manchester City's Premier League title hopes were delivered a grievous blow on Sunday as Everton's inspired Romelu Lukaku and teenagers Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman made it another crushing afternoon for Pep Guardiola.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel could see his hopes of a fifth Formula One world title fading with the Sochi sunset on Sunday after falling 50 points behind Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton with five races remaining.
Chelsea moved 12 points clear of Arsenal, who suffered their fourth defeat in nine league matches, while fourth-placed Liverpool fell 13 point adrift after their wretched 2017 continued with a shock 2-0 defeat at resurgent Hull City.
Bayern Munich came from a goal down to ease past hosts Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 on Saturday and remain firmly on course to retain the Bundesliga title with four games remaining. The Bavarians are within touching distance of their eighth consecutive league crown, but Leverkusen's 17-year-old Florian Wirtz stole some of the spotlight at the end, becoming the youngest Bundesliga scorer when he netted in the 89th minute.
Manchester United may field weakened teams in the league if a top-four finish seems beyond them in order to boost their chances of winning the Europa League, manager Jose Mourinho said.
Manchester City's quadruple bid remained intact as Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne secured a 2-0 win at Everton in their FA Cup quarter-final clash
Chelsea must improve their defensive solidity if they are to challenge for silverware this season, winger Eden Hazard has said. Despite coach Antonio Conte's reputation of building teams around a solid defensive unit, Chelsea have conceded nine league goals this season, including three against Arsenal on Saturday, the first of which came from an error by Gary Cahill. The London club have kept just one clean sheet in six league games this campaign.
Kevin-Prince Boateng scored a hat-trick within 18 minutes of coming on as a half time substitute as AC Milan bounced back from being 3-0 behind to win 4-3 at Lecce in an astonishing Serie A match on Sunday.
Swansea City turned on the style to beat Arsenal 3-2 and deny Thierry Henry a magical return to the Premier League and Mark Hughes made a losing start as manager of struggling Queens Park Rangers.
Swansea City beat Arsenal 3-2 to deny super-sub Thierry Henry a magical return to the Premier League and Mark Hughes made a losing start as manager of struggling Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.
A round-up of Friday's action in La Liga, and Bundesliga.
Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang won a silver medal in the men's 50m rifle prone event of the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Brisbane.
William S Cohen, former defence secretary in the Clinton administration and a three-term Republican United States Senator and currently the chairman and CEO of the Cohen Group and a member of the board of directors of the US-India Business Council, has applauded the appointment of Nirupama Rao as the new ambassador to the US. It comes as a propitious time when there's a sense that the US-India relationship is adrift, he has said.
Briton became the first player to win the orders of merit on both sides of the Atlantic on Sunday while Spain's Alvaro Quiros lifted the European Tour's season-ending Dubai World Championship title.
Indian captain Virat Kohli has had an ordinary Test series against Australia with scores of 0, 13, 12 and 15 in the two matches so far and has slipped one place to fourth, logging 847 points.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has told his players they need to lift their game if they hope to catch La Liga leaders Real Madrid and secure a fourth straight Spanish title.
Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale has expressed disappointment over the sacking of Rafael Benitez as a manager, saying that it was really sad to see him go. "I had a very good relationship with Rafa, obviously it was a big disappointment to see him go," Bale was quoted as saying by goal.com. Benitez was replaced by former French great Zinedine Zidane after just seven months in charge due to club's recent slump in form in the La Liga. Zidane's appointment seemed to be in favour of Real as they thrashed Deportivo La Coruna 5-0 in La Liga match.
Tottenham Hotspur celebrated the return of manager Harry Redknapp with a comfortable 2-0 win over Aston Villa which lifted them to third in the Premier League on Monday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Third-placed Inter Milan scored twice in the last six minutes through Stefan De Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni to snatch a 2-1 win at Parma in Serie A on Sunday despite a subdued display. The scarcely-deserved victory left Inter eight points behind leaders Juventus and four adrift of second-placed Lazio with 10 games each to play.
The autopsy, which was based on blood and urine samples and released by the Buenos Aires Scientific Police, said Maradona had problems with his kidneys, heart and lungs.
It was a tough day for Indians, but Jyoti Randhawa kept his head up with an even par 72 to stay just three shots off the lead after a weather-hit second round at the Maybank Malaysian Open. Randhawa, six-under for 36 holes, was three shots adrift of South Africans Hennie Otto (64) and Jbe Kruger (65), who jointly lead the field.
He will be remembered not only as a writer but as one of the great chroniclers and interrogators of the history of our times, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Rafael Nadal's decision to end his season early means Cilic is actually holding the last berth for the eight-man showdown at London's O2 Arena.
Nice defeat leaves Lyon 10 points behind leaders PSG
The Indian coast guard has rescued six crew members on board an Oman vessel Sakar-7, about 160 nautical miles off Porbandar coast in the Arabian sea.
Internacional forward Paolo Guerrero missed a late penalty and then had a goal disallowed as his side were held 1-1 by Athletico Paranaense in Brazil's Serie A on Thursday.
Third-placed Leicester go to Hodgson's sixth-placed Crystal Palace on Sunday
Cesc Fabregas has returned to training as the Barcelona midfielder continues his recovery from a knee injury, the La Liga leaders said on Monday.
'We've still got work to do to get both cars home in the points. We'll take positives from today, but we're trying to find a bit more every weekend.'
Louis van Gaal believes the club have become more boring under his successor Jose Mourinho, saying he would prefer to watch local rivals and Premier League leaders Manchester City in action.
Eight wins and a draw in their last nine games had seen Leicester emerge as the closest pursuers of runaway leaders Liverpool but they went down 3-1 at the Etihad despite taking an early lead through Jamie Vardy. Images from the English Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Reaching the King's Cup final is of even greater importance than usual for Real Madrid following a demoralising setback in La Liga.
A late Simone Pepe goal earned Juventus a 1-0 win at Lazio on Monday to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for Europe.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso held off the charging Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel to win an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
