Barcelona and Atletico Madrid led a Spanish Armada into the Champions League last 16 with home wins on Wednesday and in-form Aaron Ramsey steadied Arsenal's boat with a battling win against rocky Borussia Dortmund.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Jose Mourinho suffered a nightmare homecoming as Porto, the club he led to the Champions League title in 2004, inflicted a 2-1 defeat on his woefully out-of-sorts Chelsea side in Group G on Tuesday.
Manchester United won away for the first time this season when they beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday to climb to fourth in the Premier League table.
Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara guided India to 87 for one to leave the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland delicately poised at the end of a tumultuous third day.
Dinesh Karthik followed up on his 92 in the first innings with a match-saving 103 not out in the second to help Tamil Nadu walk away with one point against Bengal in their Ranji Trophy Group A match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
A round-up of Ranji matches played across India on Thursday.
Chelsea came from behind to secure a 3-1 win at Manchester City and forge further clear at the top of the Premier League as a dramatic top-of-the-table clash ended in a mass brawl and two City players being sent off on Saturday.
A round-up of Ranji Trophy matches played across India on Tuesday
Thiago Silva's extra-time header sent Paris St Germain into the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals.
Strangely, despite four wins on the trot, none of India's players have even figured in the top 20 of the MVPI table.
A round-up of all the international friendlies played on Tuesday
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo struck his fifth international hat-trick, including a spectacular volleyed opener, to lead the European champions to a 5-1 win over the Faroe Islands in their World Cup qualifier on Thursday.
Ruthless Bayern Munich scored five goals in the first 35 minutes on the way to a 7-1 demolition of AS Roma on Tuesday which bore an uncanny resemblance to Germany's win over Brazil by the same score in the World Cup semi-final.
Cristiano Ronaldo came off the bench and scored an opportunist goal which set Portugal on the way to a 2-0 win in Andorra on Saturday that maintained their chances of qualifying directly for the World Cup.
Switzerland struck twice in quick succession to stun Euro 2016 champions Portugal 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday and hand them a first competitive defeat in two years under coach Fernando Santos.
Lionel Messi marked his first start after injury with a goal in Barcelona's 1-1 draw at AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday while Fernando Torres got two as Chelsea thumped Schalke and Atletico Madrid's charge continued.
Malta make Italy sweat, while Bale takes Wales closer to competition
A summary of the day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches played across the country.
Carlos Tevez is getting paid 615,000 a week at Shanghai Shenhua, making him the world's best-paid player. His salary is now more than Cristiano Ronaldo's and Lionel Messi's!
Jose Mourinho's Chelsea turned from domestic whipping boys back to European stalwarts on Wednesday, beating his former club Porto 2-0 to top Champions League Group G.
Ranji Trophy giants, Mumbai, pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win over Tamil Nadu despite visiting skipper Dinesh Karthik's brilliant 167 in the first innings of the Group 'B' league encounter, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
A summary of the third day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches played at various venues across the country.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi equalled the Champions League scoring record of 71 goals when he struck for the second time in the 76th minute of Wednesday's Group F match at Ajax Amsterdam.
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The two batted as if 'pressure' was a concept unknown to them. Raina was the muscular enforcer, Dhoni the consigliere planning and controlling the momentum of the assault.'
Round up of the Ranji Trophy games being played in different parts of the country.
'If fame, money and comfort are the only factors that drive us, then we are playing cricket for entirely the wrong reasons.'
'This was not the cleanest game of cricket you've ever seen -- there were too many flubs and fumbles for that. But it was certainly the semi-final this mostly blah tournament has needed -- two tough, well-rounded teams, toe to toe, slugging it out, bleeding and drawing blood until there was only one left standing.'
Robin Uthappa's 16th first-class century helped Karnataka take a big first-innings lead of 263 to take the home side to a strong position on second day of their Ranji Trophy Group A match against Jammu and Kashmir.
Round-up of the Ranji Trophy games being played across the country
