Ajax were joined by Young Boys, who stunned Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 away for a 3-2 aggregate win over the Croatians, and AEK Athens who scraped a 1-1 home draw with FC Vidi after a 2-1 win in the first leg in Hungary.
In a cruel twist of fate, an Australian family who lost two of their members in the MH370 crash learned on Friday that two more from their extended family were on the ill-fated Malaysian plane shot down over Ukraine.
Jose Mourinho's quest for a unique Champions League hat-trick began in style with Real Madrid on Wednesday, the nine-time winners beating Ajax Amsterdam 2-0 on a night of commanding wins for the main contenders.
New US Open tennis champion Rafa Nadal was given a standing ovation by Real Madrid fans when he strolled out on to the Bernabeu pitch before their Champions League match against Ajax Amsterdam on Wednesday.
European champions Inter Milan were grouped with Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur and Twente Enschede in the draw for the Group Stage of the Champions League on Thursday.
Peter Crouch struck a hat-trick to help Tottenham Hotspur complete a great comeback against Young Boys and reach the Champions League for the first time while Luis Suarez led Ajax Amsterdam back to the elite in a 2-1 win over Dynamo Kiev.
Ajax Amsterdam striker Mounir El Hamdaoui struck twice to set up a 3-0 home win over Roda JC Kerkrade that put them top of the Dutch league on Saturday.
On a good night for English clubs in the Europa League, Manchester United hammered AZ Alkmaar 4-0, while Wolverhampton Wanderers also thrashed Besiktas 4-0 in Group K, and Arsenal came from two goals down to draw 2-2 away to Standard Liege and finish first in their pool. The upset of the night came in Group J as Crivelli scored a 90th-minute winner against Borussia Moenchengladbach to send Basaksehir through and knock the Germans out, with AS Roma grabbing the runner-up spot thanks to a 2-2 home draw with Wolfsberger as the Europa League group stage concluded on Thursday.
The Al Qaeda has claimed its role in the failed attempt to blow up a US-bound plane, carrying 278 passengers from Amsterdam to Detroit, on Christmas, American monitors have said.
United States President Barack Obama has ordered a review of air security measures after a Nigerian youth carrying explosives managed to sneak into a transatlantic American jet."The president wants to review some of these procedures and see if they need to be updated," said an official, amid reports that the 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was on a US 'security watch list' after his father alerted authorities about is behaviour.
A man ignited a small explosive device on board an international flight headed to the United States on Friday, in a suspected terrorist attack, informed the White House.A fellow passenger, traveling on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, spotted the man and alerted the cabin crew. He put out the explosive with a blanket and isolated the terror suspect with the help of the cabin crew.The man carrying the explosive was identified as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23.
Neto will sign a four-year deal with Barcelona that will keep him at the club until the end of the 2022-23 season and he will replace Dutch goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen who moved the other way on Wednesday.
We will introduce the Airtel brand in Africa in all the markets
Once the deal is through, Bharti Airtel would be the seventh largest telecom company in the world, with a subscriber base of 171 million.
Determined not to let defeat spoil a good party, some 700,000 fans turned out to welcome the Dutch soccer team home from the World Cup in a parade through Amsterdam's canals on Tuesday.
Dutch striker Robin van Persie's ankle injury is worse than first feared and he will be out of Arsenal's team for at least four months.
Shah Rukh's Temptation Reloaded 2008 live concert will be held in the city on October 25.
Barcelona were third on 648.3 million euros.
World Cup title hopefuls Spain, England and Argentina seized morale-boosting victories in warm-up matches on Wednesday.
Former European champions Red Star Belgrade, Ajax Amsterdam and Celtic all made it comfortably through to the third qualifying round of the Champions League on Wednesday after surviving away legs.
Guus Hiddink has agreed to coach the Turkish national team from August 1, the Turkish Football Federation said in a statement on Wednesday.
A toe injury threatens to rule Robin van Persie out of the Netherlands' World Cup qualifier against Hungary in Amsterdam on Friday.
P Hari Krishna registered his second successive victory even as Viswanathan Anand and Parimarjan Negi drew again on the fourth day of the Corus chess tournament, at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Tuesday. Anand drew his Dutch game with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States in 33 moves after the players were left with a pair of rooks and four kingside pawns.
Thirty-five is fast becoming the new 40 as worries about the economy and healthcare are pushing American people into middle age earlier, a new study claimed.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that a "systemic failure" occurred in the intelligence network ahead of the thwarted attack on a US-bound flight from Amsterdam on Christmas Day.
The two Al Qaeda leaders said to be behind the plot to blow up a US airplane on Christmas Day were Guantanamo detainees released in November 2007, a media report said on Tuesday prompting calls from lawmakers that the administration review its plan to close the prison.
Sixteen-year-old Romelo Lukaku scored twice in nine minutes to give Anderlecht a 3-1 victory at Ajax Amsterdam on Thursday, sending the Belgians into the knockout stages of the Europa League.
PSV Eindhoven are still looking for their first win of the season after sharing the points with Twente Enschede in a 1-1 draw in the Dutch league on Sunday.
Marko Pantelic struck a hat-trick to help Ajax Amsterdam thrash Vitesse Arnhem 5-1 in the Dutch league on Sunday, while Feyenoord also enjoyed a good away win, 2-0 at ADO Den Haag.
Dutch international Demy de Zeeuw scored twice in Ajax Amsterdam's 5-1 thrashing of arch rivals Feyenoord, who finished with nine men, in the Dutch league on Sunday.
No Dutch top-flight league soccer title will be awarded this season after the COVID-19 pandemic brought the campaign to a premature close, the Dutch FA (KNVB) said after a meeting with clubs and unions representing coaches and players on Friday. Ajax were top of the Eredivisie table with 56 points from 25 games, only ahead of AZ on goal difference, and both teams will now fill the Netherlands' qualifying places in UEFA's 2020-21 Champions League, Europe's elite club competition.
Rediff.com brings you the top highlights of the soccer weekend.
Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen suffered a suspected broken leg during the goalless draw at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Wednesday.
The 58-year-old pointed to the 26-point gap in the Premier League table between runners-up Liverpool and his fourth-placed former team as evidence of a massive gulf between the sides.
Dutchman Louis van Gaal will take over as coach of Bayern Munich on a two-year contract starting next season, the Bundesliga club announced on Wednesday.
The following is a factbox on former Dutch international who was popularly known as 'Flying Dutchman'.
"About 30 minutes before landing, we were asked to fasten our seat belts after we heard a sudden bang, resembling a Diwali bomb kind of sound, but not a pataka (fire-cracker)," Shelly Kakar who along with her husband, was seated four rows ahead of the alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said.
Johan Cruyff, the legendary Dutch soccer striker and coach, died aged 68, according to a message posted on his website.
