Schalke 04 are hoping their freshly-found discipline under new coach Roberto Di Matteo, coupled with his Champions League pedigree will help them beat Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday for their first win in the competition this season.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Champions Bayern Munich demolished VfB Stuttgart 4-0 on Saturday with all the goals coming in the first half as they increased their lead to eight points and stayed on course for a record fourth consecutive title on a day of red cards in the Bundesliga.
Draxler makes PSG debut as holders advance into French Cup last 32
Portugal had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Spain in a heavyweight friendly on Wednesday after hammering the crossbar twice and missing a last-gasp open goal.
Marcus Rashford's superb second-half strike earned England a 2-1 comeback victory over Slovakia on Monday that put them on the verge of qualification for next year's World Cup finals.
Playing at the Parc des Princes against the team who denied them the title last year was the perfect occasion for PSG, owned by big-spenders Qatar Sports Investments since 2011, to wrap up their fifth title in the Qatari era.
In what was a thrilling match of end to end action, Germany powered past Ukraine by a 1-0 margin in their Euro 2016 Group C campaign-opening match in Lille on Sunday.
Cristiano Ronaldo's fifth Champions League hat-trick inspired Real Madrid to a 3-0 comeback victory over VfL Wolfsburg on Tuesday that clinched a place in the semi-finals for a sixth successive season.
Images from the Champions League football matches played on Wednesday night.
Borussia Dortmund's Marco Reus scored twice in a 3-1 victory at Werder Bremen on Saturday to put them within five points of Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich while Borussia Moenchengladbach continued their sensational winning run with a 4-1 demolition of Hertha Berlin.
Juventus appear to be suffering from a predictable early-season slump in the wake of a summer spent fumbling around the transfer market in a bid to rebuild a team that had grown to dominate Serie A.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday.
A round-up of Saturday's matches in Ligue 1, Serie A and Bundesliga.
Barcelona completed one of the most extraordinary comebacks in European football history to knock Paris St Germain out of the Champions League on Wednesday with a 6-1 victory that rewrote the record books.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday.
Germany were stunned 1-0 by Mexico in the opening game of their World Cup defence on Sunday as Hirving Lozano finished off a sharp counter-attack that exposed the ragged defending that the four-times winners had displayed in their warm-up games.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Lionel Messi scored a penalty for the third Champions League game in a row with the Spaniards maintaining their winning start to the group stage.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Second half goals from Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe gave the impressive French side a clear advantage ahead of the return in Paris on March 6.
Germany eased into the Confederations Cup semi-finals with a 3-1 win over Cameroon on Sunday as the VAR system was again thrust into the spotlight when the on-field official needed two reviews of an incident to reach the right verdict.
Harry Kane's injury-time goal gave England a 2-2 draw after a crazy finish to their World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Saturday with Leigh Griffiths having struck twice for the home side in the final three minutes.
The good news for Schalke 04's defenders as they prepare to face Chelsea in their opening Champions League Group G match on Wednesday is that striker Diego Costa is nursing a slight hamstring injury.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Barcelona snapped a four-match winless run in La Liga with a 4-2 home victory over title rivals Sevilla on Saturday to reclaim top spot but the triumph was marred by talisman Lionel Messi fracturing his arm and being ruled out for three weeks.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Ten of the 16 sides also reached the same round two seasons ago and, as usual, the big five leagues dominate with 13 clubs hailing from either the English, Spanish, German, French and Italian leagues.
Five-times European champions Barca, with their trident of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar subdued, have not exited in the last 16 since going out to Liverpool in the 2006/07 season and the score equalled their worst Champions league loss.
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo was the scourge of AS Roma again as he inspired the hosts to a 2-0 win and a place in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday, scoring and setting up a goal Rodriguez to seal a 4-0 aggregate victory.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Karim Benzema scored his sixth goal in four games as Real Madrid beat Alaves 3-0 on Sunday for a fourth successive La Liga victory which took the European champions to within eight points of leaders Barcelona.
VfL Wolfsburg reached the Champions League last 16 and dealt a knockout blow to Manchester United with a 3-2 victory to claim top spot in Group B and condemn their opponents to the Europa League on Tuesday.
Schalke 04 halted the Chelsea juggernaut when they drew 1-1 in their Champions League Group G opener at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, handing a wake-up call to the London club who had won their first four games of the season.
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