La Liga leaders Barcelona drew 0-0 at Huesca on Saturday and are nine points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid, who cut the gap by beating Celta Vigo 2-0.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Spain are still favourites to finish top of Group E above Sweden, Poland and Slovakia but, after struggling to break down conservative sides such as Georgia and Greece in March, they know coming first will not be a procession.
Juventus's win over Real Madrid has strengthened their conviction that they are good enough to rejoin European football's elite after years of watching the Champions League final stages from the sidelines.
Real Madrid set a Spanish record of 40 matches unbeaten in all competitions after they came back from two goals behind to snatch a 3-3 draw at Sevilla with a last-gasp equaliser from Karim Benzema in the King's Cup on Thursday.
Chelsea went second in the Premier League with a comfortable 4-0 win at Burnley, on Sunday, which maintained their unbeaten start to the season.
Barcelona failed to capitalise on Real Madrid dropping points against Villarreal as the La Liga champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, while talisman Lionel Messi limped off with a groin injury.
Manchester City's Kompany out of Liverpool clash with calf injury
Carlos Tevez scored a solo goal after a run that started inside his own half to cap an emphatic 7-0 win for Serie A leaders Juventus over hapless Parma on Sunday.
A late goal by Toni Kroos sealed victory as Real Madrid defeated an impressive Celta Vigo side 2-1 to win their first home La Liga game of the campaign on Saturday.
Spain, chasing an unprecedented third successive European Championship title and looking forward to facing Germany or Slovakia in the next round, have the upper hand in recent history, having not lost a competitive match against Italy since the 1994 World Cup.
Check out the top footballers of the weekend.
Spain's Alvaro Morata scored a goal in each half as they beat a highly defensive Malta side 2-0 away on Tuesday to move top of their Euro 2020 qualifying group with two wins out of two games.
Here, Reuters Sport highlights five reasons why last season's double winners have collapsed.
Manchester City embark on a fifth Champions League campaign buoyant after a perfect start to their domestic season but still searching for the secret formula against Europe's top brass.
Real Madrid have enviously looked on as Barcelona claimed six La Liga titles in the last eight years, but Zinedine Zidane's side can take a huge step towards a first crown since 2012 with victory over their bitter rivals at the Nou Camp on Saturday.
Winning goals from Luis Suarez and Neymar on the counter-attack to sink Juventus in the Champions League final encapsulated the new direct play from Barcelona that saw them become the first European side to win the treble for the second time.
European champions Real Madrid head to rampaging Borussia Dortmund for their Champions League Group F game on Tuesday in a frazzled state with their buoyant start to the season having been punctured by successive La Liga draws.
This and more from the happenings in the world of football
Mbappe becomes PSG's all-time highest goal-scorer as French champions extend lead
The suggestion that Spain need to change their playing style is already meeting resistance even though another disappointing performance at a major soccer tournament suggests that tiki-taka has run its course. In many countries, a defeat as comprehensive as the one Spain suffered against Italy in Euro 2016 on Monday, when they were outplayed and lucky to lose only 2-0, would have led to calls to knock everything down and start again. In Spain, however, where many are proud of having such a distinctive style of play, there are plenty of voices calling for the team to continue trying to pass the ball all the way into the goal.
The world's most expensive player, Gareth Bale of Wales, will face an ageing goalkeeper looking for a club in Saturday's intriguing all-British showdown against fellow debutants Northern Ireland.
A summary of the opening day's action in the UEFA Champions league on Tuesday.
Lionel Messi's double strike helped Barcelona scrape a 3-2 victory over Real Sociedad on Saturday to keep the pressure on La Liga leaders Real Madrid, who needed a brace from Isco to beat Sporting Gijon by the same scoreline.
Premier League leaders Manchester City turned on the style with a 3-1 win over Manchester United in their derby clash, on Sunday, leaving Pep Guardiola's unbeaten side two points clear of Liverpool.
Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos again came to his side's rescue as they snatched a dramatic 3-2 victory over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday to keep Zinedine Zidane's side six points clear at the top of La Liga and set a club record 35 games unbeaten.
Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-2 in a pulsating London English Premier League derby on Saturday with defender Marcos Alonso scoring an 81st-minute winner after the Gunners had fought back from an early 2-0 deficit.
A summary of Sunday's action in Serie A and La Liga.
List of major transfers in the top Premier League ahead of the 2019-20 season (all transfer fees as reported by British media):
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 750th goal of his remarkable career in a 3-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday
Holders Chelsea made light of their off-pitch problems to reach the Champions League quarter-finals by beating Lille 2-1 away on Wednesday to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory.
Like an ailing heavyweight, Spain and their hopes of a third straight European title ended in a tame surrender as their 2-0 defeat by Italy represented the definitive end to a golden era in their footballing history. A first-half effort from defender Giorgio Chiellini and a stoppage-time goal by striker Graziano Pelle sent the Azzurri into the quarter-finals at Euro 2016 and left Spain to mull over a second successive failure on the international stage.
The 2016 Euro moves to its knockout rounds with eight teams taking an early flight home. The group stages saw some memorable action in which many records broken. Rediff.com takes a look at the standout stats from the 36 matches in the preliminary round.
Midfielder Dani Ceballos added: "It looks like us changing our coach worked. We have recovered some sensations we had lost and we have got the three points. Now our objective is to win all the games left and finish the season as well as possible."
Genoa handed Serie A leaders and titleholders Juventus a dramatic first league defeat of the season when Luca Antonini scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time to give them a 1-0 win on Wednesday.
A round-up of Friday's action in La Liga, and Bundesliga.
Karim Benzema fired Real Madrid to a 1-0 win in the city derby against Atletico Madrid on Saturday which underlined Real's La Liga title credentials. Bayern Munich scored three goals in the opening 26 minutes to defeat Mainz 05 3-1 away on Saturday and go two points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with their sixth straight win.
The draw means second-placed Atletico Madrid could close the 12-point gap with Barcelona, who are on 74 points, if they beat Celta Vigo later on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Playing without crowd will be peculiar: Suarez
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