Seasonal cheer has been scarce for Louis van Gaal after a six-match winless sequence for his Manchester United side intensified rumours that he will be sacked and Stoke City are unlikely to be offering any solace on Saturday.
The two leaders enjoyed the sunshine with a walk in the grounds of Schloss Meseberg, an 18th century Baroque castle in the Brandenburg district of Germany.
Brazilian Felipe Massa put Williams on top on the penultimate day of pre-season testing in Bahrain on Saturday while Red Bull's quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel failed to complete a lap.
Robbed of prey as people fled, Omar Perez came marching back and shot bullet after bullet into Prudhvi Raj Kandepi's head, thus ensuring that a man he had never met before, known nothing of, would never get up again.
Critically injured French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi will not give up his fight for life but the situation remains desperate, his father Philippe said on Tuesday.
Venus Williams got off to a flying start in her return from a two-month layoff but her game quickly fell apart as the seven-time Grand Slam champion slumped to a 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 loss to Kirsten Flipkens in the Rogers Cup first round on Tuesday.
Lionel Messi had a penalty saved as Brazil continued their defensive rehabilitation under returning coach Dunga with a morale-boosting 2-0 win over old adversaries Argentina in a feisty friendly in Beijing, on Saturday.
Quadruple Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel went for five on Friday with the German choosing to have that numeral on his car when he is eventually deposed as number one.
Jules Bianchi's accident in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix has prompted questions over whether the Formula One race should have been started earlier to beat deteriorating weather conditions.
Germany's Nico Rosberg put Mercedes on pole position for Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix with championship-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton joining him on the front row.
Lewis Hamilton edged his Mercedes team mate on his final flying lap to secure pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday, the Briton crossing the line just 0.007 seconds ahead of the German.
Atletico Madrid's Brazilian striker Diego Costa scored twice as they came from behind to beat Levante 3-2 at home on Saturday to go three points clear at the top of La Liga.
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.
Will things be the same at Bahrain? Here's where we look to the front - by looking at what we've learnt.
Formula One is to award double points for the last race of the season in a controversial attempt to keep championships undecided to the very end after four years of Red Bull domination.
Sebastian Vettel drove a flawless tactical race to claim his maiden victory for Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday, registering the first Formula One win for the Italian team since 2013.
Atletico Madrid's Brazil-born forward Diego Costa has signed a formal letter stating his wish to play for adopted country Spain, ending a tug-of-war between the two powerhouses over the in-form 25-year-old.
The German becomes the fourth quadruple champion and only the third driver to land four titles in a row after Germany's seven-times winner Michael Schumacher and the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Chile beat Ecuador 2-1 in their closing South American qualifier in Santiago on Tuesday as both went through automatically to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.
The football fans in Kochi will get a chance to witness a fascinating contest between Brazilian attacking flare and Spanish 'tiki-taka' possession football in what could be a final before the final of this tournament.
Nico Rosberg put his Texas blues behind him on Sunday to win the first Mexican Grand Prix in 23 years and show triple world champion Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton how it feels to finish second.
Manchester United flirted with calamity before coasting into the Europa League last 16 as debutant Marcus Rashford helped them overcome an early blow with two goals in a 5-1 home victory over Midtjylland on Thursday.
Lewis Hamilton can set more British Formula One records in Brazil this weekend but it is the world championship he wants and that will have to wait.
Jonathan Soriano scored an incredible goal from near the halfway line to complete a stunning 3-0 win for Salzburg away to once-mighty Ajax Amsterdam in the Europa League round of 32 on Thursday.
Celta Vigo thrashed Barcelona 4-1 on Wednesday with Iago Aspas hitting a double.
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.
Britain's Lewis Hamilton won a wet and sombre Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday to extend his Formula One lead over Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to 10 points with four races remaining.
National Geographic has released a final selection of entries from the magazine's 2016 Nature Photographer of the Year contest and, as you might expect, they're breathtaking.
Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday with championship-leading Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg qualifying alongside him on the front row.
images from the UEFA Champions League matches played across Europe on Wednesday
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The clock is ticking for some of Formula One's big name drivers, with world champions and race winners out of contract at the end of the season and a restless young generation eager to take their places.
Nico Rosberg won the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix in a Mercedes one-two finish on Sunday to stretch his championship lead over team mate Lewis Hamilton to 29 points after eight races.
Paul di Resta suffered his third retirement in a row and Adrian Sutil sneaked into the top-10 in the last lap as Sahara Force India added one point to their tally from the exciting Singapore Grand Prix, where fortunes swung like a pendulum for the Indian F1 team.
Sebastian Vettel continued his imperious march towards a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship by storming to pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after dominating the two days of practice.
Germany's Nico Rosberg took a controversial pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday after an incident that denied unhappy Mercedes team mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton the chance to beat him.
Football's winter transfer window closed on February 1, and, surprisingly, none of Europe's biggies made even a slight move, let alone sign a player.
Marussia will race with only one car in Sunday's Russian Formula One Grand Prix out of respect for their severely injured French driver Jules Bianchi, the team said on Friday.
However intense the pain felt by Formula One after Jules Bianchi's horrific accident in Japan, and the shock is deep indeed, Friday's inaugural Russian Grand Prix practice offers some respite.
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