Martinez's team face the 1998 World Cup winners in St Petersburg on Tuesday for a place in the final
Monaco swept into the Champions League quarter-finals and left Manchester City to pick up the pieces of another failed European campaign after a 3-1 victory on Wednesday sent them through on away goals.
Featuring Neymar, Coutinho, Dembele, Pogba, Bale...
IMAGES from UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday
Hundreds of thousands of Argentines poured into the sunlit streets of Buenos Aires on Sunday
The French in 2002, Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018 all followed their stuttering starts as champions by bombing out in the group stage.
Not only the senior team but the young Blue Colts also emerged victorious in the SAFF Men's U-19 champions after hammering Pakistan in the final and clinching a vigorous 3-0 victory.
Israel debutant Yarden Shua scored an 86th-minute winner as they upset more fancied Belgium 1-0 in Budapest on Sunday.
France qualified for the quarter-finals of the Nations League despite a lacklustre goalless draw against Israel on Thursday.
Messi was three ahead of nearest rival Kylian Mbappe, who scored 33 times for Paris St Germain as they won France's Ligue 1.
France overwhelmed Croatia 4-2 in the World Cup final at Moscow's Luzhniki stadium on Sunday to lift the trophy for the second time in 20 years.
The French fans will be largely outnumbered by the Morocco supporters
A summary of Wednesday's action in the Champions League quarter-finals first leg.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain became the second England international to leave Arsenal in two days when he joined Premier League rivals Liverpool for a reported 40 million pounds on Thursday.
Real Madrid have avoided defeat in their last 41 LaLiga games, the second best streak by a team in the competition's history.
Novak Djokovic claimed a record-breaking 23rd men's singles Grand Slam title when he beat Norway's Casper Ruud 7-6(1) 6-3 7-5 in the French Open final.
Brazilian soccer great Pele said on Saturday he was "strong" and grateful for the widespread support he has been receiving after being hospitalized in Sao Paulo earlier this week as he battles colon cancer.
Greece beat England for the first time as striker Vangelis Pavlidis's double earned the visitors a richly-deserved 2-1 victory.
Les Bleus, who face Poland in the last 16 on Sunday, underperformed at the Education City stadium and only after Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele came off the bench did they pose any threat.
Inter Milan got a crucial 1-0 win at Juventus on Sunday
A new chapter in the celebrated rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will unfurl on Thursday when they meet in an exhibition match as the Portugal forward gears up for his first game in Saudi Arabia since joining Al Nassr.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Didier Deschamps has tough choices to make ahead of his young team's World Cup opener against Australia and the experienced Olivier Giroud could find himself on the bench.
Lionel Messi's second-half goal gave Argentina a 1-0 home win over Ecuador on Thursday to get their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign off on the right foot.
'We're going to have time to talk in the future but any big player in the world will always be welcome at PSG.'
"Our parents talked to us about Maradona, and we will talk to our sons about Messi. We hope that we will win the cup, and we can celebrate with him and all the people in Argentina," said Nicolas Gomez, a fan from Argentina.
A record audience of more than 3.5 billion people watched this year's World Cup in Russia, with the final between France and Croatia attracting 1.12 billion viewers, world soccer's governing body said on Friday.
The Germans were desperate to impress in front of a home crowd to make amends for their shock 2018 World Cup first-round exit, but instead they rarely broke through the French rearguard.
IMAGES from the FIFA World Cup first semi-final played between France and Belgium on Tuesday
Bayern Munich won its sixth Champions League crown in Lisbon on Sunday night.
PSG's big buy has been left out squad for the Ligue 1 match against Brest.
Alvaro Morata scored a brace to help Atletico Madrid deliver a statement performance as they outclassed city rivals Real Madrid.
The Brazilian is likely to make his first appearance of the season for the Ligue 1 leaders at home against Racing Strasbourg on Saturday.
Arsenal have signed forward Nicolas Pepe from French club Lille for a club-record fee, the Premier League side said on Thursday.
Playing in front of defenders, for much of his career Kante's abilities had gone unnoticed given that as recently as 2013 he was playing in France's second division.
France was always among the favourites but an underwhelming set of warm-ups plus a timid start suggested their reputation rang louder than reality
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.
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.
Brazil return to winning ways with dreary win over Ecuador in their World Cup qualifiers.
IMAGES from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Wednesday
