Atletico Madrid's problems deepened as they were held to a 0-0 draw at Villarreal in La Liga on Friday, stretching their winless run to four games in all competitions.
Meeting the Pope is more important than Italy's friendly against Argentina on Wednesday, coach Cesare Prandelli told reporters as he disagreed with striker Mario Balotelli.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his return to the starting line-up as Manchester United sealed a place in the Europa League knock-out rounds with a 3-0 victory over Sheriff Tiraspol at Old Trafford on Thursday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Midfielder Riccardo Montolivo missed out on his second straight major tournament due to injury on Tuesday while Daniele De Rossi was included in Italy's 23-man squad for next month's European Championship in France.
Juventus reached the halfway point of the Serie A season with a commanding five-point lead over Roma after thrashing Verona for the second time in four days on Sunday.
Manchester United kicked off their Europa League campaign poorly, losing 0-1 at home to Real Sociedad, while Arsenal's new signing Marquinhos scored in a 2-1 win at FC Zurich on Thursday.
Former Newcastle United striker Faustino Asprilla is entering the world of business by designing and selling fruit-flavoured condoms in his native Colombia.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi rescued a 1-1 draw at Villarreal with a sensational late free-kick on Sunday but could not prevent the champions finishing the weekend third in La Liga, five points behind leaders Real Madrid.
Defender Miguel Britos was sent off for head-butting an opponent as Napoli lost 3-1 at champions Juventus on Saturday, all but ending their hopes of Champions League football next season.
Juventus look set to wrap up their fourth successive Serie A title in the next seven days although the crowd violence which marred Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Torino could take the shine of their celebrations.
Bayern Munich thrashed Bayer Leverkusen 5-1, while Barcelona came from behind to beat Valencia 3-1 in LaLiga at Camp Nou on Sunday.
Milan replaced Gennaro Gattuso with former Sampdoria coach Giampaolo during the close season in a bid to improve on last season's fifth place and to take them back to the Champions League.
Inter Milan moved into the Italian Cup quarter-finals with a 2-0 victory over second-tier Verona on Tuesday.
The Chelsea coach insisted that his thoughts remained focused entirely on Tuesday's match agaimst Lazio.\n\n
Champions Inter Milan got back to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Empoli in Serie A on Wednesday.
Milan missed the chance to jump to second and remained fourth with 48 points
European champions AC Milan beat Lazio 1-0 at the San Siro on Sunday to join Juventus at the top of Serie A.
AS Roma needed a penalty from 40-year-old forward Francesco Totti in the seventh minute of stoppage time to scrape past second-tier Cesena 2-1 in their Coppa Italia quarter-final on Wednesday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Rashford scores a brace as Man United fight back to beat Omonia
Diego Milito put a forgettable month behind him by grabbing his first goals of the season to send champions Inter Milan clear at the top of Serie A with a 4-0 romp over Bari on Wednesday.
Bayern Munich all but secured the Bundesliga title with victory over VfL Bochum. The English Premier League contest will go to the wire next Sunday as leaders Chelsea and second-placed Manchester United both won. Inter's 2-0 win at Lazio was cheered by both sets of fans because it meant the home team's bitter city rivals AS Roma dropped back to second.
Inter Milan's lead at the top of Serie A was cut when they lost 2-1 at home to Lazio on Sunday while AS Roma beat Genoa 2-0 to record their first win in eight games and ease the pressure on under-fire coach Rudi Garcia.
Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo scored two goals apiece and defender Luisao was also on target as Benfica thumped Everton 5-0 in the Europa League on Thursday.
AC Milan wasted the latest in a series of chances to boost their Serie A title hopes when a depleted side were held 1-1 at home by Lazio on Sunday.
Carlos Tevez scored two early goals for Juventus before the Serie A leaders squandered the lead in a 2-2 draw at Verona on Sunday.
Images from Sunday's action in La Liga and Ligue 1.
Gonzalo Higuain netted twice, the first a superb individual effort, to give Napoli a 4-2 win at Lazio while Fiorentina beat Hellas Verona 4-3 in a Serie A scoring spree on Monday.
The Portuguese forward then fired in the penalty in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Champions Juventus continued their resurgence by beating Hellas Verona 3-0 at home for an eighth successive Serie A victory as Inter Milan remained top after winning 1-0 at Empoli.
Messi doesn't need to win a World Cup to prove his greatness, feels iconic former Argentine striker Hernan Crespo.
Italian champions Juventus fell to their third defeat inside a week with a 2-0 loss to Lazio in Serie A.
The Italian federation (FIGC) is determined to complete the season and its president Gabriele Gravina has been presenting new ideas on an almost daily basis of how that can be done. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan in Central Asia is set to resume its soccer season with spectators at the weekend, making it only the second country in the world to let fans attend matches as the new coronavirus shuts down almost all of world football.
Serie A soccer matches in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto will not be played on Sunday because of an outbreak of the coronavirus, the government said in a statement. The three impacted fixtures are clashes between Inter Milan and Sampdoria, Atalanta against Sassuolo and Hellas Verona against Cagliari. Italy is tackling the worst outbreak of coronavirus yet recorded in Europe, with two people dying in the north since Friday and nearly 60 infected.
