Barcelona are in the middle of an injury crisis as they head to Valencia for Saturday's La Liga game looking to keep up with pacemaking pair Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. Without injured goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen and right back Sergi Roberto for the last two games, Barca will also be missing defenders Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique after both were hurt in Wednesday's 4-0 win over Manchester City in the Champions League. Pique sprained his right ankle while Alba injured his left hamstring and both are out until November.
Tottenham Hotspur's meltdown at Manchester City exposed serious flaws in Andre Villas-Boas's project and the young coach is under intense scrutiny ahead of Sunday's match with Premier League champions Manchester United (1630 IST).
Marco Materazzi shook Zinedine Zidane's hand last month for the first time since the Frenchman's infamous headbutt on him in the 2006 World Cup final, the Italian said on Thursday.
David Beckham will be thrust into a political campaign to win backing for his Major League Soccer team in Miami with a referendum in November on a new stadium proposal.
Manchester City are brimming with optimism with coach Manuel Pellegrini 'absolutely sure' of winning the Premier League title.
With the transfer season having ended on Monday, here's a look at the top 10 buys in the market.
European football is incomplete without African flavours and players like Chelsea's Senegalese striker Demba Ba and Juventus's Ghanaian Asamoah Kwadwo lifted the game with their superb skill in their respective football matches over the weekend. Rediff.com presents a round-up of the interesting matches and the footballers of the weekend.
The last-16 knock-out round kicks-off this week with Chelsea visiting Paris on Tuesday; Zidane to coach Real Madrid as manager in his first match in Europe
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal said his team need to learn to cope with pressure after they slumped to a 2-1 home defeat to Swansea City on the opening day of the Premier League season.
Alaba strike on Clasico debut gives Real Madrid 2-1 win at Barcelona.
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday.
Argentina have called up Mallorca's Spanish defender Pablo Maffeo for the first time ahead of this month's World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil in the squad announced by its FA on Friday.
The France international is widely expected to move to Liga champions Barcelona at the end of this campaign.
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho breezed back into the San Siro like a rock star on Tuesday but the ice cool Portuguese said sentiment had nothing to do with the serious business of reaching the Champions League last 16.
With a squad that was derided for being short on quality by frustrated fans in pre-season, Arsenal, who host Norwich City on Saturday, have surprised many by surging to the top of the Premier League table.
Liverpool laboured to a 2-0 win over Denmark's Midtjylland on Tuesday as a goal from Diogo Jota and a Mohamed Salah penalty secured a hard-fought Champions League Group D victory at Anfield.
'Barca is a great club that has to win the Champions League, that's why I came here.'
Liverpool won an absorbing English FA Cup final on Saturday as they prevailed 6-5 in a penalty shootout after the Wembley showpiece somehow ended 0-0 after extra time.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 18th and 19th La Liga goals of the season as Real Madrid survived some late pressure to win 3-2 at city rivals Getafe on Monday and trim the gap to leaders Barcelona back to two points.
In the early hours Monday, his body arrived under fireworks in the city of about 430,000 people from Sao Paulo's Albert Einstein Hospital.
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has played down media reports of a knife attack apparently launched against him in La Coruna last weekend in which a club security guard was slightly injured.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will not stoke his rivalry with fellow new recruit Pep Guardiola at Manchester City next season because it could damage his team's Premier League title hopes.
The Primera Liga title will be decided by "El Clasico" between leaders Barcelona and second-placed Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in just under two weeks, according to Real midfielder Lassana Diarra.
Holders Sevilla led the charge into the last four of the King's Cup when Renato's early strike set them on their way to a 3-0 home win over Villarreal on Tuesday.
Bayern, who won the Champions League in 2013, have yet to hit top form this season, with many players tired after the World Cup and others, including Thiago Alcantara, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Rafinha, out injured.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
With his Real side misfiring and city rivals Atletico flying high, world record signing Gareth Bale may be in for a baptism of fire when he makes his home debut in Saturday's Madrid derby at the Bernabeu.
Juventus striker Dybala only recently recovered from the coronavirus himself but was in good spirits and proved too good for the Real winger Gareth Bale in a FIFA 20 video game as part of a Combat Corona fundraiser for UNICEF at the weekend. With the coronavirus pandemic bringing soccer across the globe to a standstill, the world of esports has helped keep players and fans entertained.
Centre forward Eder, who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2016 final against France, was among 10 players from that squad omitted from Santos's list. Other unlucky players included midfielders Andre Gomes and Renato Sanches, forward Nani and defender Eliseu.
At 5 per cent, Mumbai is likely to witness the highest rise in residential prices in 2024, a report released on Wednesday said. New Zealand's Auckland will also see a price rise of 5 per cent. According to real estate consultancy Knight Frank's "Prime Global Cities Index", improving gross domestic product (GDP) figures, Mumbai's relative value and investment in infrastructure will be the prime influencers in pushing prices higher for the luxury housing market in the city.
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has reiterated his desire to come back to the English Premier League, saying he would only join a English club where he would feel really wanted.
Michael Owen enjoyed a stellar career as a prolific striker for England and Liverpool but said he would reflect in retirement on 'what might have been' had he not been robbed of his incredible speed due to injury.
A career that was launched into orbit by a stunning goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup will end meekly 15 years later after Michael Owen announced on Tuesday he will hang up his boots at the end of the season.
Former England striker Michael Owen announced on Tuesday that he would retire from professional soccer at the end of the season. 'I now feel it is the right time to bring the curtain down on my career,' the 33-year-old said on his personal website (www.michaelowen.com).
After a week of controversy caused mainly by FIFA president Sepp Blatter's comments about racism, UEFA will hope that action on the pitch dominates this week's Champions League headlines as the group stage reaches crunch time.
Arsenal stayed ahead of Manchester United in the race to qualify directly for next season's Champions League when they drew 1-1 at Old Trafford on Sunday while Manchester City made sure of their place in the group stage with a 4-2 win at Swansea City.
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