A tenacious Barcelona frustrated Real Madrid to secure a 1-0 win over their bitter rivals in an ill-tempered Copa del Rey semi-final first leg on Thursday.
Colombia's World Cup campaign roared back into life with a 3-0 win over Poland in Group H on a sweltering evening at the Kazan Arena which sent the Poles tumbling out of the tournament on Sunday.
Napoli rediscovered their scoring touch as they brushed aside Inter Milan 3-0 on Friday, sending their opponents' new coach Stefano Pioli back to the drawing-board.
UEFA has fined England, Poland, Scotland and Lithuania for failing to control their fans in recent European Championship qualifying matches, the governing body said in a statement on Friday.
Arjen Robben scored two first-half goals to give Bundesliga leaders and titleholders Bayern Munich a predictable 2-0 win at home to bottom club Eintracht Braunschweig on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The winner will be named on August 26, along with UEFA's women's player of the year and Champions League positional award winners, at the Champions League group stage draw in Istanbul.
Real Madrid saw off a stirring Chelsea fightback to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals following a 3-2 defeat after extra time in a scintillating second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday to go through 5-4 on aggregate.
Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, who won the 2022 Ballon d'Or award, is also in the shortlist.
With the teams having played their second matches in the league stage in Euro 2020, at the conclusion of the Spain-Poland match in Group E on Saturday, here's a look at the best goals from those matches.
Images from Wednesday's action in the Champions League.
Serge Gnabry scored twice as Bayern Munich beat Chelsea 3-0, while Antoine Griezmann's second-half equaliser handed Barcelona a vital away goal and earned them a 1-1 draw at Napoli in their Champions League last 16, first leg on Tuesday.
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Philippe Coutinho scored his first league goal since returning to Barcelona to help his side draw 1-1 at home to an excellent Sevilla side in La Liga on Sunday.
IMAGES from the FIFA World Cup Group C match played between Argentina and Poland on Wednesday.
Soccer in Germany has been suspended for almost a month and the German Football League (DFL) has said the ban will remain in place for the top divisions at least until April 30. Clubs, however, were given the all clear to resume training this week, with champions Bayern Munich deciding to train players in small groups to minimise the risk of infection.
Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who have won the award 10 times between them, are included
Manchester City crushed Leeds United 7-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday to make it seven Premier League wins a row and move four points clear at the top of the table.
Leaders Bayern Munich's express start to the season finally ran out of steam on Friday with a goalless draw at Eintracht Frankfurt, following 10 wins out of their 10 previous Bundesliga games.
Real Madrid's Welsh winger Gareth Bale has joined Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for FIFA's Ballon d'Or award.
Crashing out at the group stage again would be a huge blow to Barcelona's finances, whose perilous state led the club's board to sell a stake in their TV rights and agree to the sale of their audio-visual division.
Two late moments of Lionel Messi magic and a goal from Neymar helped Barcelona break the resistance of Bayern Munich in a pulsating 3-0 victory in their Champions League semi-final first leg at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.
Polish fans had bittersweet feelings about their quarter-final exit from Euro 2016 on Friday, frustrated by the shootout loss to Portugal but still rejoicing in their team's best run in a major tournament for decades.
A superb shootout save by Portugal's Rui Patricio allowed Ricardo Quaresma to be the hero again as his spot kick against Poland sent them into the Euro 2016 semi-finals 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 finish following extra time.
Wayne Rooney marked his 500th game in English league football with a coolly-taken Panenka-style penalty for Derby County in their 1-1 draw against Fulham in the Championship on Friday. The 34-year-old ex-England and Manchester United captain, who made his debut for the Midlands club earlier this month after returning from a playing stint in the United States, cleverly chipped in a 55th minute penalty for the lead.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Lionel Messi led Barcelona to a 3-1 win at home to Napoli for a 4-2 aggregate victory which took the club into the Champions League quarter-finals, where they face Bayern Munich.
Manchester City have one just victory from their last 10 games across all competitions.
Bayern Munich were left to rue a number of missed chances in their Champions League last 16 first leg against Juventus on Tuesday after the Germans squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 despite dominating for much of the game.
A summary of Saturday's football action across the world.
Real Madrid thrashed arch-rivals and league leaders Barcelona 4-0 to reach the Copa del Rey final
World champions Germany and perennial also-rans Albania do not share much in common in football but both were united in joy on Sunday when they qualified for Euro 2016 in France along with Romania and Poland.
Manchester United's dwindling hopes of lifting a trophy this season are dangling by a thread after they produced an abject display to lose 2-0 at Olympiakos Piraeus in a Champions League last-16 first leg on Tuesday.
Bayern remained unruffled by the two-month break due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and beat Dortmund last month to overcome the last major obstacle en route to a 29th Bundesliga title since the introduction of the top division in 1963.
Barcelona forwards Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi fired the Catalans to a confidence-boosting 2-0 win at in-form Sevilla on Saturday to keep the pressure on La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.
The Bavarians, unbeaten now in 32 consecutive matches, also won the domestic league and Cup double as well as the Champions League after Flick took over last November. Their last defeat dates back to December, 2019.
Poland rested striker Robert Lewandowski and missed his firepower as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Lithuania in a Euro 2016 warm-up in the former capital city of Krakow on Monday. The stalemate before a 30,000 crowd against a determined Lithuania side playing on the counter followed Poland's 2-1 loss to the Netherlands in a friendly last week. Poland coach Adam Nawalka fielded an experimental defence with Thiago Cionek in central defence and talented teenage midfielder Bartosz Kapustka deployed at right back to try to beef up the rearguard but they still looked vulnerable. The hosts played with more urgency in the second half against the Lithuanians, who failed to qualify for the finals in France, and almost scored on the hour when winger Jakub Blaszczykowski hit the post after marauding down the right. Despite attacking relentlessly they could not find the net without talisman Lewandowski, who watched from the bench as 'Ajax Amsterdam forward Arek Milik toiled alone up front.
IMAGES from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Wednesday.
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