Five-times world champions Brazil have returned to what they will consider their rightful place at the top of the FIFA rankings for the first time in seven years.
Brazil's stuttering performance stemmed from anxiety at playing their first World Cup game, coach Tite said after their 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
Barcelona manager Luis Enrique believes his team deserves to win "the best league in Europe" as they aim to clinch La Liga in a potentially thrilling climax to the Spanish season on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Real have underperformed on the domestic stage, trailing Barcelona by 15 points and knocked out of the King's Cup by Leganes, and many predicted an early elimination from Europe when they drew the runaway Ligue 1 leaders in the last 16.
Lionel Messi notched his 250th La Liga goal to move one off the all-time league scoring record as leaders Barcelona won 3-0 against Eibar on Saturday ahead of next weekend's Clasico with Real Madrid.
Santos were crowned champions of South America for the third time after goals from teenagers Neymar and Danilo gave them a 2-1 win over Penarol in the second leg of the Libertadores Cup final on Wednesday.
Cristiano Ronaldo ensured Atletico Madrid fans will have bitter memories of the last local derby at the Vicente Calderon stadium by scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win for La Liga leaders Real Madrid on Saturday. Ronaldo's deflected free kick put Real in charge in the 23rd minute in the first meeting of the teams since the Champions League final in May. The prolific Portuguese killed off Atletico's resistance by winning and converting a penalty in the 71st minute and capped a harrowing night for the home side by tapping in the third in the 77th.
Real will ease the pain by retaining their Champions League title, their only hope of salvaging a disappointing season.
Daniel Sturridge's Liverpool career seemed to be heading for a premature end last season but the striker showed on Tuesday he may yet have an important role after taking his chance during a rare start in the Champions League win over Paris St Germain.
Under the new system, half the votes would belong to the players and coaches of the world's 211 national teams and half to the public, who will take part via an online ballot, and selected media representatives.
Celta Vigo thrashed Barcelona 4-1 on Wednesday with Iago Aspas hitting a double.
Britain's No 1 tennis player Andy Murray watched Neymar score twice.
India captain Virat Kohli, senior batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni and stylish left-handed batsmen Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, have found places in this year's ESPN World Fame 100 list that made its debut last year.
Lionel Messi scored a penalty for the third Champions League game in a row with the Spaniards maintaining their winning start to the group stage.
Lionel Messi has passed a kidney stone which ruled him out of their Club World Cup semi-final and Barcelona will now decide whether he will be fit for the final, the Spanish sports daily AS said on Friday.
A chubby-looking Ronaldo said farewell to soccer in Brazil's lacklustre 1-0 win over Romania in a friendly on Tuesday, missing three chances in the 15 minutes he was on the pitch.
Carli Lloyd, captain and hat-trick hero for the United States in their World Cup final triumph, heads the trio of nominees for FIFA Women's World Player of the Year, announced on Monday.
Paris St Germain's then sports director Leonardo declared the club were ready for tougher competitions in Europe two years ago but Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final exit suggests PSG need more time to reach the top.
From the debate-arousing introduction of VAR to maximum number of Penalties to the superb Ronaldo, here are the A to Z of the ongoing 2018 World Cup
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday night.
The Frenchman, who won nine trophies in two-and-a-half years, suggested it is events off the pitch, rather than on it, that made him leave.
Brazil inflicted France's first defeat since the World Cup when a perfectly executed second-half performance earned them a 3-1 win in a friendly game at the Stade de France on Thursday.
India's Test captain and numero uno batsman Virat Kohli has been named as 'Third Most Marketable Sportsperson' in the world ahead of football superstar Lionel Messi, world No 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic in a latest survey published by magazine 'SportsPro'. Kohli is ranked behind NBA's 'Most Valuable Player' Stephen Curry and Juventus' French international Paul Pogba. Incidentally, Kohli is just ahead of golfer Jordan Spieth. Djokovic is 23rd in the list, followed by Messi at 27th and 'Sprint King' Usain Bolt at 31.
Barcelona's star striker Messi is an alien who plays with us humans, says the Juventus 'keeper
New Brazil coach Mano Menezes made wholesale changes with only four survivors from the World Cup when he named his squad on Monday for next month's friendly against the United States.
Barcelona's Luis Suarez netted twice for a 2-1 win over 10-man Atletico Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final, first leg on Tuesday after the visitors' Fernando Torres opened the scoring and was later sent off.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The following factbox details five times a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) made an impact at the World Cup.
Real's Cristiano Ronaldo will be going in search of his third consecutive World Player of the Year award
A compelling cast of players, two attacking teams propelled by great pace and a clash between neighbours to boot.
Barcelona followed up last weekend's 3-1 defeat at Real Madrid with another reverse on Saturday, squandering a host of chances to lose 1-0 at home to Celta Vigo and handing the lead in La Liga to their arch rivals.
Football legend Pele has termed Argentine forward Lionel Messi as the "best in last 10 years", but also spoke highly of his fellow Brazilian Neymar and Portugal's Ronaldo.
The match marks just the second time, and first in 35 years, that El Clasico will be played outside Spain.
Brazil scrapped their way to a flattering 3-0 friendly win over France on Sunday in an ugly, disjointed match against opponents who are even worse off than themselves.
Juve forward Cristiano Ronaldo had an unusually quiet game after scoring a hat-trick against Atletico in last year's competition, although he came within inches of grabbing a last-gasp winner when he sent a shot just past the far post.
Cristiano Ronaldo has received an offer to leave Real Madrid and join Italian champions Juventus, a source close to the player said.
Clashes between Real Madrid and Barcelona are rarely short on drama and Saturday's La Liga 'Clasico' may have more than its usual share with Luis Suarez poised to return from a biting ban and Barca teammate Lionel Messi on the brink of equalling the top-flight scoring record.
Next year's Copa America in Chile will give Brazil the chance to bury the ghosts of their miserable World Cup, the president of the country's soccer federation said.
'People sitting in the stands need to know what the rules are. Who is refereeing the game? We need to know. People deserve to know what are the rules of the game and the game belongs to the people.'
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