Luis Suarez took just 16 minutes to make his impact on Anfield as the 22.8 million pounds striker came off the bench to score Liverpool's second goal in a 2-0 Premier League win over Stoke City on Wednesday.
Substitute Giampaolo Pazzini scored twice and won a penalty on a dream debut as Serie A champions Inter Milan roared back from 2-0 down to beat visiting Palermo 3-2 in an enthralling encounter on Sunday.
Ghanaians turned out in their thousands to cheer their soccer team's arrival home late on Monday, spraying their jet with water cannons and rolling out the red carpet for the World Cup's surprise quarter-finalists.
Five-time champions Brazil made a shock exit from the FIFA World Cup after a 1-2 defeat to the Netherlands in an ill-tempered quarter-final match which saw Felipe Melo being sent off.
A decision to include Japan and Qatar as the invited sides to this year's Copa has also done little to generate faith in the new leadership, with the tournament usually featuring the 10 South American nations plus two invited teams, although they are generally from elsewhere in the Americas.
After two weeks of increasingly exciting football in South Africa, some huge names are out: Italy and France. Some smaller ones -- most notably Slovakia -- have triumphed against the odds to win a second round place.
The vuvuzelas finally died down and South Africa's elation turned to despondency after a disastrous defeat by Uruguay.
Diego Maradona said on Sunday he will fly to London next month to study an offer from an English Premier League club, Argentine media reported.
Whether France prove the doubters wrong with a fine World Cup run or make another embarrassing exit remained anybody's guess after their opening 0-0 draw with Uruguay on Friday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Prolific striker Luis Suarez has agreed a new contract with Barcelona until 2021, the Spanish champions announced on Thursday. The Uruguay international will sign the new deal, which will keep him at the club until he is 34 years old and contains a release clause of 200 million euros ($207 million), on Friday. Suarez has scored 97 goals in 116 games for Barcelona since signing from Liverpool in 2014 for a reported 81 million euros ($84 million), and has collected eight major trophies.
Edinson Cavani silenced his critics when he scored four goals in Paris St Germain's 6-0 victory at Caen in Ligue 1 on Friday.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi will be out of action for two to three weeks with a small hamstring problem in his right leg, the Spanish champions said in a statement on Sunday.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi advanced to the semi-finals while Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi sealed a quarter-final berth in the Valencia Open.
World champions Spain returned to the top of the FIFA rankings on Wednesday while Brazil dropped to third place and Italy slumped to 11th. World Cup finalists the Netherlands also leapfrogged Brazil for second, a rise of two places, while England surprisingly moved up a rung to seventh despite a disappointing tournament in South Africa.
Barcelona's star striker Messi is an alien who plays with us humans, says the Juventus 'keeper
Uruguay's Diego Forlan won the adidas Golden Ball, awarded to the outstanding player at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Sunday's World Cup final between Netherlands and Spain pits two tactically similar teams against each other
The problem lies in the fact that unlike in telecom, centre- and state-owned public utilities continue to dominate the power business.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The wife of a linesman, who wrongly disallowed Frank Lampard''s goal against Germany, revealed on Thursday that she instantly knew he had blundered.
The prospect of setting a new benchmark for African participation at the World Cup was a major motivation for Ghana ahead of Friday's quarter-final against Uruguay, striker Asamoah Gyan said.
In the search for tactical supremacy, soccer's big guns and some young pretenders have turned to the chapter marked 'counter-attack' to blast their way into the World Cup quarter-finals.
The complete fixtures of the World Cup in SOuth Africa.
Oscar Tabarez is just happy to be at the World Cup after a marathon qualification process, the Uruguay coach said on Tuesday after his side beat Mexico 1-0 to make the last 16 as Group A winners.
France concluded a disastrous World Cup campaign with one more controversy on Tuesday when coach Raymond Domenech refused to shake hands with his opposite number after South Africa's 2-1 victory.
France meet Belgium in a World Cup semi-final on Tuesday. Here is a look at some of the key head-to-head duels which could prove decisive.
South Africa said they were caught cold by Uruguay's early goal in Wednesday's World Cup clash in Pretoria and found themselves unable to fight their way back into the game.
Centre back William Gallas pulled out of a France training session on Monday with a sore muscle, a team spokesman said.
Football-frenzied fans in India were slow on catching up with the excitement as the FIFA World Cup 2010 kicked off in Johannesburg on Friday. But when they did get into the act, TV-viewership rates shot up from previous highs.
France failed to rise to the occasion again on Friday when a lacklustre performance in a tepid 0-0 draw with Uruguay handed the initiative to their lesser-ranked World Cup Group A rivals.
Jackson Martinez scored twice as Colombia beat Japan 4-1 to top World Cup Group C with maximum points on Tuesday. The victory earned them a second-round meeting with Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro and ended Japan's interest in the tournament.
Tennis star Aisamul Haq has become the first from Pakistan to reach the semi-finals of any Grand Slam event.
The fixtures of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in South Africa, from June 11 to July 11.
The fixtures of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in South Africa, from June 11 to July 11.
They can now dream of going one better than their third-place finish in 1998, which marked their first participation in the World Cup finals as an independent nation.
IMAGES from the FIFA World Cup Group B match played between Portugal and Iran in Saransk on Monday
Diego Forlan scrambled an early goal to give Atletico Madrid a deserved 1-0 win over a lethargic-looking Liverpool in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final on Thursday.
Japan beat 10-man Colombia 2-1 in Group H on Tuesday to become the first Asian side to beat a South American one at the World Cup.
In a historic first for international football, seven women officials have been picked as support referees for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India, which kicks off on October 6.
