Spain continued their record-breaking form in South Africa's World Cup rehearsal, the Confederations Cup, as they chalked up 15 successive wins on Saturday.The European champions became the first international side to claim 15 straight victories after their 2-0 triumph over South Africa, eclipsing the mark jointly held by Brazil, Australia, and France.

England stumbled their way to a 2-1 win in their opening match at the European Under-21 Championships in Sweden on Monday – a victory which owed much to boss Stuart Pearce. Pearce was brave enough to switch his formation at the break with England down to 10 men after the dismissal of Michael Mancienne.

Ryan Giggs might have won the PFA Player of the Year award this season, but one man who has had his best ever campaign and not been awarded the praise he deserves is Danny Murphy.Giggs controversially edged out Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Edwin van der Sar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Steven Gerrard to the top gong but the Fulham man has been on a par with the big names, if not better.

Former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has stoked the fires of controversy once again after pointing the finger at German officials. The Stuttgart number one has claimed his side would have wrapped up the Bundesliga title had it not been for some controversial refereeing decisions.The 39-year-old believes league leaders Wolfsburg, who need only a point to be crowned champions for the first time

Frank Lampard has revealed he 'hates' talk of the treble after propelling Chelsea into the FA Cup final on Saturday.Lampard was the driving force for Guus Hiddink's blue machine as Chelsea recovered from a goal down to secure a 2-1 win over Arsenal and a place in the final against Everton.The England midfielder was man-of-the-match at Wembley, but he was quick to play down talk of a trophy treble

Not too many people had heard of Federico Macheda before Sunday, but the Manchester United youngster looks like being in the headlines for several years to come.The 17-year-old was introduced as a second-half substitute as the champions chased the game at Old Trafford against Aston Villa and what an introduction to English football the Rome-born youngster made.

Some interesting stats on squad size in the Premier League. [Daily Mail]Henry Kissinger loves the beautiful game. [NY Times]The Gaffer has some stipulations for FSC's airing of the Champions League [EPL Talk]Some truly terrible kits. [Telegraph]Musings over the Champions League. [ESPN]

As long as you're not John Toshack or one of the 20,000 or so brave souls who watched Wales' 2-0 defeat to Finland at the weekend then Craig Bellamy's post-match comments on Saturday were refreshingly honest.After the weekend's horror show at the Millennium Stadium skipper Bellamy faced up to the sad reality of constant failure in big tournament qualification and instead of trotting out the

Bayern Munich are sick of bailing out 1860 Munich. [Independent]The world's cheapest car and the planet's biggest club. [Reuters India]Another Gunner gets his head turned by the Rossonieri. [Daily Mail]Manchester City don't give up the hope of attracting some of Europe's best. [Times]Posh worries as Italian ladies love the Beckham.

I spent roughly two hours watching Goal II: Living the Dream on Netflix last night and normally I'd be bitching about how I'm never going to get that hour and fifty-six minutes back, when I could have been sleeping.Although I have to say, as shit as the movie may be, I love the game enough to watch every minute, from the ridiculous cut and paste La Liga and Champions League play to the

AP Photo/Paul ThomasUnlike previous weekends, when Manchester United's grasp on first place was only solidified by disappointing results from the remaining top four, this weekend belonged to Liverpool. Hosting fifth place Aston Villa at Anfield provided the most compelling match of the weekend, discounting a poor result from Chelsea at Spurs and a multi-faceted collapse by Manchester United at

As interesting as Liverpool presumes it has made the race for first, or perhaps as Manchester United deigns to flatter them, the race for the fourth and final Champions League spot in the Premier League is just as compelling. With Aston Villa off to a great start, and Arsenal stumbling with inconsistency, the Gunners hold a slight edge over the Villans by virtue of seven goals.

ANDREW YATES/AFP/Getty ImagesIt's down to four points now in the Premier League as Liverpool beat 10-man Manchester United at Old Trafford 4-1. Given the amount of coverage surrounding Rafa Benitez's comments about Sir Alex Ferguson getting all the advantages in the title race, as well as Ferguson's dismissal of the Spaniard's words, this was another banana peel for Liverpool.

With the FA Cup quarter finals taking place this weekend, ahead of a crucial European week, it's time to question the relevance of the competition. [Guardian]Chasing the dream in football's academies. [Telegraph]Two of Buenos Aires' finest get knocked out of the Libertadores Cup. [Reuters]While many on the big island may agree with Michel Platini's opinions on the English footy, it may not be

Er, yeah . . . how many of these did you make?While SMiA loves anything footie-related, Rebecca Lowe may be the main reason we tune into Football Matters every week. [Guardian]Ian Wright Wright Wright has a kid that likes to fight fight fight. [The Sun]Becks finally sorts out the rest of his Galaxy career.