The Spaniards (and Catalans, Galicians, Basques - lo que un dolor de cabeza!) arrived at Las Rozas de Madrid the National Football Sports Centre yesterday to meet Spain's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, at an official Euro 2012 reception. Rajoy received a special jersey from Vicente del Bosque and and conveyed his "best wishes" to the players.

The SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM took time out today from training in Madrid for the upcoming EURO 2012 competition to take the traditional team photo ( courtesy of RFEF ) with all the players that make up the squad. Spanish National Football Team Euro 2012 Here are all the names from top left - row by row - & to the end: Javi Martinez, Busquets, Reina, Casillas, Valdes, Pique, Albiol, Navas, Mata,

Despite the scoreline, the USA showed some encouraging signs in their 4-1 defeat against Brazil in Washington D.C. last night.
Regardless as to how well the USA played against Scotland over the weekend, you knew that they would be under signifcantly more pressure on both sides of the ball versus Brazil.

Barcelona forward Pedro has been rewarded for his two goals in the Copa del Rey final on Friday by being included in Spain's 23-man squad for the European Championships.

Sevilla's Alvaro Negredo was also selected among manager Vicente del Bosque's strikers, meaning there was no place for Roberto Soldado or Adrian Lopez despite the latter's goalscoring debut against Serbia on Saturday.

Los 23 elegidos para disputar la Eurocopa 2012 son:

- PORTEROS: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), José Manuel Reina (Liverpool/ING), Víctor Valdés (Barcelona).

The most successful manager in Barcelona's history improved his own record by winning the 2011-12 Copa Del rey title. This was the 14th title under Guardiola for FC Barcelona and was a great parting gift to the manager. Two goals from Pedro and one from Messi in the first half sealed the title for Barca, This was Barcelona's fourth trophy of teh season having won both Super Cup and Fifa World Cup in this year.

Real Madrid reached a record-breaking 100 La Liga points after an emphatic 4-1 win against Mallorca, while big spending Málaga secured a UEFA Champions League place thanks to a 1-0 win against Sporting Gijón.

Manuel Pellegrini's Malaga went into today's final round of games knowing that they simply needed a point to finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League next season.

Real Madrid reached a record-breaking 100 La Liga points after an emphatic 4-1 win against Mallorca, while big spending Málaga secured a UEFA Champions League place thanks to a 1-0 win against Sporting Gijón.

Manuel Pellegrini's Malaga went into today's final round of games knowing that they simply needed a point to finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League next season.

Real Madrid winger Royston Drenthe, currently on loan at Everton, has made the surprising claim that Lionel Messi called him "negro" in a derogatory manner on multiple occasions in the past. Perhaps prompted by seeing Liverpool's Luis Suarez get hit with an eight-match ban and £40,000 fine for using the same word against Manchester United Patrice Evra earlier this season, Drenthe has now made his accusations to the press some time after the incidents allegedly occurred.

All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award-winning Dirty Tackle...

Adidas unveiled the new Predator Lethal Zones at an event Manchester and to prove their "unleash deadly" tagline, they had Nani, Edin Dzeko and Tom Cleverley decapitate footballer shaped targets (1:10 into the video), among other challenges.

Thiago celebrates goal in 0-7 victory over Rayo Vallecano (Photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Barcelona rebounded from perhaps the most devastating week in team history to trounce Rayo Vallecano 7-0 in Madrid on Sunday night. Amidst all the heartbreak of the last few days: losing to Real Madrid in the Camp Nou, being eliminated from the Champions League, seeing their league hegemony as three-time defending champions come to an end and bidding goodbye to Josep Guardiola, the greatest coach in team history, the Catalans responded with a dominant performance to return to winning ways.

La Liga (3): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 Copa del Rey (1): 2008–09 Supercopa de España (3): 2009, 2010, 2011 UEFA Champions League (2): 2008–09, 2010–11 UEFA Super Cup (2): 2009, 2011 FIFA Club World Cup (2): 2009, 2011

So to tidy that up, that is four seasons in charge winning three League titles, two UEFA Champions Leagues, and one Copa del Rey and yet, it seems, Pep Guardiola is likely to walk away from Barcelona after all but conceding the league to Real Madrid, and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Chelsea's bus.

La Liga (3): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 Copa del Rey (1): 2008–09 Supercopa de España (3): 2009, 2010, 2011 UEFA Champions League (2): 2008–09, 2010–11 UEFA Super Cup (2): 2009, 2011 FIFA Club World Cup (2): 2009, 2011

So to tidy that up, that is four seasons in charge winning three League titles, two UEFA Champions Leagues, and one Copa del Rey and yet, it seems, Pep Guardiola is likely to walk away from Barcelona after all but conceding the league to Real Madrid, and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Chelsea's bus.

Does size matter for footballers? According to Tony Karon, it might be - depending on whether you are a Chelsea or Barcelona supporter...
Watch the pre-kickoff handshake between the players of Barcelona and Chelsea ahead of Tuesday's Champions League semifinal showdown and you'd be forgiven for believing the Catalans had sent a youth team to face the big men from London.

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has hailed his side's performance last night as one of the finest he has ever seen and believes that the Blues' unbreakable spirit triumphed over Barcelona's beautiful football.

The Blues dramatically surrendered their 1-0 first-leg advantage within eight first-half minutes as Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta struck either side of John Terry's infamous sending off.

24.04.2012 - Con goles de Ramires (´45) y Torres (´90), Chelsea le empató (2-2) a Barcelona (Busquets ´34, Iniesta ´42) en el Camp Nou y, después de ganarle (1-0) en Inglaterra, lo eliminó de la Champions League para consagrarse como primer finalista.

Where do I start on one of the greatest nights of our history considering the circumstances. Up against it before the game, written off and with members of the press and media thinking that Barcelona just needed to turn up to win the game, Chelsea produced a performance that is right up there with the best of them.

TASTIEST MLS GAME OF THE WEEKEND
DC United v Houston Dynamo on Sat Apr 28 - 6:30PM CT at RFK Stadium
DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS
du Nord at the Controls - Tue Apr 24, 2012 - new music mix at Spotify.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Semifinals
A big upset sees the champs go down to one of the scrapiest teams we have seen in years!

Barcelona's bad run still continue this midweek as they once gain said goodbye to one of their trophies target after failing to overcome Chelsea in front of their packed house at Camp Now.

Seeking at least two goals to overturn their 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge, Guardiola's team pretty much failed badly as they only managed to get a 2-2 draw, despite the fact that the Blues were playing with only 10-men for the larger part of the game.

Chelsea shocked the experts by advancing the UEFA Champions League Final 3-2 on aggregate. It was a great effort from the London side as they would were down 2-0 (2-1 on aggregate) late in the first half and had their captain John Terry sent off.

The match started out a bit slowly but would gradually start shifting in Barcelona's favor.

Possession, then, might only be nine-tenths of the law after all. When push came to shove at the Camp Nou last night, the young tigers of Barcelona were cast aside by Chelsea's old dogs in a match of events so improbable that it at times stretch the credulity of the viewer. Such, though, has been the nature of Chelsea's season since the departure of Andre Villa-Boas two months ago.

El Clasico might have taken place at Camp Nou on Saturday, but a true classic unfolded there Tuesday.

Despite being reduced to 10 men in the first half and facing a deficit, Chelsea stunned Barcelona to advance to the UEFA Champions League final after a 2-2 draw (3-2 win on aggregate).

Chelsea advances to the UEFA Champions League final with a 2-2 draw in the second leg on Tuesday, April 24, 2012. The English side would have advanced on any draw or even on a 2-1 scoreline (which it was until stoppage time) but added a late goal for insurance. Player ratings for both sides are below and on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best).

An extremely resilient Chelsea side fought against all odds to defeat FC Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate and progress to the UEFA Champions League Final in Munich on May 19.

The Blues, who carried over a 1-0 advantage to Camp Nou from their first leg home win, clawed back from 2-0 down on the night to draw 2-2 with a very late equalizer.

1. Unbeilevable. Just about the most dramatic Champions League semi-final you could imagine. 2. Suddenly £50million is looking like a bit of a snip. But you know what he was thinking as he went through one-on-one. 3. The prospect of Gerard Pique heading off for medical checks and Shakira being left unaccompanied for the evening [.

Frustration as FC Barcelona fall 1-2 and La Liga slips away (Photo: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images)

Well, it's over. Any notions of Barcelona mounting a league comeback were swept away after Real Madrid battled to a 2-1 victory under pouring rain at the Camp Nou on Saturday evening.

Real Madrid well and truly have sealed the La Liga title of 2011-12 season with a 2-1 victory at the Camp Nou. Khedira and Ronaldo scored for the away side taking them 7 points clear of the defending Champions. It was the first victory of Real Madrid under Mourinho against FC Barcelona in the league, incidently it was the first victory for Mourinho at the Camp Nou.

By Chris Wright

The Daily Mail have busied themselves by totting up the total amount of time Didier Drogba spent screaming in anguish with his face mashed into the spittle-infused turf at Stamford Bridge against Barcelona on Tuesday evening.

Here's the scores on the doors.

Didier Drogba's various ailments held up play for 6mins 30secs during Chelsea's Champions League semi-final first-leg against Barcelona. The great stat has been dug up by the Daily Mail. They have clocked all the time the Ivorian spent rolling around the ground. And it turns out that it was a very effective way of running [.

1. It's not very often that you can celebrate a first-leg win, but you can forgive Chelsea for enjoying this one. 2. Didier Drogba is back to his best... and worst. The goal-scoring hero seems to believe his recent good form has earnt him the right to spend prolonged periods in a horizontal position once [.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

It might not have been pretty, but some gritty defending combined with a clinical finish from Didier Drogba has given Chelsea the upper hand in their UEFA Champions League semifinal against Barcelona.

Chelsea held serve on a rainy night at Stamford Bridge in the first leg with a 1-0 win over Barcelona.

Roberto Di Matteo's magic touch with Chelsea still work out well for them against Barcelona in the Champions League as despite being dominated for pretty much the entire match, Di Matteo's boys grabbed a 1-0 victory at home.

Didier Drogba was once again a decisive actor for the Blues' victory as scored the only goal in the match, which opened up the London side's chance in getting into the Champions League final.

A brilliant counter attacking goal at the very end of the first half is standing strong between Barcelona and the Champions League final in Munich after Chelsea secured a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge tonight. It was kind of a harsh and unlucky night with players wasting gilt edged chances, hitting the post on a couple of occasion and on all other occasion the Chelsea defense standing strong.

Revenge is at hand.

Team sheets
Chelsea
Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Mikel, Meireles, Ramires, Mata, Drogba. Bench: Turnbull, Essien, Malouda, Bosingwa, Torres, Kalou, Sturridge.

Barcelona
Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Messi, Sanchez.

There is no question about it in my mind - tonight's game is huge!. I personally believe that the first leg at the Bridge is much more important that the away leg next week because it can either put us in a strong position or leave us with it all to do at the Nou Camp.
Should Chelsea attack Barcelona tonight and look to score a couple of goals to give us an advantage or should we remain cautious to make sure we do not concede and hope to score out there where away goals count double?

Following a series of incidents that have drawn accusations of blatant diving and scorn from fans around the world, Manchester United winger Ashley Young has admitted failure in his attempt to design rocket-propelled football boots.

"When I joined Manchester United, I knew I had to improve my game," Young told reporters.

Alexis brace helps FC Barcelona past Getafe (Photo: REUTERS/Albert Ge)

Barcelona moved to within one point of league leaders Real Madrid with a comprehensive 4-0 thrashing of Getafe at the Camp Nou on Tuesday night.

A brace from Alexis Sanchez, a header from Pedro and another moment of sheer brilliance from Messi rounded out the scoring, as Barcelona capitalized on Madrid's latest stumble to situate themselves within striking distance of first place in the Primera Division standings.

FC Barcelona has cut the lead at the top to a mere one point following their victory against Getafe at Camp Nou tonight. Two goals from Sanchez, one each from Messi and Pedro gave Barca a deserving 4-0 victory, more importantly all the three points. It was a totally dominating performance and the 4-0 scoreline was a bit of understatement for the chances we created.

Messi celebrates goal with Cesc Fabregas (Photo: REUTERS/Albert Gea)

Barcelona rallied from a goal down to defeat Real Zaragoza 4-1 at La Romareda on Saturday night, closing the gap at the top of the provisional La Liga standings to just three points with seven matches remaining.

The hosts came into the match riding a three-game winning streak, hoping to pull off the upset of the season and hand the reigning champions a potentially lethal blow in their quest to retain the league crown.

With the N17 looters having dropped two points on Wearside yesterday the Good Guys find themselves needing defeat avoidance at the very least to return to third place.

One would hope that the Spuds have over achieved this season on the back of a few decent performances from their squad semi-evolved simian.