The KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup) clash between Ajax Amsterdam and AZ Alkmaar, which was suspended due to an attack on AZ keeper Esteban Alvarado in the initial encounter, was completed today in the Amsterdam ArenA with the home side going down to a 3-2 defeat.

Siem de Jong gave Ajax the lead as early as the 10th minute only for the visitors to restore parity fourteen minutes later through Maarten Martins.

Avram Grant takes over at Serbian champions Partizan

Avram Grant has taken many pundits by surprise by joining Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade as coach from today.

With fifteen games played so far this season in the Jelen SuperLiga, Partizan have a ten point lead over arch rivals Crvena Zvezda and already look set to continue their recent dominance by winning a fifth consecutive title.

Watching the FA Cup 3rd round tie between Arsenal and Leeds United on Monday evening might not have proved so entertaining if former Arsenal defender Martin Keown had not have been struck by a ball hit by a visiting Leeds player in the pre-match warm up. Keown was standing by the pitch alongside ESPN presenter Rebecca Lowe and ex-footballer Robbie Savage.

Marco Reus, the rising star in the German Bundesliga having helped Borussia Mönchengladbach to a respectable fourth place during the winter break, will be leaving the club at the end of the season to play for Borussia Dortmund.

It was announced today on Mönchengladbach's website that the player will remain at the club for the 2011-12 season before signing a five year deal with the current German champions Dortmund for a transfer fee of 17,5 million Euros.

The Italians have elected their "Best XI Team" for 2011 via the Sports paper "Gazzetta Dello Sport". Below is a neat diagram that shows it all with names/Clubs. As you can see its packed with players (coach) from SPANISH FOOTBALL Clubs. Question that comes to my mind: Schweinsteiger better than Xabi Alonso?

Swiss side FC Sion have been docked 36 points by their national federation, the Schweizer Fussball Verband. The deduction came into force with the club losing three points for every game which featured any of six ineligible players – namely Stefan Glarner, Pascal Feindouno, José Julio Gomes Gonçalves, Billy Ketkeophomphone, Mario Mutsch und Gabriel Garcia de la Tore in the country's Axpo Super League.

The French Sports paper "LÉquipe" has handed in their "Best 11 team" for 2011. As expected the list has a very SPANISH FOOTBALL flavour with the mayority of players from FC BARECLONA & REAL MADRID. There are two lists: the first chosen by Sports journalists & the second chosen by readers via an internet poll.

Just so I'm not accused of bias and favouritism by Real Madrid fans, some of whom I can count amongst friends, I also found this video worth sharing with the wider world. In a similar fashion to the Lionel Messi video (previous blog), here are all of Cristiano Ronaldo's goals from the 2011-12 season so far crammed into a 90 second piece.

Every so often comes a video which you have to sit and watch and it's a shame that the following video crams in Lionel Messi's goals of the 2011-12 season so far in such a short space of time. Nevertheless I thought it a good choice to include on here as it will no doubt prove popular with many people to see the world's greatest footballer doing what he does best.

DFB Pokal (German Cup) holders Schalke 04 were dumped out of this season's competition by Borussia Mönchengladbach following the latter's 3-1 home win in Wednesday's Round of 16 tie.

Borussia Mönchengladbach ensured that there would be no repeat triumph for Schalke 04 in this year's DFB Pokal.

FC Barcelona resumed domestic action last night following their triumph in the FIFA Club World Cup and helped themselves to a 9-0 rout over third tier side L'Hospitalet in the Round of 32 of the Copa Del Rey (Spanish Cup).

Barcelona, who already led 1-0 from the first leg of this tie, played a relatively strong side against their Catalonian neighbours and had Pedro to thank for getting the ball rolling after just 11 minutes when converting a penalty to open the scoring.

AZ keeper Esteban Alvarado was sent off following this incident on Wednesday

AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado has had his red card from Wednesday's Round of 16 KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup) match against Ajax Amsterdam rescinded.

The keeper was attacked by an Ajax fan only for Esteban to retaliate on the attacker by kicking him whilst he was on the ground, a response which was deemed inappropriate by referee Bas Nijhuis who then sent off the keeper much to the astonishment and fury of the AZ players and staff.

It may not have been the most difficult challenge that FC Barcelona would have to face in their quest to become FIFA Club World Cup winners. That, however, did not dampen the celebrations as the Spanish and European champions strolled their way past a poor Santos FC team courtesy of a 4-0 victory.

Mario Gomez (left) is the top scorer in the Bundesliga this season

FC Bayern München secured the tag of Herbstmeister (autumn champions) in Germany last night. Despite going down to ten men following Franck Ribéry's red card on the half hour mark, FC Bayern were seldom troubled by visiting 1.

Following today's draws in the European club competitions one can't help but feel that there could've been some tastier matches upon the horizon going into the knockout rounds of each competition. Nonetheless the teams that do remain in each tournament will have their eyes firmly focused on the big prize.

The EUROPA LEAGUE draw was celebrated today, along with Champions League, were the last 32 Clubs - including Champions League descarts - have been matched. The away games are scheduled for the 16th of Feb 2012 , with the return a week later. Below are the list of scheduled matches: SPANISH FOOTBALL CLUBS have fair relatively well with Atletico de Madrid matched with Lazio, Valencia CF with

ATLETICO DE MADRID finished top of their EUROPA LEAGUE Group I after defeating French Club RENNES 3 - 1. The French side came with more reserves than regular players & thus the match was not as intense for the locals as expected, & thankfully so. Falcao scores Low attending crowd of around 13,000 supporters that voiced their discontent with the Club, the team, & especially Coach Manzano with

FC Barcelona will compete in this year's FIFA Club World Cup following a sensational UEFA Champions League triumph in 2011. The Catalans must first face AFC Asian Champions League winners Al Sadd before they can start dreaming of the possibility of winning the world crown for the second time in three years.

Kashiwa Reysol and Al Sadd have booked their semi-final places in the FIFA Club World Cup following hard fought victories over Monterrey CF and Esperance Tunis respectively.

Kashiwa, representing the host nation Japan as the 2011 J-League champions, needed a penalty shoot-out to get past North and Central American champions Monterrey after the two teams had played out a 1-1 draw.

The two Manchester clubs have been sensationally dumped out of the UEFA Champions League following the final round of matches this evening.

Three-time European champions Manchester United are out of this year's tournament having suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Swiss champions FC Basle 1893. United only needed a point to progress but found themselves two goals down with ten minutes of the match remaining, with Basle's Marco Streller and Alexander Frei getting the goals, before Phil Jones pulled one back to make it an anxious finish for the Swiss side.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE final Group matches with Tuesday night action with 50% of the Clubs playing it out. Two SPANISH FOOTBALL representatives went to work with a good & bad result that will now be summarized below with the final results & the scorers. FC Barcelona FC BARCELONA hosted BATE BORISOV with the top spot of Group H theirs & their minds already on Real Madrid for this Saturdays LIGA

The draw for the 2012 UEFA European Championship, to be held in Poland and Ukraine from 8th June – 1st July next year, has been made in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv this evening. Sixteen nations will contest this competition for the last time before the next tournament, to be held in France in 2016, will see an increase in the number of finals entrants to 24.

SPANISH FOOTBALL representative ATHLETIC CLUB BILBAO defeated SLOVAN BRATISLAVA 2 -1 in their EUROPA LEAGUE Group F match. The fact that Group "mate" PSG lost its game, & the victory to Athletic tonight, assures the latter the Group top spot with a game still to play. Muniain for Bilbao Athletic got off to a good start when DE MARCOS opened the scoring in the 14th min, but Bratislava kept

EUROPA LEAGUE action tonight with the SPANISH FOOTBALL representative ATLETICO DE MADRID defeating CELTIC GLASGOW 0 - 1 in their Group I match. The victory by Atletico secures the Spanish Club the top spot of the Group & into the next phase. Unfortunately, the victory also knocks out Celtic. Diego - Turan for Atletico de Madrid The Scottish team was strong & fierce the first half of the match

FC Barcelona won their final La Liga match on Tuesday night before flying out to Japan for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Goals from Alexis Sanchez (2), David Villa and Lionel Messi gave the Spanish and European champions a comfortable 4-0 victory at home to Rayo Vallecano. The win meant that Barcelona reduced the gap between themselves and league leaders Real Madrid to three points but the capital side do have the advantage of a game in hand.

In the second part of our European summer leagues review we look back at another six leagues which fell upon the 2011 calendar year.

KAZAKHSTAN: FC Shakhter Karagandy (Played 32, Points 42) finished the season as Kazakhstan Premier League champions but it didn't look so clear cut throughout the season.

With many of Europe's top leagues now well under way it is at this time of year that we look back at those championships which take place through the summer months. In this two-part special we focus on twelve countries ranging from Armenia to Kazakhstan, Latvia to the Republic of Ireland and from Iceland to Belarus and highlight those who are celebrating title success, cup final triumphs or in despair following relegation.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice from the penalty spot against Atletico

Real Madrid (Played 13, Points 34) took the initiative in the Spanish league last night as a 4-1 derby success at home to local rivals Atlético de Madrid was sweetened by a defeat to champions FC Barcelona whose 1-0 defeat to Getafe saw them go six points behind los Blancos at the top of the table.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE continued tonight with two SPANISH FOOTBALL Clubs involved in Group duties & with positive outcomes. Here is a short summary of events, the final results & the scorers. Roberto Soldado VALENCIA CF needed to win its Group E match against GENK to keep alive its qualifying hopes & they did things in smashing fashion.

Two SPANISH FOOTBALL Clubs had CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Group duties tonight with final mixed results. Here is a brief summary of the events, the results & all the scorers. Ribery for Bayern Munich VILLAREAL travelled to Munich to play their Group A match against BAYERN & lost 3 - 1, thus ( nearly impossible saving themselves ) blowing out all their Euro - Champions League candles.

The business end of the 2011-12 Russian Premier League season began this weekend with the sixteen teams split into two groups of eight. In recent seasons the league would've concluded after thirty rounds of matches but due to the changing of the league season from a spring-autumn season to an autumn-spring timetable from the 2012-13 season another fourteen rounds of matches are necessary in order to decide championship and relegation matters this time around.

Babak Rafati attempted to take his life in a hotel room

The Bundesliga game between 1.FC Köln and 1. FSV Mainz 05 was called off today following the attempted suicide of the match referee Babak Rafati.

The news of Rafati's situation was learned by the two teams around one hour and a half before the game and, being unable to find a replacement official at short notice, it was felt by all concerned to postpone the match.

FC Barcelona, FIFA Club World Cup champions in 2009, will face either African champions Esperance Tunis or Asian champions Al-Sadd in the semi-finals of the 2011 edition.

The tournament, which returns to Japan this time following a two year stint in the United Arab Emirates, will open up on December 8th with the Japanese national champions, as yet undecided, facing off against Oceania champions Auckland City with both clubs hoping for a quarter-final meeting with North and Central American winners Monterrey CF three days later.

SPANISH FOOTBALL continued tonight with EUROPA LEAGUE participation in the Group matches were both games gave favoured results. Here are brief summaries of the events. At.Bilbao SALZBURG hosted ATHLETIC CLUB BILBAO in their Group F clash & went down to a 38th min goal by young Bilbao midfielder ANDER HERRERA.

VILLAREAL & REAL MADRID had CHAMPIONS LEAGUE obligations tonight with their respective Group matches. Here are the final results & the scorers. Villareal - Man City VILLAREAL hosted MANCHESTER CITY in their Group A match & went down 0 - 3. The Spanish Football Club was very undermanned with half a dozen key players out with injury, but this is not an excuse as Manchester City was a deserved

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE night with two SPANISH FOOTBALL representatives doing the job of winning & in the course break some Club, personal & Champions League records. Emotive night for Valencia with their performance, & Barça securing their presence in the next phase of the competition. Lionel Messi VIKTORIA PILSEN hosted FC BARCELONA in their Group G game & lost 0 - 4 with one man less on the

The last two SPANISH FOOTBALL Clubs with CHAMPIONS LEAGUE qualifying Group match commitments, Valencia CF & FC Barcelona, returned a sweet & sour ( or sour & sweet ) result that I will now go into more detail below with the final results & scorers. Sam for B.Leverkusen VALENCIA CF travelled to Germany to play fellow Group E Club BAYERN LEVERKUSEN & finished losing 2 - 1 to virtually shut for

Heads & Tails for the SPANISH FOOTBALL Clubs participating tonight in CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. Villareal needed to not lose to keep their slim chances of overcoming their Group for possible qualification, while Real Madrid needed a victory to seal their place beyond the Group phase. David Silva VILLAREAL needed to not lose their Group A match against MANCHESTER CITY & it was never going to be easy.

FK Ventspils, seen here with the 2008 title, are favourites to win in 2011

With five rounds of matches to go in Latvia's Virsliga the title race has been whittled down to three teams. Defending champions Skonto Riga virtually have no chance of winning this year's competition as they lie in fourth place, 14 points behind league leaders FK Ventspils but the capital side will still play a decisive part in the destination of the title as they must face-off against each of the contenders.

SPAIN equalled the historical 14 straight wins of Holland & France in official matches by defeating SCOTLAND 3 - 1 in the Group I Euro 2012 qualifier. Spain finishes top of the Group & goes straight into next years Poland-Ukraine Euro Championships, while Scotland misses out as the Czech Republic won their game to grab the 2º place in the Group & thus continue with a chance to qualify.