Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish could not hide his disappointment after a draw with rock-bottom Blackburn Rovers, but was pleased to have Steven Gerrard back on the field.
The Reds were held to a sixth Premier League draw of the season at Anfield after Charlie Adam's own goal was cancelled out by Maxi Rodriguez on Boxing Day.

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.

Where Jurgen Klinsmann spent his weekend

U.S. men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann took advantage of his trip to Europe to stop over and watch a trio of his players at their club addresses.

He was in Germany on Saturday to watch Fabian Johnson and Danny Williams at Hoffenheim, where the Bundesliga side drew 1-1 with Kaiserslautern.

Real Salt Lake just can't win in Houston.

RSL has never won at Houston's Robertson Stadium, and on Saturday the Western Conference club found a new, more painful way to drop points against the Dynamo as rookie Alex Dixon netted a stoppage-time game-winning goal to give Houston a 3-2 victory.

And so Arsenal come out of their German friendly with their two new summer signings scoring all the goals in a 2-1 scoreline, thanks to a Gervinho brace and a Carl Jenkinson own goal.

The match started with Koscielny conceding the first chance as he cut down Podolski outside the box, only for Milivoje Novakovic to blaze it over the bar.

Perhaps, on a bookshelf in the offices of the Football Association at Wembley Stadium, there is a leather-bound book called "How To Get Knocked Out Of A Major Tournament". It's a well-thumbed tome, of course, and the England team at this year's Women's World Cup couldn't help but crib from its extensive advice in getting themselves eliminated from this year's tournament at the hands of France at the end of a tumultuous match in Leverkusen last night.

Big weekend for soccer in the United States with the Gold Cup Final, kick off of the Women's World Cup and regular MLS action around the country. This includes the odd decision to run a number of MLS matches while the Gold Cup Final was going forward in California.

All 32 matches of the Women's World cup will be televised in HD on the ESPN family of networks.

By Chris Wright

With England U21s needing a three-point haul from their final group game, it looked for all of 14 minutes like Danny Welbeck's header was going to be enough to see Psycho's youngsters through to the knock-out rounds of the U21 European Championships that was until the Czech Republic pulled their fingers out, scored in the 89th minute and again with the final kick of the game (Jan Chramosta and Tomas Pekhart, both substitutes) thus hoisting themselves back above England in the table and through to meet Switzerland in the semis on Wednesday.

There were four, possibly five, Villans involved as England drew 2-2 with Switzerland and the United States were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by Spain yesterday. Darren Bent and Eric Lichaj started for their sides, Ashley Young and Michael Bradley entered their games at half time and Stewart Downing made a late appearance for England and almost won it with the final kick of the game.

Arsenal saw their Barclays Premier League title hopes all but extinguished after Dirk Kuyt secured a point for Liverpool with a last-gasp penalty just moments after Robin van Persie's own spot-kick had looked enough for victory.
The Gunners - now six point points behind leaders Manchester United having played the same number of games - had plenty of possession and hit the bar in the first half through Laurent Koscielny, but were unable to make their dominance count until deep into eight minutes of stoppage time when van Persie crashed home a spot-kick.

Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher says he is fine after his horror injury sustained against Arsenal at the Emirates and insists that team-mate Dirk Kuyt is the man to deal with high pressure situations following the Dutchman's penalty which secured a point with the final kick of the match.
Carragher left the play in a neck-brace halfway through the second-half after an ugly clash of heads with young full-back John Flanagan – an incident of which the 33-year-old has no recollection.

Arsenal vs Liverpool 2011 17/4/11- Emirates Stadium, London Final score:- Arsenal vs Liverpool 1-1 ( Robin Van Persie penalty/ Dirk Kuyt penalty) Late drama at Emirates Stadium as referee Andre Marriner awards not one, but two penalties in injury time. Dirk Kuyt scores the equalising penalty with the final kick of the game, thereby dealing [.

AC Milan maintained their three-point lead at the top of Serie A by winning 2-1 at Fiorentina. Lazio moved up to fourth with a 2-0 victory over Parma to spoil Franco Colomba's first match in charge. Luca Toni scored a late winner to earn Juventus a 3-2 win against his former club Genoa.

Udinese's hopes of playing in the Champions League next season were dealt a further blow with their second consecutive defeat, a 2-1 reverse at home to Roma.

Only one of the league's top five stumbled mid-week, with Manchester City being drawn at St. Andrew's, though Tuesday and Wednesday's matches were overshadowed slightly by Wednesday's news, when the best right back in Premier League history announced his retirement. Because the sometimes controversial way Gary Neville went about his business, many will overlook him being a maintain for England and the standard on the right during the young history of the Premier League.