FC Barcelona with another manita, this time against FC BATE in Champions League (Photo: Getty Images)

Guardiola can rest easy. The dread of facing an unknown, physical, Eastern European side, hungry to impress its fans proved all for naught. Indeed, the arduous journey to Belarus proved more difficult than the challenge awaiting his side upon arrival.

Wednesday's Champions League action saw wins for Europe's elite clubs with Barcelona, AC Milan and Arsenal all securing wins with Chelsea being the only exception.

The Blues settled for a 1-1 draw in Valencia after taking the lead early in the second half thanks to a Frank Lampard goal.

After a stellar performance with Manchester United last season, life has become very hard for Dimitar Berbatov after his fall out with club coach Sir Alex Ferguson. However, with injuries to key players Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez, Sir Alex will have no option but to start the 30 year old.

The Portland Timbers needed a win in the worst way and with the pressure of fighting for their playoff lives looming, the Timbers delivered a first-class performance that has fans in the Rose City dreaming of the post-season.

The Timbers rolled right through the visiting New England Revolution, scoring early and taking control of a match the Revs never seemed to have much of a chance in, as Diego Chara, Kenny Cooper and Darlington Nagbe scored goals in a 3-0 romp at Jeld-Wen Field on Friday night.

Wolves v Spurs has thrown up its fair share of classic encounters over the years and for Tottenham, Molineux has generally been a difficult place to travel to. There's often plenty of goals too as last year's 3-3 draw underlines.

When you think of memorable games from the past, two will always come to mind – (for Spurs fans anyway).

With just a single point needed to qualify for Poland-Ukraine 2012, the Azzurri head back home to the Stadio Artemi Franchi to face Slovenia on Tuesday. But with a less than stellar performance on Friday, they have everything to prove. [read more]

The U-20 Seleção won the World Cup yesterday beating Portugal 3-2 during the overtime with a stellar performance by Oscar. The players of U-20 teams don't always carry through with the promises that they show at this stage but who knows if some of these will be future World Cup stars.

Last home game until August 20th and boy is it ever a big one. Those of who you have been following the Portland Timbers will remember the thrashing the LA Galaxy gave the guys at the Home Depot Center last April. They played confidently and very technically. I guess that's what you get when you spend over $10 million on salary per season.

Playing in front of a hostile crowd at Jeld-Wen Field, Fredy Montero stepped up on multiple occasions to help his Seattle Sounders erase deficits. His two goals were key in helping the Sounders take down arch-rival Portland on Sunday, which is why Montero was an easy pick for this week's SBI MLS Player of the Week honors.

(Many thanks to a friend who Whatsapp the attached images that depicted the national provisional squad.)
The much awaited national provisional squad list was made know just a hour ago at the Jalan Besar Stadium (as pictured below).
(Pictured above) The "senior" 23 players of the provisional squad.

Remember, I promised my children that we would be in the Maracana for the 2014 World Cup final. Here is a small tribute to Sergio Mendes, the 1966 album, a year which was not the most stellar performance of a Brazilian team in a World Cup though!

Maracanazos like Sergio Mendes!

While there were plenty of individual performances to write home about during the opening week of the Major League Soccer season, a number of teams stepped up to deliver impressive results.

Whether it was the defending champion looking very much like one, an expansion team putting together a surprising offensive display, an early favorite getting contributions from its newcomers or two of last year's league doormats coming up big, MLS' opening week was full of strong team efforts.

By Gordon Fleetwood writing from NYC

South American U20 Championships: Day 15

Lucas, the talented midfielder from São Paulo, had been overshadowed by Neymar in this tournament. Not in terms of performances, but there is little hope of the quiet playmaker standing out beside the mowhawk sporting rockstar-esque striker.

Fellow gooners, it has been far too long since I paid respect to Robin Van Persie in wallpaper form. The day of reckoning is at hand. Van Persie shall now be praised on desktops all across the globe.

This new wallpaper shows Robin Van Persie in all his glory as he celebrates yet another in a long list of fantastic goals.