European Under 21 Championship Semis Holland and the Ukraine booked their places in the final of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Portugal, narrowly edging out France and Serbia respectively. The final is in Bessa at 19:45 on Sunday the 4th June.
In the first semi final in Braga, Holland took an early lead through Nicky Hofs and extended their advantage on 38 minutes through Ajax star Klass Jan Huntelaar, who narrowly missed out on the Dutch World Cup squad.
However, the French hit back in the second half and drew level with goals from Julian Faubert and substitute Bryan Bergougnoux with five minutes to go. That took the tie into extra time and a second goal from Hofs sealed the win for Holland.
The second semi final between Ukraine and Serbia and Montenegro in Aveiro was a much tighter affair and went all the way to penalties with Ukraine prevailing 5-4 after a goalless draw. - Paul
Chelsea Bid To Further Strengthen Squad The arrival of Michael Ballack on astronomical wages at Stamford Bridge looks likely to be followed by several more high profile big money signings.
After weeks of speculation, Andriy Shevchenko has finally admitted that he will be moving on from AC Milan this summer, with Chelsea - possibly the only club who can afford him - ready to open talks with the player and his agent.
Officially the player wants to move to England for family reasons so that his son can learn English, however, it seems likely that the attraction of a giant pay packet could have a lot to do with his decision. There aren't any valid footballing reasons for the switch as he's a hero in Milan and went closer to winning the Champions League with them this season than Chelsea did.
Roberto Carlos or Ashley Cole could yet end up making summer moves to Chelsea and several of the fringe players are set to depart. Portuguese midfielder Maniche has already been released. - Paul
Champions League Final News Arsenal and Barcelona are completing their final preparations for the 2006 UEFA Champions League final at the Stade de France in Paris. Both teams expect to be at almost full strength although there remain a few doubts about the fitness of Philippe Senderos, Mathieu Flamini and Lionel Messi.
Sol Campbell will partner Kolo Toure in central defence for the Gunners if the Swiss defender doesn't make it and Ashley Cole is expected to get the nod for the left-back spot ahead of Flamini even if the Frenchman is fully fit.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi hasn't played for over two months since picking up an injury against Chelsea but has returned to training and could feature in the squad.
Tickets for the match could have sold out many times over but thousands of supporters are expected to travel to France without them in the hope of picking some up on the day of the game.
Given the number of exciting individuals on show, it promises to be a highly entertaining final. Let's hope that the teams don't put too much emphasis on stopping each other from playing and serve up a dull stalemate and penalties. - Paul
Champions League: Benfica 0-0 Barcelona Spanish champions and Champions League favourites Barcelona were held to a goalless draw by their Portuguese counterparts in Lisbon, largely due to an impressive performance from the home goalkeeper Marcelo Moretto.
Barcelona enjoyed the lion's share of the possession and created the best chances but were unable to secure an away goal that would have given them a foothold in the next round. Benfica will travel to the Camp Nou in a week's time believing they still have a chance to progress but the Catalans will be strong favourites in their own back yard. - Paul
Coupe de France 1/4 Finals Draw The draw has been made for the Quarter Finals of the Coupe de France and four of the favourites face each other, opening up a route to the semis for a few of the unfancied teams.
Perennial favourites Olympique Lyonnais face a tough test at Gerland against a Marseille team with much to prove. Gerard Houllier's Lyon have made it their objective to secure their first ever domestic double this season but Marseille will be a tough nut to crack.
Paris-Saint Germain have also been handed a tricky tie as they try to salvage something from another disappointing season. Lille will visit the Parc des Princes as favourites in many people's eyes.
The two lower division teams left in will both feel they have a chance to progress. Second division Montpellier travel to Rennes and fourth division Calais will hope to repeat their giant killing act against Nantes.
The ties will be played in Tuesday the 11th and Wednesday the 12th of April. - Paul
UEFA CUP Last 16 Round-up Five more teams booked their places in the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Cup to complete the line-up for the draw in Eindhoven.
Steaua Bucuresti managed a spectacular 3-0 away win over struggling Betis of Spain to join neighbours Rapid in the next round. A brace from Banel Nicolita and a goal from Victoras Iacob, all in the second half, secured a 3-0 aggregate victory.
Levski Sofia are still flying the flag for Bulgaria, having come from behind to put out Udinese. Tissone gave the Italians a first half lead in the Bulgarian capital but goals from Borimirov and Tomisic turned the tie around to send Levski through 2-1 on aggregate.
FC Schalke are Germany's sole remaining representatives in Europe this season. They overturned a 1-0 first leg deficit against Palermo to go through 3-1 on aggregate with goals from Kobiashvili, Larsen and Azaouagh.
Zenit St Petersburg and FC Basel complete the quarter final line up. The Russians capitalised on their 1-0 win in Marseille with a 1-1 draw at home and the Swiss secured a 2-2 draw away at Strasbourg, having won 2-0 at home. - Paul
'Boro battle through in Rome Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough won through to the UEFA Cup Quarter finals for the first time in their history despite going down to a 2-1 defeat against AS Roma at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
'Boro led 1-0 from the first leg and extended their advantage on 32 minutes when striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink headed a Downing cross past goalkeeper Curci. That meant the Roman side needed to score three times but Mancini's goal just before the break gave them belief that the task was possible.
A sixty-sixth minute penalty, after a foul by Ray Parlour, was converted by Mancini to set up a nervous last 25 minutes for the Teesiders. McClaren's charges defended well as a unit and absorbed much of the Roma pressure, although a couple of fine saves from 'keeper Schwarzer were needed before 'Boro could be sure of their place in Friday's draw.
Elsewhere, Hamburg failed in their attempt to overturn a two goal deficit from the first leg against Rapid Bucuresti. The German side scored three times through Lauth, Barbarez and Van Der Vaart but a crucial away goal from Buga put the Romanians through.
Spanish side Sevilla did manage to overturn a first leg deficit against Lille. First half goals from strikers Frederic Kanoute and Luis Fabiano put them 2-1 up on aggregate and into the quarter finals although their task was made easier by the dismissal of Lille midfielder Mathieu Bodmer after only 26 minutes. The numbers were not evened up until the 71st minutes when Seville's Jesus Navas was also sent off. - Paul
Inter Complete Quater Final Line Up Internazionale of Milan won the final Champions League last sixteen tie to set up a Quarter Final clash with Villareal.
The Italian side led on away goals after a 2-2 draw at the Amsterdam ArenA in the two weeks ago and looked fairly comfortable on home turf in the second leg. Adriano had a great chance to wrap up the tie in the first half when Inter won a penalty after a handball by Juanfran but the Brazilian missed with his spot kick.
The breakthrough came on 56 minutes when Stankovic stroked the ball home from the edge of the box and Inter shut up shop to eliminate the final Dutch outfit from this season's Champions League and leave Italy with three clubs in the quarter finals.
The full draw is:
Benfica v Barcelona
Arsenal v Juventus
Olympique Lyonnais v AC Milan
Internazionale v Villareal
(1st Legs 28/29th March, 2nd Legs 4/5th April) - Paul
Impressive Lyon crush sorry Metz Olympique Lyonnais carried their impressive midweek Champions League form over into the French Championnat at the weekend and had no problems in beating northerners Metz 4-0 at Gerland.
It was 2-0 within 20 minutes and 3-0 before half time with two strikes from Florent Malouda sandwiching a header from John Carew. Patrick Muller completed the rout in second half injury time with an impressive volley from an acute angle and Metz look set for a desperate struggle against relegation.
Bordeaux's good form continued at the Stade Chaban-Delmas. They are now unbeaten in eleven Ligue 1 games (7 wins, 4 draws), and second-half goals from Henrique and Laslandes saw off Toulouse. The Girondins remain nine points behind Lyon with nine games to go.
Lille and Auxerre are third and forth respectively, separated by only one point. Lille took a point from a 1-1 draw at Nantes whilst Auxerre beat Nice 2-0 at home. Marseille, Lens, Le Mans and Rennes all won to keep up the pressure in the race for a UEFA Cup place. Paris-Saint Germain lost ground as they were held away at Nancy. - Paul
Spanish La Liga Round-Up The big news in Spain at the weekend was Barcelona's home defeat to Atletico Madrid, which brought to an end their run of 15 successive league wins. Fernando Torres (2) and Maxi Rodriguez scored for the visitors with Henrick Larsson mustering the solitary reply for the Catalans.
The result allowed the chasing pack - Valencia, Real Madrid and Osasuna - to regain some of the lost ground on the leaders. All three teams won to cut Barca's lead to a mere nine points.
Real beat Espanyol 4-0 with two more goals from Zinedine Zidane plus strikes from Guti and Ronaldo. Valencia notched up an impressive 1-0 win away at Deportivo with the prolific David Villa grabbing the winner and Osasuna matched that result away at Sevilla thanks to a Savo Milosevic strike.
Celta Vigo and Villareal occupy the remaining European spots. The former picked up a 1-0 away win in Santander whilst the latter were being held at home by Cadiz.
It's still very tight at the bottom of the table with six teams being separated by only four points. Bottom side Mallorca lost 2-1 at Real Sociedad and Alaves drew 2-2 with Getafe. Athletic Bilbao complete the bottom three having lost 2-1 at Malaga.
Elsewhere, the match of the day was at Zaragoza where the home side saw off Real Betis by the odd goal in seven. Zaragoza went 4-0 up within 23 minutes but were pegged back by a superb hat-trick from Dani. Both teams had a player sent off late on. - Paul
