Reigning champions Estudiantes have continued their erratic Copa Libertadores form with the Argentinians held to a scoreless draw at Bolivar.

Arsenal and Bayern Munich came out ahead on a dramatic night in Europe that saw five goals scored in each of the Champions League contests.

FIFA.com spoke to Brazil-born goal-getter Liedson about representing Portugal and how it will feel to compete against his nation of birth in South Africa.

A late winner from Yasushi Endo gave J.League champions Kashima Antlers a dramatic 2-1 AFC Champions League victory over Jeonbuk Motors.

Still just 28 years old, goalkeeper Iker Casillas is a key figure for Spain as they attempt to win their first-ever FIFA World Cup in South Africa in June.

? Arsenal manager would welcome all-Premier League semi-final
? 'It would be a good chance to show we can do it against them'

Arsène Wenger said he would welcome the chance to face Manchester United or Chelsea in the Champions League quarter?finals, after he watched his Arsenal team book their place in the last eight with a dismantling of Porto. They won 5-0 on the night for a 6-2 aggregate victory, thanks to a hat-trick from Nicklas Bendtner and outstanding contributions from Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin.

Arsenal have suffered at the hands of United and Chelsea in the Premier League this season, losing home and away to both. The home defeats were particularly demoralising and led to them seeing their title chances widely written off. Wenger has even suggested that his team have had a mental block against their principal rivals this season, which might have started when United knocked them out of the Champions League semi?finals at the end of the last campaign. Yet he was keen to show that he would have no fear of either club were Arsenal to draw them in Europe's elite competition.

"I have a funny feeling that maybe it's good for us to play an English team," he said. "We have not done well against Chelsea and Man United this year and it would be a good chance to show we can do it against them."

When pressed on the issue, Wenger softened his stance, as though to guard against the "Bring on United and Chelsea" headlines. The Frenchman said: "What I want to say is that we do not choose Manchester United or Chelsea and maybe if I say, for example, we absolutely do not want to play an English team, I put ourselves already in an inferior position. I believe that maybe it's a good opportunity, if we do get them, to show that we can do well.

"First of all, I don't have the choice about who we draw. If I have the choice, I would say 'Yes' but I don't have the choice. If we do get them, we cannot do worse than we did in the championship. We can only do better.

"We will take the draw that we get. We do not have to make an obsession ? for example, what I do not want is that we make a negative obsession of not playing against Chelsea or not playing against Manchester United. That's all."

Wenger could enjoy himself here at Emirates, after Bendtner proved his worth just three days after his horror show against Burnley in the Premier League, and his other attacking players turned on the style. "If I don't smile tonight, I will never smile," he said. "We controlled the game, we played our fluent football and our positive start with the early goals gave us the needed belief.

"Over the 90 minutes, we controlled 80. For the 10 that we didn't control, we suffered. They had a few chances at the start of the second half. But overall, we controlled the game, scored some great goals and we were good to watch. We did what we like to do. We won with style and we always went forward in a convincing way.

"At the start of the season, no one expected us to be where we are at the moment. We have mental strength, good desire and good quality but it's important that we continue to improve. There were still some weak moments that we can deal with better during the game. Before we speak about beating United or Barcelona, we have to improve. But we have a chance."

Although Bendtner took the plaudits, Wenger also praised Nasri and Arshavin. "Nasri is developing very well," the Frenchman said. "He has talent and he is starting to be efficient now. He made a great pass to Arshavin for the first goal [which Bendtner scored] and he scored a great goal himself.

"He can play in central midfield but when Cesc Fábregas is back, he will play wide. I like Arshavin, too. When he is one versus one with a player, you know that he will pass him. You need to be special to do that."

After almost four months and 14 Premier League games without a win Sunderland's bleak midwinter finally ended last night. As the thermometer dropped to freezing point it did not exactly seem like spring but Steve Bruce's suddenly relaxed body language was that of a man who has just felt the sun's warmth on his back for the first time in a very long while.

Like Bolton, who began brightly enough but faded badly, Sunderland have not yet banished relegation fears but, thanks to Darren Bent's hat-trick and Fraizer Campbell's opener, their manager now has no reason to feel trepidation when he attends a scheduled formal meeting with his boss this morning.

More than an hour before kick-off Bruce stood in the centre circle deep in conversation with Ellis Short, Sunderland's owner. Given Fabio Capello's recent experience with bugging, perhaps it was the one place the pair felt confident of not being overheard as they presumably discussed the reasons behind the team's lack of victories since beating Arsenal in November.

Small wonder then that relief was writ large across Bruce's and Short's face as Campbell's first Premier League goal gave Sunderland a 44th-second lead. When Bolton only semi-cleared Anton Ferdinand's deep cross, Lorik Cana sent another ball back into the area for Campbell to latch on to before beating Jussi Jaaskelainen courtesy of a controlled, close-range volley.

It proved the cue for the recently underwhelming Cana, Campbell and Steed Malbranque in particular to recapture their early-season spike and sparkle.

"It's been a long time, a long winter," said Bruce. "The early goal gave everyone the confidence we needed. It's been tough and I'm not just talking about the north-east weather. I just feel relieved." And his tête-à-tête with Short? "I went outside to get some fresh air and who did I bump into but the owner," added Sunderland's manager before extolling the Texan's "supportive" stance.

Fears that Bruce would require post-match consolation receded when Malbranque, excellent on the left, helped create the second goal, playing in the hitherto disappointing Cattermole who slipped a lovely ball to Bent. Surging forward, he held off a clutch of markers to shoot powerfully, right-footed, past Jaaskelainen from just inside the penalty area. It was the sort of defender-confounding finish to make you think Bent should be on England's summer flight to South Africa after all. "Darren must be in Fabio Capello's thoughts," said Bruce. "He's a natural goalscorer."

It got worse for Bolton and even better for Bent. First Sam Ricketts was sent off for a second yellow-card offence, namely the gentle shove which sent Bent tumbling, thereby conceding a slightly controversialpenalty. Next the victim dusted himself down and converted that kick before subsequently completing a first Sunderland treble by shooting his 19th goal of the season through a crowded area after playing a lovely one-two with Campbell.

Despite enjoying a fair amount of possession and forcing several set pieces, Bolton rarely threatened Craig Gordon ? even if Lee Chung-yong might have done better than shoot wildly over the bar when he might have equalised.

"With conceding so early and then going down to 10 men everything conspired against us," said Owen Coyle, Bolton's manager, who thought the already booked Cana should have been sent off for a heavy, knee-high, tackle on Vladimir Weiss and disputed both the penalty award and Ricketts's red card. "I thought we were very unfortunate."

If only his team had been as feisty.

A stunning strike from Arjen Robben fired Bayern Munich into the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the expense of an unlucky Fiorentina at a wet and windy Stadio Artemio Franchi. The final score after the two legs was 4-4 but Bayern went through on the away goals rule.

The Germans, leading 2-1 from the first leg, were second best for long periods of the game and had looked to be on their way out of the competition when Juan Vargas and Stevan Jovetic scored the game's opening two goals to put the hosts ahead in the tie for the first time.

But Jovetic's strike sparked a manic 11-minute period during which four goals were scored and Bayern took an unlikely grip on the game.

Mark Van Bommel levelled the tie with a low drive on the hour only for Jovetic to score his second four minutes later.

That provoked wild celebrations from the home bench, but only 72 second later Robben, who had been well marshalled until that point, broke free of his markers to unleash an unstoppable 30-yard strike to settle the contest on away goals.

The Bayern manager, Louis van Gaal, handed the 17-year-old David Alaba a first start as a makeshift left-back in place of the injured Diego Contento while Robben returned after recovering from a cold.

The home side had the advantage of a strong wind at their backs in the first half and Vargas tried to make use of it early on with an ambitious 40-yard free-kick that just flew over.

The Peruvian was an early menace and his cross soon after appeared to strike Daniel van Buyten's hand in the penalty area, although the home side did not make much of their appeal.

In the 22nd minute Bastian Schweinsteiger earned a caution that will rule him out the first leg of Bayern's quarter-final after he fended off the chasing Jovetic with a hand to the face.

Fiorentina went ahead in the 28th minute when Vargas pounced on a weak clearance from Bayern goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt and found the net with an expert finish under pressure from a tight angle.

Bayern then lost the striker Mario Gómez with a leg injury on the half-hour with Miroslav Klose his replacement.

The Germans should have gone level after 34 minutes when the ball broke for Robben who blasted a shot from 12 yards only to see Sébastien Frey make a superb reaction save.

It was a rare attack for Bayern whose forward threat was in effect snuffed out by the hosts who consistently double marked wingers Robben and Franck Ribéry to cut the supply.

Fiorentina's grip on the game strengthened further when Jovetic fired home after 54 minutes, following a superb backheel from Alberto Gilardino, to send the hosts 3-2 ahead on aggregate.

But the match was turned on its head in the next 11 minutes as the goals flew in. Bayern grabbed their lifeline on the hour when Ribéry outpaced three markers before sliding a pass to the top of the area where Van Bommel drilled a low shot in at the left post.

Four minutes later La Viola were ahead in the tie again when Gilardino again fed Jovetic, this time with a header, and the young Montenegrin outmuscled Van Buyten and forced home from close range.

Fiorentina thought they had done enough but a minute later they were staring elimination in the face when Robben cut inside before unleashing an unstoppable drive that flew in the top-left corner from 30 yards.

Fiorentina still had time to find a reply, but now deflated they never threatened to find a way back into the game and Bayern increased their unbeaten run in all competitions to 19 games.

Plus: Team-mates and sworn enemies (2); who's going to fill Rochdale's boots?; and England's Toulon team of 1990. Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk

"Have any football matches been captured on Google Earth?" wondered Roderick Stewart last week. "Who won?"

Google's roving helicopter/spy satellite/gigantic flaming all-seeing eye must have been hovering over Bristol on a Saturday afternoon in April 2007. Zooming in over Ashton Gate reveals Gary Johnson's side taking on a side decked out in green. "City seem to be mid-game and apparently on the attack down the left wing," writes Graham Sutton. "According to Google Earth, this was on 14 April 2007, which makes it a 2-0 home win over Yeovil in their promotion-winning season."

Up the road at Durdham Down a dozen or so games ? quite possibly from the Bristol Downs league of previous Knowledge fame ? can be seen being played concurrently, points out Rob Little:

Unfortunately we're unable to ascertain those playing and the scores, though from the wear-and-tear in the central areas of the pitch, it's fair to suggest things get a bit messy in the winter, a fact that might have contributed to this slightly wonkily redrawn centre-circle:

"This match which is more than likely Hallam FC of the Northern Counties East (the world's second oldest club) playing at Sandygate (the world's oldest football ground)," writes Tom Carter:

And David Ellis has spotted a game going on by the banks of the Thames:

"This shows the mighty Ibis FC of the Southern Amateur League way back in May 2007," writes David. "The game finished 2-2 as I recall. If you zoom out you can also take in the games of Old Meadonians, and north and across the train tracks there are several Civil Service games going ahead."

Meanwhile in the shadow of Alexandra Palace:

"Alexandra Palace are in the tangerine shirts," writes David Lea. "Possibly the 3rd or 4th XI. Not much of a crowd, I'll grant you."

TEAM-MATES AND SWORN ENEMIES (2)

Last week we had a first look at team-mates who didn't see eye-to-eye off the field. The Knowledge inbox has swelled with further tales of dressing-room disharmony.

Dean Johnson suggests Kenny Burns and Trevor Francis at Birmingham. The pair had squared up after Burns had caught Francis with a training-ground tackle ? "Trevor didn't like it, and he stood up to me. So I just gave him a little tap ... you know, a butt ... Trevor went off in a hump" ? though Burns has since played down their feud in his autobiography. "We moved in different circles," he wrote. "We just didn't drink in the same places. I'd go down the social club, play a couple of frames of snooker and have a couple of bets, whatever, he would possibly drink in a wine bar. He had his own friends at Forest as well [Later in his career Francis had followed Burns to the City Ground]. Obviously a lot was made out of things between us, but it wasn't as bad as everyone said."

In 1982 Jean-François Larios was kicked out of France's World Cup squad amid rumours he had been having an affair with Michel Platini's wife. The pair, though, were never sworn enemies as team-mates ? they had played together for St Etienne but Platini left that summer for Juventus and Larios never played for France again.

Dave Langlois writes to suggest that Santiago Cañizares and defender Miroslav Djukic "hated each other" while at Valencia. Hate might be a bit strong, though they apparently refused to speak to one another for five years. "We do not talk," said Djukic in November 2000. El País, via a slightly unhelpful online translation, reveals: "Until now it was an open secret that the two Valencia players had not just treatment, that the estrangement was due to fights on the pitch."

When the colossal egos of Edmundo and Romário met at Vasco de Gama in 1999 fireworks were always likely ? though they had previously been friends the latter had depicted the former on the men's toilet door at his Café do Gol bar a year earlier much to Edmundo's chagrin.

Troubled brewed in 2000 when prior to a game Romário was handed the captaincy. The deposed captain ? guess who ? went home in a serious huff, and the pair sniped at each other thereafter, with one incident, Romário taking a penalty and missing when Edmundo had expected to take it, causing the affair to flare up. Edmundo called his striker partner the "Prince" to the club president's "King". Romário, with fairly sharp wit, tagged his team-mate as "the court jester". The turbulent relationship ended when Edmundo left for Santos in 2000.

And one of the more famous on-field bust-ups came between Charlton's Mike Flanaghan and Derek Hales in an FA Cup tie against Maidstone United, then of the Southern League, in January 1979. With five minutes to go the scores were level. Hales made a run towards goal, Flanagan, the ball at his feet, delayed the pass and by the time Hales had received the ball he had been caught offside.

"Words were exchanged between Hales and Flanagan about the fact that he hadn't passed earlier and the two moved towards each other," writes Keith Peacock, a team-mate of Hales and Flanagan, in his autobiography. "They went head to head and Hales threw the first punch. He wasn't the kind of guy to see what the other fellow would do. Blows were exchanged." But the incident had merely brought to a head something that had been bubbling under the surface beforehand. "It was a bit more than that," said Hales, without elaborating, in 2005. "The manager should have sorted it out beforehand."

Hales was sacked and then reinstated. Flanaghan was fined then handed in a transfer request. "I was seen as the nasty one," admitted Hales. "But it takes two to tango."

Plenty more of this next week, but keep them coming to the usual address.

ROCHDALE'S SUCCESSORS?

"With Rochdale on the verge of promotion, their record of being in the same division for 35 years looks like ending," writes Phil Rhodes, poking fate with a big pointy stick. "We all need to know who outside the Premier League will have been in the same division the longest if Dale get promoted. A list of the five teams who follow Rochdale in the current list may make for interesting reading and also show how fluid the Football League is."

Indeed Rochdale have been neither promoted nor relegated since 1973-74 and with their League Two rivals currently indistinct dots in the Spotland rear-view mirror, their 36-year drought may be about to come to an end. But who will replace them as the Football League's most entrenched club?

Darlington, who have been bobbling along in the basement since 1992, are on an 18-season stretch in the same division. The Shakers could well drop into the Blue Square Premier at the end of this season, at which point their title would be taken by Oldham, who have been in the third tier for 13 seasons. The top five, we reckon, looks something like this:

Darlington 18-season run (relegated 1991-92)

Oldham 13-season run (relegated 1996-97)

Lincoln 11-season run (relegated 1998-99)

Preston 10-season run (promoted 1999-2000)

Tranmere 9-season run (relegated 2000-01)

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

This month the Knowledge celebrates its 10th birthday and in honour of that fact we'll be delving into the column's very earliest days for our archive slot this month. Here's a question from the second ever Knowledge, as penned by Sean Ingle and Paul MacInnes back in April 2000:

"Please could you name the England U-21 team that played in the Toulon tournament in 1990?" asks Richard Glover

In 1990 England's U-21 squad won the eight-nation tournament in Toulon for the first time with the following squad:

Crossley, Muggleton, Lee, Sharpe, Le Saux, Barrett, Tiler, Sherwood, James, Ebbrell (capt), Blake, Matthew, Thomas, Stuart, Slater, Olney, Robins.

Shortly afterwards the full England side reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, and many thought this U-21 team would make up the nucleus of England's 1994 World Cup side.

Things didn't quite turn out as forecast, although some players did go on to become full England internationals (notably Le Saux, Sharpe and Sherwood), and one (Crossley) bizarrely played for Wales. Sadly, most of the exalted class of 1990 have become journeyman club players, plying their trade in the lower leagues.

Can you help?

"In light of the imminent cinematic release of the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats (imminent in Australia anyway) and its depiction of the US military attempting to harness psychic abilities, I was wondering if there has there ever been a football manager (or players) that has attempted to do the same; and if so were there any reports of this being a success?" writes Tim Grey.

"Noel Bailie, of Linfield in Northern Ireland, had recently played his 990th game (all for one club) and looks set to achieve 1,000 by the end of the season," writes Keith Minnis. "I think I'm right in saying both Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence have achieved this. However, Noel Bailie is a centre-half, what other professional outfield players, if any, have achieved 1,000 appearances?"

"Plenty of teams have a City or Town suffix, but is a there a Village? And if so, what's the highest level they've played at?" ponders Philip Genochio.

Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk

? Claims that unlicensed go-between helped set up 2005 deal
? FA investigating, with fines or even points deduction possible

The Football Association is considering whether Shaun Wright-Phillips and Chelsea could face charges for dealing with an unlicensed agent, Mitchell Thomas, when Wright-Phillips moved to Stamford Bridge from Manchester City in July 2005. The investigation by the FA follows the outcome of a case brought by the Law Society against a solicitor, Timothy Drukker, who signed off the paperwork in the Wright?Phillips deal but paid Thomas part of the £1.2m fee which Chelsea paid him.

If the FA does find that Thomas, the former Tottenham Hotspur and Luton Town defender, was involved in negotiating the deal, they could bring charges against Wright-Phillips and Chelsea. Penalties range from warnings to fines and even points deductions.

The Wright-Phillips transfer is the 17th deal, previously unidentified, handed over to the FA by Quest, the investigators the Premier League hired to conduct the so-called "bungs inquiry" into transfers by its clubs between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2006. Quest cleared all the other deals, but said more inquiries should be made into No17. At the time, the Wright-Phillips deal was not identified because the Law Society had begun proceedings.

They only reached their conclusion in January, with a finding by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that Drukker was guilty of "conduct unbecoming a solicitor" during the transfer and in "misleading" Quest when they made inquiries. He was fined £15,000, the tribunal having decided there was no dishonesty on his part but that Drukker's actions "had resulted in the undermining of the Fifa regulations".

Drukker himself told the tribunal he had been asked by "parties close to Shaun Wright-Phillips" to act as his agent when the details of the move to Chelsea had been agreed. Drukker was paid a fee understood to be £1.2m, did not keep any of it and paid it to others including Thomas.

The FA has been taking a strong stance against unlicensed agents in recent years, because it sees licensing as crucial to its ability to regulate the multimillion-pound flows of money in transfers. Chelsea paid City £21m for Wright-Phillips, a huge sum that summer and vital for City who were struggling financially.

Any FA charges would be brought against Wright-Phillips and Chelsea, not Thomas, since the FA cannot take action against unlicensed agents because they are operating outside football's rules. An FA spokesman said: "We are aware of the outcome of these proceedings and are considering what action, if any, may be appropriate in relation to football rules."

Chelsea and Wright-Phillips both denied that Thomas had been involved in the transfer and said that Drukker himself had conducted the negotiations. "We believe we acted appropriately at all times," a Chelsea spokesman said.

How we?ve managed to sign a new deal the week before Cheltenham (the equivalent of Christmas for me) I?ll never know, but we?ve over the moon to have signed up with FourFourTwo.

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Oh to be Landon Donovan. The most wanted American in England since David Bieber (and for much, much nicer reasons, though I'll admit to not having heard of him until he popped up in a Wiki search), our little Landycakes has finally made his bones in Europe, and is now the subject of a transcontinental tug of war over his services.

Everton want him to stay, and why wouldn't they? Their return to form coincides nicely with his arrival, and despite a terrible miss against Tottenham which might have kept their unbeaten streak going, Donovan is the toast of Goodison Park.

The chants of "USA! USA!" echo across the Atlantic, and even Donovan's detractors in the States (and there are more than a few) can't help but be heartened to hear them. Donovan's "unfulfilled" potential is slightly more filled, and most of us would love to see the good times continue. More chances for Phil Neville to join in the chanting, please.

But that, of course, is completely up to MLS and the LA Galaxy. And unlike last year's drama over David Beckham's stay at Milan, Donovan doesn't have quite the pull or the cash in hand to make it happen that Goldenballs did.

This all points to only one eventuality, and it will serve to make just the Galaxy fans among us happy; Donovan will be headed back to sunny California on the 15th.

"No, I'm not the guy from Neighbours..."

On one hand, it really is too bad. Donovan's growth as a player has never been more evident than it is with Everton, and after too many years of "underachieving" (I'll come back to this in a moment), his time with the Toffees has finally given him a chance to live up to the "best American player" label.

Talent has never been an issue with Donovan, he just struggled to settle in Germany and took the easy route of returning home to MLS...twice. I have trouble hating him for it, as so many seem to.

Donovan's personal decisions are just that and unless one ascribes to the theory that his playing at home stunted his growth and prevented him from becoming the talisman the US National Team, then the criticism is distasteful and unjustified.

Why do Americans, or any group of fans for that matter, project upon footballers their own frustrations?

Aside from heat he received for failing to live up his usual standards in a USA shirt on occasion (see: World Cup, 2006), most of Donovan's detractors pointed squarely to his failures in Germany as evidence of his soft mental makeup, and then castigated him for not being ready to excel there.

Even before he joined Everton in January, before he had a chance to take the field for David Moyes, and before he could prove himself worthy of the Premier League, it was simply assumed that he would fail. Whipping boy and standard bearer, all rolled into one.

That's the problem, of course. It's because he's the standard bearer in the eyes of Americans that he was the subject of so much criticism.

"Go to Europe and shine, dammit, you're making us look bad!"

Off so soon?

So all credit to Landon Donovan, who has not only boosted his reputation on both sides of the pond, but has done it his way. Of course it helped that he had an American teammate at Goodison and that the length of the loan meant any failure would be mitigated.

If he played poorly at Everton, or rarely got off the bench during a brief 10-week stint, what could it hurt? People already believed him incapable of playing above Major League Soccer's significantly lower level anyway.

Now that he's a smash hit, he wants to stay as long as he can. If the MLS players go on strike, he might just get his wish.

It might be that this taste of top-level success will have Donovan headed to richer shores come the summer. Chelsea are rumoured to be interested in him, and even if that's not true, there should be someone willing to pay for his services come July.

Was this Everton loan a complicated ploy to audition himself for the leading lights of Europe in a bid to get out of the backwater of MLS? Possible, but doubtful.

Donovan not only signed a brand new contract with LA/MLS just before heading abroad, he's never shown us anything that would indicate he thinks beyond the moment.

Getting to Everton was a way to challenge himself, at a time when he certainly appears to be at the height of his powers; but it wasn't ever really the means to an end.

No matter what happens now, and no matter how much American fans hope he either stays in England now or returns at a later date, Donovan has satisfied himself that he can cut it. In the end, it's his career, and we're all just along for the ride. Who were we to tell him he wasn't doing enough before, anyway?

It sure will be nice not to have to explain why America's greatest footballer could never cut in Europe, though.

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?There are players who?ve made their whole career on one match. There are players who do everything to make a splash on television and then it?s over. Afterwards they play but they live on their attainment.?

Michel Platini?s frank remark, made in an interview with the French novelist Marguerite Duras in 1987, is a reminder of how things have changed for footballers.

And one of the catalysts for that change has been the tournament that Platini indirectly presides over, the UEFA Champions League.

We can all think of players who have made their career on one match, or only look the part when the TV cameras are on them.

But the Champions League, by ruthlessly pitting the best against the best season after season, has made it harder for the chancers, the flatterers-to-deceivers, the lazy, and the merely inconsistent to prosper at the very top.

Razzle dazzle ?em

Every Champions League game is a courtroom in which a player is judged ? though at least they?re being scrutinised for what they do on the pitch.

Sometimes, especially when the media clamber onto a bandwagon, the process of judgement can be horrendously skewed. Last week?s teenage sensation is this week?s overrated flash in the pan.

The process of building them up to knock ?em down is almost as pitiless in football as in the music industry. And it can be just as distracting and destructive.

Luckily, the most influential judges are the coaches who are professionally obliged not to get carried away and know that one game, one bit of that old razzle dazzle on television, does not define a player?s quality.

Michel loves to kick back and chill out with some Enya

Their judgements may be more measured but they can be just as unforgiving in the long run. And the tournament many regard as the ultimate test of a player is the Champions League.

Arsene Wenger says that one of the first questions he asks when appraising a prospect is: ?How will he perform in the Champions League??

Statistical breakdowns

So into this courtroom this week step the players of Arsenal, Bayern, Fiorentina, Lyon, Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Porto.

Each tie is accompanied by statistics which can inspire optimism or despair (eg Porto have won their last 24 two-legged ties in UEFA competitions when defending an advantage away from home yet the Portuguese champions have lost on their last six visits to London).

But the best players won?t worry about the stats. They will be imagining, sometimes in lavish detail, scenarios where their team wins.

None of these ties are over. Milan?s mission hovers between impossible and implausible.

Only one side has lost at home in the first leg of a Champions League knock-out round and gone on to win the tie: Ajax against Panathinaikos in the 1995/96 semi-final. And United have never lost by two clear goals at Old Trafford in the history of this competition.

But in a buoyant interview, Ronaldinho insists ?nothing is impossible.? When he talks about his renewed form (?To tell you the truth I?ve been planning to have a year like this?) you can almost hear him grinning.

The Brazilian predicts a beautiful game at Old Trafford. And it may be one in which the script is written not by coaches but by a player. That must be the worry for United fans.

On current form, they have one game-changing genius, Wayne Rooney, whereas Milan probably have two and a half (Ronnie, Andrea Pirlo and ? the half ? Marco Barriello).

Real?s Pjanic button

Real v Lyon is as finely poised. Again, fans can find comfort in conflicting statistics.

Lyon have not conceded in 620 minutes, while Real have only failed to score at home in this competition in three of their last 20 games (though worryingly for the Madrilenos two of those scoreless games were in the first knockout round).

Lyon?s best hope, apart from a clean sheet, must be Lisandro Lopez, whose impressive strike rate ? 14 in 30 games in this competition ? looks a tad less daunting when you realise he has only scored once in the competition this season.

But he ? and playmaker Miralem Pjanic ? are the potential game changers. Against them, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Gonzalo Higuain could all prove decisive.

Kaka is regaining form but is still in danger, to hark back to Platini?s analysis, of being typecast as a player who lived off one golden season (2006/07).

Kaka - a one season wonder...?

The second leg could prove coach Manuel Pellegrini?s point: that Real, in recent seasons, have degenerated into a gifted counter-attacking side who can?t keep possession long enough to dominate the opposition.

He has tried to change that ? to no avail in the first leg. But the Real players? post-match in-flight inquest on the way home from Stade Gerland proves they know what is at stake.

On paper, Bayern have more players who can make a difference than Fiorentina. It is hard to know how fired up/distracted the Viola will be after their bad luck in the first leg.

Mind you, as Jeffery Marcus points out in the New York Times, it is hard to know which Fiorentina will turn up anyway.

The likelihood is, as Bayern coach Louis van Gaal says, that the Bavarians will score, so it will take some performance from Cesare Prandelli?s team to make the last eight.

For all that, the mood in Italy seems to be one of defiant optimism.

1-0 to the Arsenal

Cesc Fabregas?s hamstring blows the Arsenal v Porto tie wide open.

The Gunners have a surprisingly dismal record of overturning first leg leads in UEFA competitions ? they have done so once in their last nine attempts ? but could go through with that most George Grahamish of scorelines, 1-0.

In Cesc?s absence, their talismanic genius is Andrei Arshavin, a sublime player who still hasn?t quite silenced the kind of concerns that Platini raised in that interview.

The Russian maestro has scored 10 goals this season for club and country but only one in the Champions League (against Olympiacos) and only two against top class Premier League opposition (Liverpool and Manchester United).

This would be a good week for Arshavin to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Euro 2008 was not some glorious departure from the norm. A player with his natural gifts should be a serious contender for the Ballon d?Or by now.

Cometh the hour, cometh the Andrei? Arsenal fans certainly hope so.

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La Liga Loca learned two things during its cheeky visit to the UK over the weekend, and one on its return to Spain.

Brighton appears to have morphed from a pleasing, chill-out crusty-friendly paradise into a neo-fascist dictatorship with haranguing instructions to its citizen-brothers plastered on every surface imaginable.   

One pub was cheerfully informing its clientele, for example, that they were being watched on CCTV and ordered them to refrain from talking on their ?intrusive? mobiles and informed them that smoking within 100 metres of the front door was illegal and that they should leave the establishment in total silence under pain of death once their fun quota has been reached.

And not to drink too much, either. Or eat anything that had not been locally sourced.  

The city authorities have also imposed a directive forcing any male under the age of 26 to dress like a member of Vampire Weekend.

Brighton - you are being watched...

But to continue the weirdness, the blog has returned to Spain to discover that Barcelona is no longer the super-sexy, stylish wonder club that completed its glorious global conquest just a few short months ago.

Instead, it has turned into a giant, blubbering, Kleenex-clutching jellyfish. In a pinny.

The weekend?s draw against Almeria still sees Pep?s Dream Boys side-by-side with Real Madrid with a good 13 games to go.

Indeed, with 25 matches played in la Liga, Barcelona are actually two points better off than last year?s rather handy team.

But rather than giving a superior smile, a nonchalant shrug and telling the Madridista camp that we?ll all see how things look come May, the league champions have gone more than a little crazy.

The local Barcelona press have always been fairly sensitive souls and that?s exactly why their trouble-stirring counterparts in Capital City engage the same winding-up tactics on them every single year, with the same desperately predictable results.

Around this time, every season, the Madridista press accuse Barcelona of being in the process of - or about to - bottle it big time.

And every time, every season, the local papers do little to counter this accusation by getting their Catalan panties in a right old bunch in response.

Mundo Deportivo have reacted to Barca?s campaign in la Liga where just one game has been lost and a positive goal difference of 45 has been achieved, by claiming that the Dream Boys need to completely reinvent their signing strategies with Tuesday's headline shouting ?Sign Goals!? over a picture of David Villa - a striker who was busy not scoring in the previous evening?s encounter between Valencia and Racing.

Pep - less cool than 12 months ago...

The paper also has a massive wailing blub of what they perceive to be Real Madrid?s dastardly tactics, complaining that the club is ?the leader in tricks?.

?The agitation and propaganda of the Madridista football regime has worked efficiently and ended up terrifying the referees and creating a climate of persecution,? complained a hysterical Lluis Fox in Tuesday?s edition.

?It wasn?t necessary to mount such a hostile campaign against Barcelona,? continues the columnist whilst scooping up his cojones which had just dropped to the floor and rolled under his desk.

Sport are also on the conspiracy bandwagon by screaming on their website that Juan Jose Gallego Galindo, the linesman who caused the sending off of Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Saturday night, was a Real Madrid fan - a claim based on the damning evidence of a comment from Santiago Canizares? Twitter site.

They too are forgetting that the current battle at the top of the table is due to Real Madrid being a little better than last season's side, having spent all the money in Spain on a new team, rather than any existential crisis in the Catalan camp.

Mundo Deportivo are quite right to call the Madridista naughtiness of late ?tricks?. The problem is that they are falling for them, all over again.

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Arsenal take on Porto still smarting about the referee's first-leg performance. At least they didn't get one of this lot...

Melvin Sylvester

School caretaker Melvin Sylvester was refereeing an Andover Sunday League game in 1998 when player Richard Curd pushed him from behind. Sylvester flipped, punching Curd several times, before exacting the ultimate punishment by showing himself the red card.

?I was sorely provoked. I couldn?t take any more,? said the traumatised referee said after his early bath. Possibly the nastiest school caretaker since the one who kept a donkey in Grange Hill.

Dusko Pekija

If Sylvester went wild at Curd, Pekija went one further in 2005. During a Bosnian Cup match, Pekija knocked out FC Sarajevo player Samir Saric. Moments later the ref himself was attacked by Sarajevo players for awarding a penalty to FC Zelijeznicar, who were awarded the now-abandoned game 3-0. Saric regained consciousness minutes later and Pekija received a one-year ban.

Claus Bo Larsen

Always one for bringing the best out of people, Paolo di Canio claimed the referee ?used bad words? against him during West Ham?s UEFA Cup defeat against Steaua Bucharest in 1999. Di Canio alleged Larsen had called him ?a b**t**d? and was told by the Dane to ?Get off before I send you off?, advice quickly acted upon by Hammers boss Harry Redknapp, who knew a thing or two about difficult foreigners.

Graham Poll

In November 2006, ?The Thing from Tring? was accused of using the F-word after red-carding John Terry against Spurs. Terry was charged and fined £10,000, while Poll was cleared. But Poll quit the game the following May, saying he?d received little support from the Premier League over the matter and that the artist formerly knew as ?JT? wouldn?t speak to him anymore? Ahhhh.

Danny McDermid

The then-Leeds manager Dennis Wise alleged that McDermid swore at him during United?s 1-1 draw with Gillingham in September 2007. The alleged cuss came during an incident which saw Wise sent to the stands and two of his players red-carded.

?We as a club will be reporting him,? spat Dennis the Menace, often at the centre of the refree-player-abuse triangle. ?I have three witnesses who are going to back me up.? Wise was fined, but McDermid wasn't. You can't win with referees.

Stuart Dougal

Scottish ref Dougal exhibited a fine array of put-downs in 2004 when his use of ?foul and abusive language? towards Rangers midfielder Christian Nerlinger was exposed on television during a game at Partick Thistle.

?I sympathise with Stuart Dougal. I don't think anything should happen to him,? said the surprisingly tolerant German international. The SFA disagreed, fining Dougal £200 and giving him a hefty slap on the wrist.

Phil Dowd

Paul Jewell accused Dowd of using the F-word as Wigan lost 2-1 at the Emirates in February 2007. Jewell was told to calm down, but later suggested other Premiership clubs had requested Dowd shouldn't be in charge of their games.

In a highly unexpected move, usually publicity-shy chairman Dave Whelan also waded in, saying ?If the players used abusive language to the ref, they would be sent off.? Sadly, Dowd didn?t send himself off.

Edilson Pereira de Carvalho

Following Corinthians? 3-2 defeat to Sao Paulo in 2005, Carlos accused De Carvalho of swearing at fellow Argentine Sebastian Dominguez and claimed Brazilian officials persecuted Argentinian players.

Things got so bad Corinthians hired a camera crew to film the referee during a match against Atletico Paranaense, while the officials contemplated carrying tape recorders in retaliation. Nothing like a bit of trust in the game, eh?

Clive Thomas

Known as ?The Book? for his officious interpretation of the laws, Thomas had a reputation for being disgusted by the mere hint of an emotional goal celebration.

Gooners legend Charlie George liked his straight talking, though: ?Clive Thomas was one you could say to, ?Oh come on, Clive,? and he'd say ?Go on, p*ss off,? and sometimes you appreciate that.? Evertonians of ?77 and Brazilians of ?78 may beg to differ?

Emil Lauersen?

Hicham Zerouali?s nickname was ?Zero?, being possibly the only centre forward to wear the number 0 on his shirt. The Aberdeen striker claimed Lauersen wound him up before he was sent-off for dissent in a match against Danish club Farum in 2001.

?It made me really angry because no referee has spoken to me like that before,? said Hicham, tantalisingly refusing to go into further detail.

Words by Tim Ellis

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AC Milan Has a Mountain To Climb is a post from: SoccerOverload.com

Champions League TV schedule: March 9 – 10, 2010 is a post from: SoccerOverload.com

Ten Man Barcelona Manages Only A Tie With Almeria is a post from: SoccerOverload.com

Manchester United Shoots For the Top Spot is a post from: SoccerOverload.com

International Friendly Match Results: March 3, 2010 is a post from: SoccerOverload.com

David Beckham isn?t apprehensive about his first game at Manchester United since his acrimonius departure in 2003.

Nicklas Bendtner had three goals, and Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue scored in a three-minute span of the second half to lead Arsenal over FC Porto 5-0 Tuesday night and into the quarterfinals of the European Champions League on 6-2 aggregate.