France drop subtle hint over Benzema's participation in EURO 2016

Benzema was left out of the last France squad for the games in November because of the ongoing investigation into a sex tape, Mathieu Valbuena and the Real Madrid striker allegedly blackmailing his fellow Frenchman.

Whilst his suspension has been lifted an announcement of France's squad for the Panini sticker book, and that's the real squad anyway, showed that the 28 year-old isn't picked to have himself immortalised in sticker form for kids to swap for shiny national badges. Continue

Diego Simeone insists practicing penalties are a waste of time

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone insists his team spend no time practicing penalties after they stepped up in the shoot-out to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

Juanfran struck the decisive spot-kick as Atletico claimed an 8-7 penalty shoot-out win over PSV after their last-16 tie finished locked at 0-0 following a goalless draw at the Vicente Calderon.

Simeone said Atletico wasted no time no penalties in training as they finished with a perfect eight from eight on Tuesday. Continue

Ronaldo to sue businessman over Rio favela purchase claims

Cristiano Ronaldo is suing a businessman who claims the Real Madrid player has bought a favela in Rio de Janeiro and given it to the residents. 

(A favela is a slum in Brazil, within urban areas.)

It was reported by several media outlets in Germany that Ronaldo had purchased the favela, in the north of the Rio, for around 2m Euros.

The stories claimed that, according to a property agency, Ronaldo had then given the favela back to its residents on a rent-free basis.

But Ronaldo has strenuously denied the story and issued a statement confirming he will take the matter to court. Continue

Zabaleta concerned about Kompany and Otamendi

Pablo Zabaleta conceded Manchester City's celebrations over reaching the Champions League quarter-finals were subdued after centre-backs Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi suffered first-half injuries in the goalless draw against Dynamo Kiev.

City were grateful for the 3-1 lead they carried over from the first leg of the last-16 clash in Kiev after influential captain Kompany suffered a recurrence of his troublesome calf injury in the seventh minute.

Otamendi sustained a dead leg in a challenge with Oleg Gusev to depart after 24 minutes of a listless first half, with Kiev unable to sufficiently test City's hastily thrown together defensive duo of Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis.

Afterwards, City boss Manuel Pellegrini said Kompany would miss a "minimum of a month", while Otamendi remains hopeful he can feature in Sunday's crunch Manchester derby. Continue

Mertesacker: We just pass until opposition scores

Per Mertesacker says Arsenal “play and play and play until the opposing team scores”. Yes, yes they do.

The Gunners succumbed to a 2-1 defeat against Watford in the FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday, missing out on the opportunity to win a third consecutive trophy.

This leaves Arsenal’s season in disarray, with an eight-point gap separating them from Premier League leaders Leicester, while Arsene Wenger’s side must overcome a 2-0 deficit against Barcelona at the Nou Camp to progress in the Champions League.

Discussing the defeat to Watford, Mertesacker opted to shift the blame onto the club’s struggling strikers, not their flagging defence. Continue

UEFA Youth League: Holders Chelsea join Madrid,Anderlecht and PSG in semi's

Holders Chelsea joined Anderlecht, Real Madrid and Paris in booking their place in April's UEFA Youth League final tournament in Nyon by defeating Ajax 1-0. 

The fourth and last place in the UEFA Youth League final tournament, to be held in Nyon between 15 and 18 April, has been filled by Chelsea after the holders overcame Ajax. Continue

'I built Arsenal', Arsene Wenger claims

Arsene Wenger may be in the midst of one of his darkest times as Arsenal boss but the Frenchman insists he is even more motivated that he was on the day he walked into the club.

The 66-year-old is approaching two decades at the helm of the Gunners but is not in a position to start planning for celebrations when the anniversary arrives.

His side are on a dismal run which has seen them drop from top of the Barclays Premier League at the turn of the year to 11 points adrift of leaders Leicester – while the prospect of becoming the first team in living memory to win three successive FA Cups ended when they were beaten at home by Watford in Sunday’s quarter-final meeting.

Now Arsenal face the daunting task of trying to overturn a 2-0 deficit to reigning European champions Barcelona when they pair clash in the Nou Camp on Wednesday night. Continue

Portugal's EURO 2016 kit leaked

It's not that we want the domestic season to be over, far from it in fact, we're just excited by the fact that there is a Euros to look forward to when it sadly comes to an end. And international tournaments always bring some good looking kits.

For Portugal they obviously have to make sure that their kit looks good because they wouldn't want to annoy Cristiano Ronaldo, after all he does pretty much carry their whole team.

Portugal have a very winnable group with as they face Austria, Hungary and Iceland in Group F so we can expect to see a lot more of it than just three matches, especially as the top three will qualify in four of the six groups: see it after the cut

Photos: Many hairstyles of Paul Pogba as he turns 23

Happy Birthday to Paul Labile Pogba who turns 23 today! The hugely talented and sought after midfielder is a fan of very weird hairstyles, and in celebration of his birthday we take look at some of them after the cut

Liverpool and United fans won't be happy with the referee chosen for their UEL clash

The Europa League match between Manchester United and Liverpool on Thursday was always going to be a nervy event for fans of both clubs, but it could be a lot worse than first feared after the referee for the fixture was announced.

The man in charge is none other than Milorad Mažić of Serbia, who may not ring any bells at first but you may remember him if you watched any of the 2014 World Cup. Continue

TEAM NEWS: Athletico Madrid vs PSV

 Here's how the teams line up for tonight's Champions League round of 16 game at the Vicente Calderon.

Atlético: Oblak, Juanfran, Giménez, Godín, Filipe Luis, Gabi, Augusto, Koke, Saúl, Carrasco, Griezmann. #UCL

PSV: Zoet, Isimat-Mirin, Moreno, Arias, Bruma, Willems, Pröpper, Guardado, van Ginkel, de Jong, Locadia. #UCL

TEAM NEWS: Manchester City vs Dynamo Kiev

Here's how the teams line up for tonights Champions League round of 16 game at the Etihad.

City XI: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Otamendi, Clichy, Fernando, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Silva, Aguero #cityvkyiv #mcfc

Subs: Caballero, Kolarov, Mangala, Demichelis, M.Garcia, Sterling, Bony #cityvkyiv #mcfc

Dynamo Kyiv XI: Shovkovskiy, Antunes, Dragovic, Vida, Khacheridi, Miguel Veloso, Garmash, Gusev, Buyalskiy, Yarmolenko, Teodorczyk #mcfc

Subs: Rudko, Danilo Silva, Makarenko, Yakovenko, Sydorchuk, Korzun, González.#cityvkyiv #mcfc

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Maxwell, football's greatest bromance?

Brad and Jennifer, Justin and Britney, Puffy and J-Lo. Back in 2001, the world was enthralled by some of the great celebrity romances. Alas, none were to survive the test of time.

But in that same year, a relationship began that is still going strong today. It started when a cocky street kid from Malmo realised he was flat broke and bored after moving away from home for the first time, so called up another new arrival in Amsterdam, a shy teenager from southern Brazil.

They met up and got on so well that they didn’t leave each other’s company for the next month. When Zlatan met Maxwell, football’s greatest bromance was born. Continue

Piers Morgan calls David Beckham an 'attention seeker' after he shows support for Wenger

An Arsenal fan sports page posted this picture on Instagram calling for Arsene Wenger to resign, David Beckham apparently found it disrespectful and made his feelings known in the comment section with the comment "Disgraceful. No respect, attention seekers."

Piers Morgan (an Arsenal fan) was having none of it and called Beckham an 'attention seeker'.

 Continue

Barcelona sold player after he failed to pass toilet paper to President

Barcelona sold club legend Johan Neeskens because he refused to pass the then-club president toilet paper at a moment of need, a new book has claimed.

Apparently Neeskens, who was capped 49 times by Holland and won the Cup Winner's Cup at Barca, was sold by Jose Luis Nuñez after refusing to pass him toilet paper under a cubicle door at the Estadio Jose Rico Perez stadium in Alicante. Continue

Harry Kane loving Vardy golden boot battle

Tottenham star Harry Kane is enjoying the race for the Premier League golden boot and hopes to edge Jamie Vardy to the award.

Kane and Leicester City forward Vardy are locked on 19 goals apiece after the former's brace against Aston Villa on Sunday.

The 22-year-old Kane said the battle was enjoyable, although Claudio Ranieri's men hold bragging rights with their five-point lead atop the Premier League. Continue

Photo: French born XI who opted to play for other countries

Real talent here...

Hilarious! Read old Bebo profiles of these famous football stars

TheSportsBible stumbled upon the Bebo profiles of Jordan Henderson, Aaron Ramsey and Andy Carroll. Its really hilarious. Continue

Max Kruse receives very weird fine from club Wolfsburg

The German forward had a decent night at the poker table but on the way home managed to leave €75,000 (£60,000) in the back of the taxi on the way home.

Wolfsburg 's reaction to finding this out? They FINED HIM €25,000 for the trouble, according to German newspaper Bild.

Talk about kicking a man when he's down!

That's about £20,000 by the way. Continue

Eiffel Tower responds to Zlatan

If Zlatan Ibrahimovic wants a statue of himself to replace the Eiffel Tower to ensure he remains at Paris Saint-Germain, he should think again after the iconic French landmark cheekily responded on social media. Continue