Brussels  - Rene Vandereycken was sacked on Tuesday night as Belgium national team coach over a poor World Cup qualifiying campaign with almost no hope of making the 2010 finals.

Vandereycken's time was over after begium lost twice to Bosnia-Herzegovina, on March 28 and April 1, to rank fourth in their group, 11 points behind runaway leaders Spain. Only the top team qualifies directly for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Zurich - Spain has built up a record lead atop the world football rankings, issued on Wednesday by the governing body FIFA, courtesy of its latest two victories.

The Euro 2008 champions defeated Turkey twice in World Cup qualifiers, 1-0 on March 28 and 2-1 on April 1, to stretch their unbeaten run to 31 games and lead the FIFA list with 1,729 points.

FIFA said that the 367-point advantage over second-placed Germany (1,362) is the biggest lead since the rankings which take into account national team games were introduced in 1993.

Manchester  - Mariano Gonzalez scored a late equaliser as Porto held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

The visitors took a fourth-minute lead through Cristian Rodriguez, only for a defensive howler to present Wayne Rooney with an equaliser 11 minutes later.

Substitute Carlos Tevez looked to have given United the win when he struck with five minutes remaining, but Mariano ghosted in at the back post to steal an equaliser three minuets later.

Villarreal, Spain  - Arsenal are well placed to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, after battling out a valuable 1-1 draw away to old enemies Villarreal on Tuesday.

Arsenal edged Villarreal out of the 2006 final and are poised to eliminate the Spaniards again, after a superb strike from Emmanuel Adebayor cancelled out an early goal from Marcos Senna.

Villarreal went into the quarter-final first leg without broken leg victim Santi Cazorla. Arsenal, in contrast, had key men Adebayor and Cesc Fabregas fit again.

Hamburg - Defending Champions League title holders Manchester United on Tuesday disappointed as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Porto in a first leg quarter-final match played in Manchester.

The other quarter-final played on the night saw Arsenal draw 1-1 at Villarreal.

In Manchester Porto had the ideal start when Cristian Rodriguez made the most of poor defending just four minutes into the game and beat Edwin Van der Sar with a well taken shot from 13 metres.

Manchester - Mariano Gonzalez scored a late equaliser as Porto held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

The visitors took a fourth-minute lead through Cristian Rodriguez, only for a defensive howler to present Wayne Rooney with an equaliser 11 minutes later.

Substitute Carlos Tevez looked to have given United the win when he struck with five minutes remaining, but Mariano ghosted in at the back post to steal an equaliser three minutes later.