Hamburg - This week's European Champions league matches could be a further indication that German top clubs Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen are heading in opposite directions.
Bayern are unbeaten in the Champions League and require only a draw at home to Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday to qualify prematurely for the knockout stages.
They lie third in the Bundesliga within striking distance of surprise leaders Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen, whom the both play over the next fortnight.
Bremen, by contrast, face a Champions League exit on Wednesday when they visit Anothorsis Famagusta with no win in the first four games.
Madrid - Injury-plagued Real Madrid face a daunting trip to Belarus for a Champions League match which could shape the season for the nine-time European champions.
Bernd Schuster's troubled team is away to BATE Borisov in a Group H match as the Spanish champions scramble to reach the last 16 amid growing pressure on the German coach.
Real will ensure themselves of a place in the knock-out stage with a victory at BATE, providing Juventus avoid defeat away to Zenit St Petersburg.
But two defeats in the group to Juventus have dented Real's confidence, and a further defeat would leave them facing a tough last game in the group at home to Zenit to avoid a humiliating exit.
Los Angeles - Randy Wittman hasn't had much to smile about this season, but the Minnesota Timberwolves coach beamed a rare happy face after Sunday's game.
Randy Foye had 23 points and a career-high 14 assists as the Timberwolves spanked the Detroit Pistons 106-80 for their first road victory of the season.
Minnesota entered the game with a 2-9 record, including 0-5 away from home, before dominating one of the Eastern Conference powerhouses with ease.
London, Nov. 24 : Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has said that he may recall axed skipper William Gallas if he apologises to his team-mates.
Defender Gallas was stripped of the captaincy and left out of Saturday’s defeat at Manchester City.
However, the Daily Express quoted Wenger as saying: “Cesc Fabregas will be available and maybe Gallas. We can change a captain without making a political issue. Of course, he has a future here but the less we talk the better.”
London, Nov. 24: England football coach Fabio Capello believes the team is as good, if not better than the team that represented Italian club AC Milan in the 1990s.
News of the World quoted Capello as saying that he saw clear similarities with a Milan side dubbed ‘The Invincibles’ after they won four Serie A titles in five years and thrashed Barcelona 4-0 in the 1994 European Cup Final.
That side then had all-time greats Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi.
London, Nov. 24: Manchester United football ace Cristiano Ronaldo has said that his mother will pick his girlfriends in future, to stop him making a hash of his love life.
The Manchester United star has bedded a host of beauties, but has not yet found his perfect girl.
According to the Daily Star, Cristiano, 23, has asked mum Dolores to run the rule over any future babes trying to snare him.
The Portuguese pin-up worships his mother, 52, who was fiercely opposed to him dating Spanish beauty Nereida Gallardo, 25.
Los Angeles - Randy Wittman hasn't had much to smile about this season, but the Minnesota Timberwolves coach beamed a rare happy face after Sunday's game.
London, Nov. 24 : Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has said that he may recall axed skipper William Gallas if he apologises to his team-mates.
London, Nov. 24: England football coach Fabio Capello believes the team is as good, if not better than the team that represented Italian club AC Milan in the 1990s. 
London, Nov. 24: Manchester United football ace Cristiano Ronaldo has said that his mother will pick his girlfriends in future, to stop him making a hash of his love life.
