Hamburg - After moving almost unnoticed to the top of the Bundesliga, Bayer Leverkusen have a chance of putting one of their chief rivals behind them in the German league's top game on Saturday.

Leverkusen take on visiting Schalke 04 who will be seeking to bounce back from a 2-1 home defeat to Bayern Munich last weekend which has left them five points adrift of the leaders.

Leverkusen, who are equal on 25 points with promoted Hoffenheim, have emerged as a title contender under new coach Bruno Labbadia who has a young side playing an attractive attacking game.

Milan - Struggling giants Roma play an unusual minnow role in Sunday's derby against buoyant city rivals Lazio, who sit far above them in the Serie A standings.

Lazio, lying fourth on 22 points from 11 games, are just two points behind leading champions Inter Milan and go into the game at the Stadio Olimpico boasting an impressive record of 21 goals notched mostly by strikers Mauro Zarate and Goran Pandev.

London - After their second defeat of the season to Tottenham this week dumped Liverpool out of the Carling Cup, manager Rafa Benitez is looking for a reaction away to Bolton on Saturday.

Liverpool have struggled at the Reebok Stadium in recent years - their win their last year was their first for five seasons - but Benitez is well aware how important it is to win after Wednesday's setback, and restore the momentum to the season.

If the team goes to Bolton and wins, we'll still be top of the table and everyone will be talking about our priorities," he said.

New Delhi, Nov 13: Olympics bronze winner wrestler, Sushil Kumar teamed up with the activists of ''People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)'' to promote vegetarian lifestyle and propagate the cause of animal protection.

Roped by PETA, the vegetarian wrestler said that the misconception that vegetarians cannot be brawny should be removed. Vegetarians lead a more healthy life.

"I am a vegetarian myself and I want to send out this message to everyone that vegetarians are powerful, they have the stamina. Look at me, I defeated non-vegetarians from America and Kazakhstan in the Olympics. So, you can see that vegetarians have a lot of strength," he added.

Los Angeles - Seven proved to be a lucky number for the undefeated Los Angeles Lakers, but not for the previously unbeaten Atlanta Hawks.

Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher scored 20 points apiece, and Lakers held off the New Orleans Hornets 93-86 on Wednesday night, to become the only unblemished team left in the league.

Spain's Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum added 14 points apiece for the Lakers, whose 7-0 start matches their fastest since the 2001-02 season.

The Lakers built a 23-point cushion that was trimmed to 83-80. However, Bryant buried his only 3-pointer over closely-guarded James Posey with 1:08 remaining that doubled the score.

"I just wanted to shoot it in his face," Bryant said. "I knew I was due."