Stilian Petrov of Aston Villa has been diagnosed with leukaemia

Aston Villa captain Stilian Petrov has been diagnosed with acute leukaemia, the club have said.The condition was diagnosed following tests after the Bulgaria international, 32, developed a fever following last Saturday's defeat to Arsenal.

England: Premier League Weekend Previews & Predictions

Manchester City will look to return to the top of the table with rivals Manchester United not in action until Monday.City host Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, while the race for a top four place in the Premier League continues.Chelsea, fresh from victory over Benfica in Lisbon, travel to Aston Villa hoping to keep their ambitions alive, with Arsenal facing relegation-threatened QPR. Sunday sees Tottenham take on Swansea at White Hart Lane, with Newcastle and Liverpool locking horns earlier on Tyneside.

Preview
Manchester City vs. Sunderland: Preview
Premier League Spotlight
Paul Merson's Predictions
Lawro's Predictions

Italy: Serie A Weekend Preview

All eyes will be on Andrea Stramaccioni when he makes his Serie A coaching debut with Inter Milan against Genoa on Sunday.The 36-year-old was promoted from youth team coach to guide the senior side after the Nerazzurri parted company with experienced tactician Claudio Ranieri earlier this week. Serie A leaders AC Milan go into Saturday's game at Catania with their hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals very much alive after holding defending champions Barcelona to a goalless draw on Wednesday at the San Siro. Juventus are unbeaten this season but face a stern test when they square off against Champions League hopefuls Napoli in Turin on Sunday night.

Preview

Spain: Eduardo Alvarez's Weekend Quiniela

The widely acclaimed (ahem )Wiktionary defines a 'reverse jinx' as a prediction which is the opposite of the outcome desired by the person making it. The term, obviously relevant to a column devoted to predict the outcome of matches - mostly wrong, I know -, has become even more interesting after Josep Guardiola's blatant reverse jinxing campaign started last month. Four weeks ago, and with his club ten points behind the leader, he understandably stated that 'We won't win this title'. However, his defeatist speech remained untouched when Real Madrid drew not only one, but two consecutive matches. A six-point difference with one derby remaining still seemed unassailable to Pep: 'Real Madrid will win again, this league is over', he psychically said last Saturday.But not even Pep is perfect, and the stylish Catalan ended up blowing his own cover right before Barcelona's Champions League match in Milan. 'If we don't perform in the next two matches (meaning AC Milan and Athletic de Bilbao), we could lose two titles'. Uh? Two titles? I thought La Liga was already lost, Mr Guardiola.Superstitions abound in the world of football. Reverse jinxing, emotional hedging or lowering expectations have always been part of the game and, of course, football gambling as well. Pay attention to what you read, someone could be reverse-jinxing your team right now.Shall we? Remember, it's '1' for a home win, 'X' for a draw and '2' for an away win.

Everton's Leighton Baines winning the race ahead of Chelsea's Ashley Cole to be England's best left-back

After all it’s been a difficult campaign for Cole and for Chelsea and, with voting under way among the players, he is not in his best form.What could be interesting, however, is that Cole could lose out to an Englishman in the Premier League's select XI for the first time since 2001-02 when Wayne Bridge, then of Southampton, was chosen ahead of him.

Fabrice Muamba pictured in hospital sitting up and smiling as recovery from cardiac arrest continues

"I pray that we see Fabrice Muamba smile again" said Arsene Wenger two weeks ago. Today, Wenger got his wish as the Bolton midfielder was pictured sitting up in hospital smiling for a photograph.

Uli Hesse in Germany

Last Saturday, I saw a cracking game. The visitors, second from bottom, scored from a set-piece in the first minute and then, as the hosts piled on the pressure looking for an equaliser, added two goals from counter attacks for a stunning 3-0 lead at half-time. The home side, in fourth place when the game began, pulled one back early in the second half and proceeded to throw everything forward. They hit the post, then scored to make it 3-2 and in the final 20 minutes it was thrilling end-to-end stuff, though even the best chances went begging.I had a few beers and a bratwurst, I applauded good moves and shook my head at bad ones while squinting against the sun. Then the final whistle blew, we all went home and, all things considered, the world was not a bad place to be. There's no point in telling you who played whom and who scored - suffice it to say that I had a stunning conversation with the groundskeeper, who is an old pal of Otto Rehhagel and owns the very ball with which Bremen's Uwe Reinders scored from a throw-in against Bayern Munich.It was a game in the Schleswig-Holstein-Liga, one of the 11 regional divisions that currently make up the fifth level of German football. Despite the presence of some well-known clubs at this tier - former German champions VfR Mannheim and former cup winners Schwarz-Weiss Essen, for example - this is what we call amateur football.

Friday MLS Forecast: Week 4 - Preparing for the return of beloved, brotherly souls

The Forecast ponders Sébastien Le Toux's visit to Philadelphia and sorts through all of the Week 4 fixtures.

Jonathan Wilson: After changes, England in clueless state heading toward Euro 2012

Plucky England, fighting back from two down only to be thwarted by a deflected last-minute winner. A brave effort from Psycho's young lions. Pleasing fluency at times. The start of a bold new era for English football. ... As a response to a single game played with a youthful side under a caretaker manager, such commentary made a certain sense. But the crucial thing to remember after England's 3-2 defeat to Holland last Wednesday was context.It seems to have been all but forgotten that in the last international break, England beat the world and European champions Spain and then ended a 43-year-old hoodoo by beating Sweden.Yes, both games finished 1-0. Yes, they weren't particularly thrilling. But the system worked. England, at last, seemed to have accepted its limitations and played to the maximum of what it could achieve, defending stoutly and threatening with counter attacks and set plays. Fabio Capello had established foundations that, conceivably, could have made England challengers at the Euros in the coming summer. Nobody will admit it now, of course, but he was actually doing a good job. 

Paolo Bandini: Italian press reaction: Milan's perfect match ended in third minute

"Milan fans, choose which side you are on," writes Luigi Garlando in Thursday's Gazzetta dello Sport. "Those with regrets, or those who are satisfied." A goalless draw at home to Barcelona has given the team at least a hope of progressing to the Champions League semi-finals – meaning that a score draw at the Camp Nou next week would be enough. But missed opportunities for both Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the opening minutes have left many observers wondering what might have been.

UEFA Europa League: Thursday's Round-Up

Athletic Bilbao kept up their push for Europa League glory as two goals from Fernando Llorente helped them to a 4-2 win at Schalke in the first leg of their quarter-final clash. Brett Holman and Maarten Martens handed AZ Alkmaar a scarcely-deserved 2-1 victory with Valencia in Holland. Substitute Eduardo Salvio struck in the 89th minute as Atletico Madrid claimed a potentially crucial first-leg 2-1 advantage against Hannover in Spain. Metalist Kharkiv boosted their chances of reaching the semi-finals with a last-gasp penalty at Sporting Lisbon as they lost 2-1.


Round-Up

Henry Winter: Classic FA Cup semi-final derbies bring back the true glory of the illustrious event

Chelsea celebrate their 1970 win in style...

Welcome back, FA Cup. Good to see you again. We’ve missed you. Where have you been? Hiding in the corner of the English playground, bullied by those gorged on the rich treats of the Premier League and Champions League? Not now. After the quarter-finals were completed in such pulsating fashion on Tuesday, a vintage FA Cup semi-final weekend awaits.

Bradford v Crawley, Manchester United v Arsenal, and Hunter v Lee in football's biggest ever fights

Football is full of inaccurate cliches. "It's a game of two halves" becomes redundant in games which go to extra time. "There are no easy games at this level," as trotted out by international managers everywhere rather forgets the fact that San Marino and Liechenstein are potential opponents.Perhaps most incorrect is the reliably solemn pronouncement so often heard whenever we see fisticuffs on a football pitch: "We don't want to see that."Yes we do.

UEFA Champions League: Wednesday's Reports

AC Milan 0 - 0 Barcelona
Richard Williams at the San Siro
Ian Chadband at the San Siro
Barcelona file pitch complaint




Marseille 0 - 2 Bayern Munich
Report
Report II

Houston's Clark suspended three games for slur

Houston Dynamo midfielder Colin Clark was suspended for three games by Major League Soccer on Wednesday and fined for directing a gay slur toward a ball boy during Houston's 2-0 loss at Seattle last week.

Liverpool, Roma to play preseason match at Fenway

Liverpool will play an exhibition against Italian side Roma at Boston's Fenway Park on July 25 as the American-owned Premier League club attempts to increase its exposure in the United States.The match will be part of the ballpark's 100th anniversary celebrations and one of two confirmed games Liverpool will play on its 12-day tour of North America this summer.

World Cup 2014: Brazil's lower house finally passes key bill

The lower house of Brazil's Congress on Wednesday finally passed a bill giving FIFA the guarantees needed to organize the 2014 World Cup.The Congress approved the bill after several delays which had raised concerns about whether Brazil could fulfill the commitments it made to FIFA when it accepted hosting rights for the tournament. The bill will now go to the upper house, the Senate, before reaching President Dilma Rousseff for her signature.Among the controversial issues was the sale of alcohol inside stadiums, currently against the law in Brazil but demanded by FIFA.The approved legislation doesn't specifically authorize alcohol sales, but the government says other articles in the legislation mean it can meet FIFA's requirement.Opposition lawmakers tried to veto the sale of alcohol at venues but were defeated. 

Norman Hubbard: Liverpool's Flawed Four

It is the best part of half a century since Merseyside's major exports were dubbed 'The Fab Four'. Now, in a city whose global fame owes as much to goals as guitars, another quartet are attracting attention, albeit in unwanted fashion. The gruesome foursome of Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam are more beaten than Beatles. Directly or indirectly, many of Liverpool's failings can be traced back to them.

Sid Lowe: Barcelona vs. Milan Revisited: The night in 1994 the Dream died

Milan face Barcelona in this year's Champions League quarter-finals, having already put paid to one Barcelona Dream Team, 18 years ago in Athens. This is how they did it.

UEFA Champions League: Wednesday's Quarterfinal First-Leg Previews

AC Milan vs. Barcelona
Preview
Preview II
The list of Ibrahimovic's insults at Guardiola and Barcelona 


Marseille vs. Bayern Munich
Preview
Kevin McCarra: How Bayern Munich are making dynamic moves in Europe