Despite England's U21s being unable to overcome a defiant Swedish outfit, the performance of Tammy Abraham offered plenty of optimism for Aidy Boothroyd's side looking ahead.

After a turbulent season that has been full of negativity and even featured a relegation scrap, Bayer Leverkusen ended the campaign in fine style by defeating Hertha Berlin 6-2.

Jonny Evans' excellent performance vs Chelsea yet again solidified why he's one of the finest defenders in the English Premier League.

Players that truly know how to play football know how to correctly interpret whether they are in a positional superiority even if they are in a numerical inferiority. In the same way as to whether they are in a positional inferiority they perceive whether they are in a numerical superiority..

Lionel Messi 's scintillating dribbling qualities yet again had a profound impact in Barcelona's entertaining 3-2 win over Real Madrid in the Clasico

According to Fabio Capello, he has everything it takes to become even better than Gabriel Batistuta. According to the Torino president, the €100 million release clause is almost reductive based on the value of the player. According to many, Italy has found the centre forward of the future. He is Andrea Belotti, Serie A top goalscorer, tied with Edin Dzeko at 23 goals in 27 matches. An absolute protagonist of the season, he boasts 25 goals out of a total of 30 matches played with Torino, 28 in 37 matches if we also consider the National team, on which he has become a starter.

The Wyscout report on the 29th day of Serie A takes Milan to the top of the rankings for performance. The 1-0 win against Genoa can be seen as an emblem of the tactical project set up by Vincenzo Montella because of the principles of play and the improvement margins that separate the "Diavolo" from the top spots in the rankings..

With Marseille struggling for consistency this season, their impressive 3-0 victory over Angers at the weekend gave a glowing indication of just how good Rudi Garcia's side can be when they get things right..

Sebastian Rudy has unquestionably been one of the key driving forces behind Hoffenheim's excellent Bundesliga campaign so far under budding young manager Julian Nagelsmann. And in his side's domineering 5-2 win against Ingolstadt on the weekend..

At the end of the first half of the season, the Bundesliga is now taking its winter break. We are now exactly at the half-way point, the right time to analyse the performance of the predominant strikers in the German league after 16 matches.

Poor Francesco Guidolin. The Italian manager saved Swansea from relegation last season (with a bit of help from Alan Curtish while he was fighting off serious illness) but he's in a lot of trouble now.

19 year-old Oliver Burke, sold by Nottingham Forest to RB Leipzig for €15.2 million this summer, became the most expensive Scottish player in history.

The rate of set pieces in an important football event like Euro 2016 has always been a subject of interest...

Of the 108 goals scored (an average of 2.12 per match), 28 stemmed from...

So much for the theory that Italy were heading for yet another early tournament exit. Having been knocked out in the group stages of the last two World Cups, the chances are that this will be an altogether more pleasant summer for Italy. Manager Antonio Conte takes tactical preparation very seriously.

The first question the Juventus football transfer market must answer is the fate of Alvaro Morata, in the hands of Real Madrid because of the “buy back” option included two years ago in the player's transfer contract by the bianconeri.

As title defences go, Portland Timbers effort had thus far fallen into the ‘Chelsea’ category. Victors over Columbus Crew on the opening day of the season (a replay of the 2015 final and with the same score too) gave a false read for the weeks ahead.

Are the most entertaining matches the ones between the big teams that end 5-0 or maybe 4-3 or perhaps the ones that end 0-0 or with a win that was just barely pulled off?

Sometimes we can be a little hysterical about challenges in football. Bound up by tribal loyalties or an earnest sense of protection, we forget that football is intense, physical and occasionally dangerous. Accidents happen and they always look worse in a slow motion replay. But Nigel de Jong’s challenge on Darlington Nagbe was no accident.

Preparation for the match takes on a fundamentally important role for achieving the end result. In a sport with such reduced margins, observing your opponent in order to learn strong and weak points constitutes a potential competitive edge that no team can do without.

Still without a win this season, DC United manager Ben Olsen called for his players to be more clinical in front of goal before their meeting with a depleted FC Dallas. Unfortunately for him, most of his problems came at the other end of the pitch. DC were only missing defender Steve Birnbaum, but what a miss he proved to be. His team started brightly, pinning Dallas into their own half, albeit without really creating anything of note. But that hope was short-lived; quickly snuffed out by DC’s own hapless defenders.

Praise galore has been heaped on Barcelona's star trio, Messi-Suarez-Neymar, also dubbed MSN. Their phenomenal results speak for themselves. The fact is though that many observers believe, perhaps rather simplistically, that they alone are behind Barça’s success. The strength of Luis Enrique’s team is, however, more than the sum of this trio.

In recent Champions League editions there has never been such a clear favourite as this year.