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Real’s dream of taking the upper hand in the match against Barcelona was not meant to come true as Barcelona beat their arch rivals at the Camp Nou on Sunday.

At one point, it seemed that Real Betis were going to shift the momentum of the game in their favor. The side leveled the score at 2-2 after two first-half goals from Xavi and Messi through the efforts of Ruben Castro and Roque Santa Cruz.

However, Alexis Sanchez and Lionel Messi did not allow that to happen and netted two more goals in the second half to earn a 4-2 win. The Catalan side was much helped by Mario’s sending-off in the 70^th minute and a penalty that followed soon afterwards for Jose Dorado’s handball in his own box.

With the win, Barcelona are keeping up with Real Madrid, five points away from the leaders. Despite the praiseworthy effort of Betis, they are still in the middle of the standings, hoping to steer clear of the relegation zone.

In the meantime, Inter’s Diego Milito earned a 1-0 victory over AC Milan by scoring the only goal of the game at San Siro. The Argentine dedicated the winning goal to the team’s fans.

With this victory, Inter are still fifth in the table but now just six points away from Serie A leaders Juventus who suffered a 1-1 home draw to Cagliari.  Inter are also just five points behind AC Milan.

Ronaldinho wants to play for Flamengo in the most prestigious club competition in South American football, the Copa Libertadores, but will probably pass if his wages do not get paid.

Traffic Sports Marketing, a Brazilian sports marketing agency, is supposed to cover three-quarters of Ronaldinho’s salary, but hasn’t done so for five months.

In the meantime, Clube de Regatas do Flamengo president Patricia Amorim (the first female president of the club) remains optimistic, saying that “things are advancing”.

But Ronaldinho is in a far worse mood, as he threatened to take up an offer from another Italian, Spanish or South American side if he does not get paid.

The Brazilian footballer returned to his home country, hoping to land a spot on the national team in the 2014 World Cup which will be hosted by Brazil. The 2002 World Cup champion last made an appearance for Brazil in November 2010, after missing the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

A product ofBrazilian Gremio, Ronaldinho enjoyed a brilliant world career – he played with Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona and AC Milan and was named Player of the Year twice.

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The rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid is probably the most intense and explosive rivalry in world football. It also finds manifestation in the duel of the sides’ talented strikers, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The two best players in world have a completely different playing style – the Argentine has more dribbling skills and the Portuguese is known for his free kicks.

Messi and Ronaldo are both in the running for the FIFA Ballon d’Or and though the award will probably go to Messi, it has been a good year for both footballers. Cristiano scored an amazing 60 goals in 60 games, and though it’s more than Messi netted, the Brazilian won four more trophies than the Portuguese – the Spanish Supercopa, Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, the Champions League and La Liga.

Ronaldo recently set a new record by scoring the most number of goals in a year. One of the highest-paid football players in the world scored 43 goals in just 34 La Liga matches in 2011, besting Messi’s record of 42 goals in 2010.

However, Ronaldo’s game didn’t come against big sides very often, including the recent 3-1 loss to Barcelona. He was more successful with Barcelona as he managed to net the winner in a 2-1 win over Argentina with Messi on the team.

Messi proved to be more generous than Ronaldo – he provided 28 assists, while Ronaldo gave just 17.

Though Real Madrid have had a hard time winning games against Barcelona, they are getting closer to Barcelona, thanks largely to Ronaldo.

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Fan abuse has become a serious problem. The target of fan abuse for several years since taking over Glory Perth’s ownership in 2007, the 51-year-old Western Australian businessman Tony Sage has announced his desire to leave the club at the end of the A-League season.

Sage has invested millions of dollars into Glory Perth for the last four years, hoping for high attendance this season. But despite compiling a team of star footballers, the attendance did not match the investments. Besides, Sage was strongly criticized after Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Melbourne Heart.

Angered by the criticism and the lack of interest to the club, Sage decided give back the license to Football Federation Australia when the season ends, unless somebody wants to buy the club or makes him change his mind.

Meanwhile, Roma captain Francesco Totti is also considering leaving his club because of fan criticism. Totti has spent the most part of the season of this season on the bench, and failed to convert a penalty in Roma’s 1-1 home draw with Juventus.

The 35-year-old footballer has been given much less playing time by manager Luis Enrique since the purchase of Pablo Osvaldo and Bojan Krkic, but claims that it is not the club and the fans who make him want to look for another team.

However, Totti is not going to leave the Stadio Olimpico just yet.

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Barcelona fought back from allowing the fastest El Clasico goal ever to defeat Real Madrid at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and beat their archrivals to the top of the La Liga standings.

The start of the game was promising for Real Madrid as the Catalans were three points clear of Barcelona with a match in hand and French international Karim Benzema scored the opener after just 23 seconds.

With almost the first touch of the ball, Barca’s Valdes sent the ball to Real’s Angel di Maria who passed it to Benzema in the penalty box. Benezema didn’t hesitate as he smashed a close range shot home, with Valdes allowing the opener in complete shock and disbelief.

Luckily for Valdes, Barca scored the equalizer through Alexis Sanchez thirty minutes later. Xavi’s successful strike and Cesc Fabregas’s goal completed the scoring and secured Barca’s victory. Meanwhile, Real striker Ronaldo had a miserable game, missing the opportunity to double Barca’s lead and failing to convert a free kick.

This win put Pep Guardiola’s men in the same position as Real, but the Madrid squad has a better goal difference.

Real have a match in hand but their spirits must have dropped as they suffered a home defeat and managed to win just once in eight games against Barcelona since Jose Mourinho took the helm of the Catalan club.

The match was called the biggest Clasico in recent years, given Barca’s non-ending domination and Real’s growing desire to claim the league title.

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According to Carlos Tevez’s advisor Kia Joorabchian, the Argentine footballer wants to stay in Europe. Though the Manchester City striker has been linked with his ex-side Corinthians and is currently training in Argentina after the fall-out with Manchester City, he prefers playing with a European club.

Carlos Tevez has already received an offer from AC Milan. The Italian champions want to take Tevez on loan for this season and buy him out at the end, offering about $30 million for a permanent deal.

But though AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani says that he has reached terms with Tevez’s agent, Manchester City are not likely to go for the deal as City manager Roberto Mancini is against letting the Argentine go on a temporary deal.

AC Milan is not the only club that would like Tevez to play for them. French side Paris Saint-Germain want to sign Tevez as well, and are willing to offer around $10 million more for the rebel player.

The French squad is also rumored to be able to give Tevez the salary matching the huge one at City, while he would be paid half less at Milan.

It is also an important factor as City’s owners are the Abu Dhabi United Group while Paris Saint-Germain belong to the Qatar Investment Authority, so the City owners would rather let Tevez leave for Paris.

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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson suffered a mixture of shock and disappointment as he watched his team lose 2-1 to Basel and get dumped from the Champions League.

The Swiss squad’s win moved the Red Devils to third in Group C and to the Europa League. It is the first time in six seasons when Man U have not made to the knock out stage of the Champions League.

Ferguson said that the reason his side did not qualify for the next stage is the ‘stupid’ draw at home. United were leading 2-0 at first but eventually allowed Basel to fight back and settled for a disappointing 3-3 draw.

The Man U manager also lamented about the start of the previous game which included Marco Streller’s opener in the ninth minute.

Though Sir Alex and many Red Devils fans around the world expected the reigning Premier League champions to take action and reverse the momentum of the game to qualify but the English side failed to make it happen.

As a result of the elimination, Man United will have to play in the Europa League. Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that it was not the best news but it served them right for failing to qualify for the next stage.

It will be the first time when Ferguson will play with Man U in the Europa League.

Player of the Year Lionel Messi, cental midfielders Xavi, Andres Iniesta, and Cesc Fabregas and goalkeeper Victor Valdes sat out the game and Spain forward Pedro was the only regular footballer in the starting lineup.

Barca’s youngsters tried to make the best of the chance that had come their way and hammered BATE Borisov 4-0 in the Champions League Group H match on Tuesday. Youth dominated on the field as 10 of the Barcelona players were 21.4 years old on average.

Young midfielder Sergi Roberto netted the opener against the Belarus reigning champions in the 35th minute when he coolly shot past goalkeeper Aleksandar Gutor for a goal.

Teenage Martin Montoya added the second goal in the 60^th minute, with Pedro getting on the scoresheet twice after that.

After the match, BATE manager Viktor Goncharenko said some of the Catalan side’s teenage players were the Messis of the future.

Undefeated Barca claimed 16 points in six games, seven points more than Italy’s champions AC Milan, matching the record set by Man U the 1998-99 season.

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Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo as well as Barca team mates Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez have been nominated for the FIFA player of the year award.

The three nominees have been chosen Monday from 23 prominent footballers. Last year, it was Messi who won the top FIFA award and beat his teammates Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

If Messi wins the award this year as well, he will become the first footballer to claim the FIFA honor for three consecutive years and beat the record of Zinedine Zidane and Brazil’s Ronaldo who also won this award three times , but not in a row.

FIFA united the player of the year award with France’s Ballon d’Or last year to create one award. Former French footballer and current UEFA president Michel Platini, and retired Dutch players Marco van Basten and Johan Cruyff have also won the Golden Ball three times.

Messi has netted 27 goals this season and Ronaldo 6 goals less, with 17 goals in the Spanish La Liga. The two rivals will face each other in a Spanish league match on Saturday.

In the meantime, Messi and Xavi’s coach Pep Guardiola, Ronaldo’s manager Jose Mourinho and Manchester United’s sir Alex Ferguson are finalists in the best coach competition.

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After a glorious seven years in the Champions League with many Premier League sides reaching the Champions League, England might end up in the situation when just one English team reaches the knockout stage.

If Manchester United do not get defeated by FC Basel, they will advance to the next stage together with Arsenal, but Manchester City and Chelsea have thin chances.

There are seven Champions League berths left, with Ajax and Marseille among the sides vying for them.

With three appearances in the tournament’s final in the last four years, Manchester United were anticipated to be the first side to advance to the knockout stage, but Arsenal beat Man U to the spot by defeating Borusssia Dortmund. In the meantime, Man U need to clinch at least one point against FC Basel after settling for a 3-3 draw at Old Trafford.

Chelsea need a win over Spain’s Valencia CF to advance but, unfortunately for them, Valencia are in a good form.  The Spanish side beat Genk 7-0 in the last round and is holding onto first place with a goal difference over Chelsea.

Manchester City are in a worse situation as they might fail to progress even if they beat Germany’s most successful football club Bayern Munich.