Leagues Such As Europa And Champions, Football Weekly Extra, Marina Hyde on Chelsea, Tim Vickery on Venezuela

No Start For You!

Let's start with Chelsea today. Marina Hyde has an interesting piece. Here's her catch: Rafa Benítez: the real story of Roman Abramovich's Chelsea master plan. The absolutely vital thing to remember when considering Chelsea is that there is always more to it.

Champions League. PSG advanced (more Zlatan!) and Juventus advanced (no surprise there). 

Europa League. Things are starting to get interesting. Tottenham Hotspur vs. Internazionale Milan, for example. Two young managers battling it out. AVB against one of his own clubs. Spurs on a high after their defeat of Arsenal. 

Chelsea, meanwhile, have to go all the way over to Bucharest. Newcastle have the pleasure of facing that dictator's plaything FC Anzhi Makhachkala. You know, the ones based in Makhachkala. Yes, that Makhachkala. Yes, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan. Guus Hiddink is their manager. Samuel Eto'o plays for them. For some reason the match will be on the artificial pitch of Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. Gross. Here's a preview for all of today's action. For some reason it includes a weird picture of Patrick Kluivert.

Tim Vickery is in Brazil but he's eager to talk about Venezuela. Their football culture, not Hugo Chavez.

Chelsea Get Goofy In Romania.

Sticking with Brazil, remember Bruno Fernandes? The goalkeeper who was about to move to Milan but was accused of murdering his girlfriend? Well, he now admits he knew his ex-girlfriend was murdered, dismembered and fed to his pet rottweilers. Nice.

Podcast! On today's Football Weekly Extra, James Richardson has stir-fry tofu munching Sean Ingle, Tom Lutz and Iain Macintosh in the pod to look back on all the drama of Manchester United's defeat to Real Madrid, featuring as it did a rather dodgy red card for Nani, a goalscoring-but-non-celebrating return to Old Trafford for Cristiano Ronaldo, and the latest beginning-of-the-end of Wayne Rooney's United career. Anyway, never mind the Champions League – which also saw success for PSG, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus, about which there's plenty more in Jimbo's European paper review on Friday – Sid Lowe wants to talk to us about cornflakes and his favourite breakfast cereals. Finally, we look forward to the weekend, with those FA Cup quarter-finals including Blackburn's tussle with Millwall, and Reading v Aston Villa and Tottenham's trip to Liverpool in the Premier League, and get up to speed with Justin Bieber's love for Aston Villa.

That's it. We out.

Onward!!

-SSN