Ivory Coast Advance to the Final, Dortmund Disaster, Coutinho Saves Liverpool, Wilshire Smoking the Shisha, Ronaldo at 30

Smokin!!!

Good Day! This weekend is going to be fabulous, friends. Why? Derbies! Tottenham vs. Arsenal. Atlético Madrid vs Real Madrid. Everton vs. Liverpool. Throw in Juventus vs. Milan, Lyon vs. PSG, and West Ham vs. Manchester United, and you've got about as good a fixture list as your heart could possibly desire. More on all of that tomorrow, though. Let's rewind a bit, shall we?

Liverpool beat Bolton. They saved it for late, Bolton were a man down, and Coutinho hit a blinder and Liverpool move on to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup. Andy Hunter was at the Macron Stadium and filed this report. What's that? Richard Jolly was there, too? And he's got Three Points? Wonderful.

Inter Milan lost again. Mancini is NOT doing the business for the Nerazurri. This time it was a late winner by Higuain that sent Napoli to the Copa Italia semis.

What the hell is going on with Borussia Dortmund?! Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, they lost last night to Augsburg! An Augsburg side that played with a man down from the 64th minute! Oh, dear.

Klopp is in trouble.

Down in Africa, Ivory Coast blessed the rains to the tune of a 3-1 victory over Democratic Republic of Congo. Yaya Toure finally found his shooting boots to inspire the Elephants to victory. They'll face the winner of today's match between Ghana and Equatorial Guinea in the final. Here's Yaya's cracker. Look out!!!

Up in Spain, Real Madrid held on to defeat Sevilla 2-1 and go four points clear at the top of the table. Sadly for Los Blancos, however, they'll be without James for a while: He broke his foot. Here's a report. Dermot Corrigan was in Madrid and has Three Thoughts about the match.

Speaking of Real Madrid, we mentioned yesterday that Ronaldo is now 30. Sid Lowe is in Spain and takes a closer look at the Galactico here.

And finally...John Brewin's got a rather lengthy piece on why hooliganism endures in the pop culture. Check it out.

Onward!!

-SSN

nbcsoccer.com