karagounis: we can't wait

... cooling pre-tournament optimism, the wily karagounis assures that is as far ahead as they are looking for now

positive news on van persie

... van marwijk will be closely monitoring van persie's progress ahead of the fifa world cup™ in south africa this summer

vidic glad to be back

... in addition to brown and evans, rafael should play having missed last year's final against tottenham through injury, while tomasz kuszczak may well get an opportunity in goal ahead of foster, the penalty shoot-out hero against spurs 12 months ago, who played for the first time in three months last night

supersport lose but claim title

... supersport have 57 points and sundowns 53 ahead of the 6 march finale to the richest national football championship on the continent

inter edge chelsea in milan

... it's a slender advantage but a crucial one for inter ahead of the second leg at stamford bridge on 16 march and also represented a milestone as it was the first victory for the italians against an english team since 2003 and a 3-0 win over arsenal in london ... jose mourinho after beating chelsea inter were off to a flying start and went ahead after just three minutes following some shoddy defending by chelsea, as thiago motta played the ball into samuel eto'o who fed it on to diego milito, the argentine cutting too easily inside the wrong-footed john terry and shooting home at peter cech's near post

al hilal kick off with easy win

... al ahli then went ahead through iranian mehrzad madanchi but mahdi rajabzade levelled before mehdi rajab zadeh and ali samereh secured the win in the last five minutes

pakhtakor edge past former champs

... seyed hosseini put sepahan ahead in the 13th minute but al shabab rescued a point when faisal al sultan levelled in the 69th minute

the rise of mexico's little pea

... that player is none other than hernandez’s son, who at the tender age of 20, has become an idol at club side guadalajara and the country’s great new hope ahead of the finals ... with goalscorers of the calibre of omar bravo, adolfo bautista and alberto medina ahead of him in the queue at chivas, the young striker served a lengthy apprenticeship on the bench, attempting to make the most of whatever opportunities came his way as a second-half substitute

spurs, villa through to cup quarters

... 8 million russia international pavlyuchenko, who was starting only his third game of the season after bagging a double off the bench against wigan at the weekend, put spurs ahead after 23 minutes with a tenacious turn and finish

jason culina staying tight-lipped on his post-a-league deal

... culina is almost certain to captain the socceroos in their critical asian cup qualifier against indonesia in brisbane, as one of the most experienced players in the 27-man squad training at the gold coast ahead of the game