Shakhtar Donetsk is the first Ukrainian team to ever reach the final of the UEFA Cup, following a 2-1 victory in the semi final return leg with compatriots Dynamo Kyiv.

Chelsea on Thursday rallied behind Didier Drogba as the striker came under fire for his furious confrontation with a referee in the wake of the club´s Champions League exit at the hands of Barcelona.

Shakhtar Donetsk thanked their Brazilian contingent´s eye for goal as they saw off fellow Ukrainians Dynamo Kiev 2-1 to reach the UEFA Cup final for the first time on Thursday.

Striker Adriano said Thursday he was happy to be back with Brazilian side Flamengo after they re-signed their former star in the wake of his personal troubles with Inter Milan.

Werder Bremen beat Hamburger SV on away goals to advance to the final of the 2009 UEFA Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Werder Bremen will face Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup final after second-half goals by Claudio Pizarro and captain Frank Baumann sealed a 3-2 win at Hamburg in Thursday´s semi-final second leg.

Theo Walcott has signed an extension of his contract at Arsenal and voiced confidence that the current generation of players at the Emirates will deliver silverware soon.

Telecoms group Bharti Airtel has become the first Indian sponsor of Manchester United after signing a five-year deal with the English and European Champions.

Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero will make his 600th appearance for the club if he takes to the field at the San Siro against AC Milan on Sunday.

Rafael Benitez has challenged his Liverpool players to keep believing that they can pip Manchester United at the wire in the Premier League title race.

The 46-member Asian Football Confederation (AFC) agreed at its congress to dump a controversial proposal to shift its headquarters from Malaysia.

Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam narrowly retained his FIFA executive committee seat after one of the most vitriolic battles regional football has known.

UEFA said Friday it will decide next week whether or not to take action against Chelsea striker Didier Drogba for his onslaught on the referee at the end of the Chelsea-Barcelona Champions League tie on Wednesday.

English Premier League side Manchester City has offered Spanish champions Real Madrid 40 million euros (54 million dollars) for their striker Raul, Spanish sports daily Marca reported Friday.

Arsenal have agreed a new long-term contract with England international forward Theo Walcott, the club announced on its website on Friday.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that he does not expect the club?s appeal against Darren Fletcher?s Champions League Final suspension to succeed.

Barcelona midfielder Eidur Gudjohnsen is likely to quit the club this summer after telling Iceland´s Morgunbladid newspaper Friday that he was unhappy at being dropped from the first team.

Serie A was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore. Apparently, the teams were tired of playing second (or indeed third) fiddle to the English Premier League...

The top 39 teams are unchanged! Spain stay atop of this month's Fifa world rankings followed by Germany and the Netherlands. England are in 7th place. France are in 10th. Cameroon are the highest African team in 19th. Russia are 9th, with the USA in 15th. 1 Spain 2 Germany 3 Netherlands 4 Brazil 5 Italy 6 Argentina 7 England 8 Croatia 9 Russia 10 France 11 Portugal 12 Czech Republic 13 Greece 14 Turkey 15 USA 16 Uruguay