After eight games at the Club World Cup, few conclusions were reached about the effectiveness of goal-line technology.

The tournament was the first to feature goal-line technology. The Magnetic-field-based system GoalRef was used at Yokohama Stadium, while Toyota Stadium was equipped with the camera-based Hawk-Eye system. There were no close calls, however.

Lionel Messi scored his 22nd double of 2012 to reach 90 goals as Barcelona beat closest rival Atletico Madrid 4-1 on Sunday, opening up a nine-point lead and sitting 13 in front of Real Madrid in the Spanish league.

It was Barcelona's league-record 15th victory in 16 rounds and came just after floundering Madrid had conceded in the final minutes to draw 2-2 at home with the Catalan club's crosstown rival Espanyol.

Defending champion Juventus strolled to a 3-0 win over 10-man Atalanta in Serie A on Sunday, scoring the opening goal after just 80 seconds.

Mirko Vucinic, Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio all scored before Thomas Manfredini was sent off after picking up a second yellow card, leaving Atalanta with 10 men for nearly an hour.

The claims of violence which forced the South America Cup final in Sao Paulo to be abandoned is a "warning" to the organizers of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Saturday.

Argentine team Tigre refused to emerge for the second half against their Brazilian hosts, later alleging that armed police had barged into their dressing room, beaten the players with batons and threatened the goalkeeper with a gun.

Lance Armstrong's former doctor Michele Ferrari on Friday insisted he had never seen the disgraced seven-time Tour de France winner dope.

Ferrari, who like the American has been banned for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), also said that he had virtually no relationship with the other cyclists who accused him of being at the center of the scandal.

Arsenal legend Ian Wright claims Gunners manager Arsene Wenger is lucky to still have a job because any other boss would have been sacked for going so long without success.

Wright, one of the club's all-time greats, has added his voice to the growing criticism of Wenger in the aftermath of Tuesday's humiliating League Cup quarter-final defeat at Bradford.

Runaway leaders Bayern Munich needed a second-half equalizer to snatch a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday in their final Bundesliga match of 2012.

The draw left Bayern 12 points clear of the chasing pack, who are all in action during the rest of the weekend's program, while 'Gladbach move up to sixth.

Maurice Herzog, the French climber who conquered Annapurna in the first recorded ascent of a peak above 8,000m, has died aged 93, the French Climbing Federation said Friday.

Herzog led the ascent of Annapurna in 1950, reaching the Himalayan peak's summit without oxygen along with compatriot Louis Lachenal in a feat that caused a sensation around the world.

World football's governing body on Friday said that they were unable to check whether claims that an African footballer and not Argentina star Lionel Messi was the record holder for the most goals scored in a calendar year.

"Thanks for the questions about Godfrey Chitalu. Our official stats are limited to FIFA competitions, so we cannot verify this 'record'," FIFA's communications department said on its Twitter account @fifamedia.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini insists his team have shown they are better than United and have plenty of time to make up the six-point deficit to their city rivals.

City suffered a first defeat of the season when they lost a fractious Manchester derby 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium last weekend.