English champion Manchester City is finally starting to show it can compete in Europe.

Samri Nasri scored one goal and set up another as City won 2-0 at Roma on Wednesday to reach the Champions League knockout phase despite missing three key players — including top scorer Sergio Aguero.

Substitute Max Meyer scored in the second half to put Schalke into the knockout stage of the Champions League with a 1-0 victory in Maribor on Wednesday.

Schalke reached the knockout stage for the second consecutive season after Chelsea's 3-1 victory over Sporting. Chelsea won Group G with 14 points, while Schalke took second with eight. Sporting, which would have advanced with a victory, finished with seven and will play in the Europa League. Maribor was eliminated with three points.

Australian Formula One star Daniel Ricciardo said Thursday he considers himself a legitimate title contender after a breakthrough season in which he won three races for Red Bull.

The 25-year-old's stellar year, which saw him finish third in the drivers standings behind Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, has him now setting his sights on the championship.

Juventus progressed to the knockout stage of the Champions League as it drew 0-0 at home to already qualified Atletico Madrid, which went through as group winner.

Juventus, which was eliminated in the final group match last season by Galatasaray, needed just a point to qualify although victory by two goals or more would have seen it leapfrog Atletico into top spot.

Goals by Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale helped Real Madrid to a 4-0 victory over 10-man Ludogorets Razgrad on Tuesday and a clean sweep of six wins in Group C of the Champions League.

The defending champion, which had already won the group, stretched its winning streak to 19 matches — a Spanish record — scoring 71 goals in the process. The previous record of 18 consecutive wins was set by Barcelona between October 2005 and January 2006.

Steven Gerrard's latest moment of inspiration failed to prevent Liverpool from dropping out of the Champions League on Tuesday, with Basel securing a 1-1 draw to advance to the knockout stage at the expense of the five-time champions.

The Swiss visitors secured the point they required at Anfield to advance alongside Group B winner Real Madrid — but only after hanging on against 10 men in the face of a late Reds onslaught instigated by their captain's 81st-minute equalizer.

Memphis withstood 18 3-pointers by Dallas to beat the Mavericks 114-105 on Tuesday, with Marc Gasol's 30 points helping the Grizzlies to a victory that moved them back to the top of the NBA's Southwest Division.

The Grizzlies moved above idle Houston, while elsewhere, LeBron James led Cleveland to an eighth-straight win, his former team Miami ended a four-game skid by beating Phoenix and Utah ended a longer run of defeats.

Two clinical finishes from Robin van Persie gave Manchester United a 2-1 victory against Southampton in the Premier League on Monday, despite the visitors being pegged back for much of the game at St. Mary's.

Van Persie scored with United's only two efforts on target to give Louis van Gaal's side its fifth win a row and overtake Southampton in third place. Southampton dropped to fifth behind West Ham after its third straight loss against the teams it hopes to challenge for a top-four spot — Manchester City, Arsenal and United.

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer finished off the India leg of the International Premier Tennis League with a highly-anticipated meeting between the two stars in front of a frenzied New Delhi crowd on Monday.

The one-set match between the two rivals ended in a 6-6 stalemate under the format rules, which meant Djokovic's UAE Royals team came away with a 29-22 win over Federer's Indian Aces.

Tiger Woods appears to be on the road to recovery again, only it's no longer a question of how soon before he reaches full speed.

There are a lot more cars on the road now.