Chelsea hosts in-form Valencia in the Champions League on Tuesday in what could turn out to be the most crucial match of Andre Villas-Boas' debut season as Blues coach.

With Chelsea 10 points off the Premier League lead and eliminated from the League Cup, defeat to Valencia would effectively leave Villas-Boas with only the FA Cup to aim for.

Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez will be up against Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo for the FIFA world player of the year award.

The three Ballon d'Or finalists were named Monday from 23 nominees. Messi beat Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavi to win last year.

Former Brazil captain Socrates, who played in the great 1982 Brazilian side which was widely-regarded as the finest team never to win a World Cup, died on Sunday, aged 57.

Socrates was taken to Albert Einstein Hospital late Friday after suffering food poisoning. He went into septic shock, placed on a life support machine but passed way at 0630GMT on Sunday.

Spain's fifth Davis Cup title party in 11 years fell flat when Rafael Nadal revealed he'd skip next year's title defense while brother-in-arms David Ferrer called time on his tournament duties.

World number two Nadal, who battled back from a set down to defeat Juan Martin del Potro and give Spain victory over Argentina in an epic clash on Sunday, insisted that the defense of his Olympic title must be a priority.

Former Brazilian football star Socrates was in "critical condition" in an intensive care unit early Saturday after suffering intestinal infection, his doctors said.

Albert Einstein Hospital announced in a statement here that Sampaio de Sousa Vieira de Oliveira, 57, "was in critical condition due to a septic shock of intestinal origin."

Accepting widespread criticism of the Jabulani's movement at last year's World Cup, Adidas has completely redesigned the ball that will be used at the 2012 European Championship.

The swerving Jabulani angered several coaches in South Africa and was even cited as a possible cause for "inexplicable" goalkeeping mistakes in an official FIFA report.

Spain avoided its biggest challengers in the first round of the 2012 European Championship, leaving Germany and the Netherlands in the toughest group of the competition.

Spain, which beat Germany to win the Euro 2008 title and then defeated the Dutch in last year's World Cup final, was drawn Friday in Group C with Italy, Ireland and Croatia for next year's tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

France coach Laurent Blanc has branded England the favorites to qualify from Euro 2012 Group D, but admitted that Friday's draw in Kiev could have been much worse for his side.

Sweden and cohosts the Ukraine make up the pool, which will be contested in the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Kiev and will kick off with France's match against England at Donetsk's Donbass Arena on June 11.

Billed as the nation most capable of ending Spain's reign as European champions, Germany could have an unusually tough time just getting out of the group stage at Euro 2012.

In one of the most anticipated matchup of the tournament's first phase, Germany was handed a tantalizing duel against its fiercest and nearest rival, the Netherlands, in Friday's draw. If that wasn't a big enough challenge, next June, three-time champion Germany was also pooled with Portugal and Denmark in Group B — widely seen as by far the toughest of the tournament.

Rafael Nadal brushed aside Juan Monaco 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 to give Spain the first point of the Davis Cup final against Argentina here on Friday.

David Ferrer and Juan Martin Del Potro meet later in the second singles rubber at the Estadio Olimpico, and history suggests that Argentina can ill afford to lose it -- the last team to recover from a 2-0 deficit in the final was Australia in 1939.