On a night when Erling Haaland set new standards in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola was preoccupied with Hollywood star Julia Roberts.

Never mind a record equaling five goals in one match – or the Manchester City striker becoming the fastest and youngest player to score 30 in European club soccer's elite competition. Guardiola had other things on his mind after the 7-0 rout of Leipzig on Tuesday as City advanced to the quarterfinals with an 8-1 aggregate win.

The expanded World Cup in North America got even more supersized on Tuesday.

The governing body of soccer increased the size of the 2026 tournament for the second time — six years after the first — by approving a bigger group stage for the inaugural 48-team event.

Real Madrid got used to pulling off dramatic comebacks in the Champions League last season. Now it needs to avoid one to keep its title defense going.

It will be Liverpool needing to do something magical at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Wednesday to reverse a 5-2 loss from the first leg in the round of 16.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino will be re-elected this week to lead a richer-than-ever soccer body with an ambition to add new and bigger competitions despite growing wariness of him in Europe.

FIFA's wealth after the World Cup in Qatar — $4 billion in reserves to be shared among the 211 member federations and lots more to come from the expanded 104-game edition in 2026 in North America — is a big reason why Infantino has no opponent on Thursday in Rwanda for four more years in office.

Russia has been invited to participate in the inaugural Central Asian Football Association Championships in June along with seven other national teams.

Russian teams have been barred from European and FIFA competitions since the invasion of Ukraine in February of last year. But the Tajikistan Football Association announced Monday that a Russian team could join the new regional tournament along with former Soviet republics Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Although implicated in a rape allegation in France, Achraf Hakimi was called into the Morocco squad Monday for friendly games against Brazil and Peru.

Morocco coach Walid Regragui said the country supports the Paris Saint-Germain defender.

Napoli returns to Champions League action this week well on track to have the standout season in European soccer and in the club's entire history.

The quarterfinals of Europe's marquee club competition finally beckon for Napoli, which has a 2-0 lead from the first leg before hosting Eintracht Frankfurt in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday.

Chants of "We're gonna win the league" boomed out of Arsenal's gleeful away contingent of fans at one end of Craven Cottage as their team piled up the goals against Fulham.

It's getting increasingly hard to argue against it.

Real Madrid will side against Barcelona in the legal proceedings that the rival is facing over its payments of millions of euros over several years to a company that belonged to the vice president of Spain's soccer refereeing committee, Madrid said Sunday after an urgent board meeting.

The decision came two days after prosecutors formally accused Barcelona of alleged corruption in sports, fraudulent management and falsification of mercantile documentation. An investigating judge will decide whether the accusations should lead to charges.

Without coach José Mourinho on the bench, Roma lost 4-3 at home to Sassuolo on Sunday in a miserable weekend for teams chasing the Champions League qualifying spots from Serie A.

Armand Laurienté scored twice for Sassuolo before Nicola Zalewski pulled one back. But Roma defender Marash Kumbulla was sent off for violent conduct at the end of the first half and Domenico Berardi converted the resulting penalty.