On Monaco's sun-kissed shores, Juventus can prove Italian football isn't on its deathbed.

The first decade of this millennium was one of Italian glory. Between them, Milan's teams — AC and Inter — won the Champions League three times. Only Spain, with three titles from Real Madrid and Barcelona, did as well from 2001-2010.

While rarely short on bravado or self-confidence these days, Brendan Rodgers did betray a sense of trepidation when taking the Liverpool job.

"It's the start of a long, hard journey for us," Rodgers said in a rare televised dressing room team talk before his first game in charge in 2012. "If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing ... you can only trust yourselves."

Yasiel Puig, Jose Abreu and other Cuban baseball players arriving in the major leagues in recent years all come from the same pipeline: state-run academies that produce hundreds of players in the baseball-mad island.

While major league teams have academies where they groom their own prospects in other talent-rich Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, players in Cuba are hand-picked by the government in elementary school and developed to feed its national team and dozens of national and regional leagues.

Jimmy Butler set a playoff career-high for the second straight game with 31 points as the Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks 91-82 on Monday to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round NBA playoffs series.

After scoring 25 points in Game 1, Butler was at his best down the stretch, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter.

The Philadelphia Eagles have signed quarterback Tim Tebow to a one-year contract, giving the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner his first shot in the NFL since the Patriots cut him before the 2013 season.

The team announced the deal Monday but did not disclose financial terms.

Jonathas took advantage of a defensive blunder to score in the first half, giving Elche a 1-0 home win against Real Sociedad in the Spanish league on Monday.

Poor control and hesitation by Sociedad midfielder Markel Bergara allowed Jonathas to steal the ball before racing away unchallenged to score his 10th goal of the season by beating Argentina goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli in the 18th minute.

Buoyed by the a revitalized driver pairing and a much-improved power unit, Ferrari have breathed new life into Formula One’s world championship battle this year – and appear ready to make it stick.

The Italian team, which ended a two-year win drought when Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix, saw the ‘ice man’ Kimi Raikkonen roll back the years on Sunday with a resurgent second place behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta has been given the all clear to face French champions Paris Saint-Germain in the second-leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.

The Spanish international suffered heavy bruising on his back during Barca's 3-1 first-leg win in Paris last week and missed the Catalans 2-0 victory over Valencia on Saturday as a result.

Pep Guardiola insists he will remain Bayern Munich's coach next season amidst reports he is set to take over at Manchester City when his current contract expires in June 2016.

"My future is: Wednesday free, Thursday training, and, of course, next year to be here. That's my future," said Guardiola when asked about his plans on Monday.

Croatia's national team doctor blames Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti for Luka Modric's latest knee injury.

"Carlo Ancelotti is guilty for Modric's troubles," Croatia's chief medical officer Boris Nemec told the Sportske Novosti daily.