Inside Arsenal's match-day program was a cardboard cut-out of Arsene Wenger; a memento for visiting Monaco fans of their former manager. But not many Arsenal fans will want that model perching on their desks after a timid 3-1 loss in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Booing at the final whistle was a demonstration of the impatience toward Wenger, whose only titles in the past decade are two FA Cups.

Hakan Calhanoglu's second-half strike gave Bayer Leverkusen a 1-0 home win over 10-man Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday, leaving it all to play for in the second leg.

"You could see from the first minute that we wanted to make an impression in the Champions League, to put ourselves in a good position to get through and I think we did that," Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt said. "We deserved to win."

Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso has left hospital following a crash during testing in Barcelona last weekend, his McLaren team announced on Wednesday.

"We are pleased to confirm that Fernando Alonso has now left hospital. He has returned to his family's home in Spain for further rest and recuperation," McLaren said in a statement.

Lionel Messi will remain Barcelona's penalty taker despite his Champions League miss against Manchester City, coach Luis Enrique insisted.

The Argentine superstar will keep his spot-kick taking duties, "without a doubt", Enrique said, despite his failure in the dying seconds of Tuesday's 2-1 last 16 first leg victory.

The World Cup in Qatar keeps provoking outrage and breaking taboos.

Seven years before the 2022 tournament kicks off in the wealthy emirate, FIFA recommended a break with football tradition on Tuesday — moving its marquee tournament to November and December instead of the usual June-July time slot.

Golden State's Stephen Curry returned from an injury absence to top score with 32 points and lead the Warriors to a 114-107 win at Washington on Tuesday, extending their overall NBA lead.

The Warriors extended their Western Conference lead to 3-1/2 games over idle Memphis, and are now one game ahead of East leader Atlanta.

It was supposed to be the night when Manchester City finally announced itself as a major force in the Champions League after three years of underachievement.

Instead, a 2-1 home loss to Barcelona in the last 16 on Tuesday exposed many of City's usual flaws in the big games in Europe's top competition: tactical inflexibility, lack of composure and yet more indiscipline.

IOC President Thomas Bach said Tuesday he is confident that the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will be a "safe games."

Bach, who spoke in the capital Brasilia after a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, is inspecting progress on Rio's games this week with other top officials of the International Olympic Committee.

Juventus settled for a narrow 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie on Tuesday to leave it all to play for in the return fixture in Germany.

Carlos Tevez fired Juventus ahead in the 13th minute but Dortmund soon leveled through striker Marco Reus following a terrible slip by Giorgio Chiellini.

A FIFA task force has recommended playing the 2022 World Cup in November-December to avoid the summer heat in Qatar.

FIFA says the task force chose the option over other proposals to play in January or May. FIFA also says the tournament should be shorter than the current 32-day schedule.