Champions League: March 16th and 17th

-Jose Mourinho drew up a great game plan to beat his former team and Inter Milan executed it to perfection to knock Chelsea out of the Champions League. Chelsea rarely got into a rhythm and, apart from a fifteen minute spell before the end of the first half, never really dominated Inter. Both Walter Samuel and Lucio had great games at the heart of the Inter's defense, limiting Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba to few clear-cut opportunities. Inter also won the midfield battle: neither Frank Lampard nor Michael Ballack had much of a impact on the game.

But the real star of the show was Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder. Matched up with perhaps one of Chelsea's weakest links, Jon Obi Mikel, Sneijder shone in the second half as Inter started getting more and more counter-attacking opportunities. He played a succession of wonderful passes through the heart of the Chelsea defense. Goran Pandev should have scored from one, but Samuel Eto'o did from another in the 79^th minute. The goal meant that the London-based side had to score twice in the final eleven minutes, a near-impossible task given Inter's stingy defense.

Mourinho, who had been showered with abuse by Chelsea fans in what was an ill-tempered game, did not do much celebrating at the final whistle (certainly no repeat of that infamous Old Trafford moment) but he will have taken a lot of satisfaction at masterminding this win over his former club. For Chelsea, Russian owner Roman Abramovich's dream of European glory will have to be laid to rest for yet another season.

-When Barcelona forward Lionel Messi plays like he did against Stuttgart, he's the best soccer player in the world. Simple as that. After scoring a second-half hat trick against Valencia, Messi was at his sparkling best again in Barcelona's 4-0 demolition of Stuttgart. He scored two goals and created another, but his contribution went far beyond that. He ran at (and past) defenders with authority and speed all game long. He didn't just dribble though; he linked up well with his teammates and passed the ball beautifully. It's games like this one where the Diego Maradona comparisons really ring true.

As a whole, Barcelona were superb; they looked a lot like the team that won the competition last year. They were miles better than Stuttgart, and will probably be the number one side teams will want to avoid in the draw for the next round.

-It's hard for just two players to receive all the blame for a Champions League exit, but between them Olympiakos' Antonios Nikopolidis and Matt Derbyshire almost managed it against Bordeaux. Five minutes into the game, Nikopolidis was beaten by a Yoann Gourcuff free kick that never should have got by him (To make things worse, the same thing almost happened again a few minutes later when Gourcuff lifted another long range effort over him, only to be denied by a combination of the crossbar and post). Nikopolidis also completely misjudged the cross on the Marouane Chamakh goal that sealed Olympiakos' fate.

For his part, former Blackburn striker Derbyshire received a booking for voraciously demanding a penalty after he was outmuscled in the area in the 54^th minute. Only 6 minutes later, he lunged into a pointless sliding challenge on Jaroslav Plasil to earn a deserved second yellow.

-Goal of the Week: Lionel Messi, Barcelona: On a day he provided a vintage performance, the diminutive striker also scored the goal of the week. Receiving the ball just inside the Stuttgart half on the right hand side, he dribbled forward, unchallenged, to the left edge of the penalty box. With four defenders within two yards of him, he unleashed an unstoppable left-footed shot past Jens Lehmann into the top corner.

-Goat of the Week: Didier Drogba, Chelsea. When is Ivorian striker going to learn to accept a Champions League exit with just a skosh of class and dignity? In the 2008 final against Manchester United, he was sent off after slapping Nemanja Vidic three minutes from the end of overtime (the first player to get a red card for violent content in a Champions League final). Last year after Barcelona had knocked Chelsea out, his post game rant and antics were so out of line, UEFA banned him for six games (reduced to three on appeal).

This time around, with the clock winding down and Chelsea's elimination almost guaranteed, Drogba, frustrated at being held by Thiago Motta, stamped on the Inter midfielder's ankle. Motta definitely made the most of it, rolling around on the turf as if the ankle was broken, but Drogba's intentions were clearly nasty. Once again, he let his frustration get the better of him.

Champions League: March 9th and 10th

-Two giants of European football crashed out of the Champions League albeit in very different circumstances. Real Madrid and AC Milan are the two most decorated teams in terms of Champions League championships (including the European Cup Era) having racked up 16 trophies between them (Madrid has 9, Milan 7), but they won't be adding to their tally this season.

In truth, Milan looks like a shadow of the team that won the trophy in 2003 and 2007 and went to the final in 2005. The stars of those teams are either gone (Kaka, Paolo Maldini, Hernan Crespo, Andrei Shevchenko) or have had age catch with them dramatically (Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nesta, Filipo Inzaghi, and Gennaro Gattuso). The newer cogs brought to the team haven't really worked out all that well. Ronaldinho is just never again going to be the player he was four or five years ago, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar looks as if his failure in Madrid has entirely sapped his confidence, and the jury is still out on Alexandre Pato becoming the next Kaka.

I remember watching Milan completely outclass Manchester United the last two times they met in the knockout stages of the Champions League. In 2005 , Pirlo and Gattuso put on a midfield masterclass and Kaka was too fast and too good for United defense in 2007. The roles were reversed this time around. Not only did United play sharper and quicker football than Milan but they also outran and outfought them (Milan not learning to mark Wayne Rooney tighter on crosses didn't help either).

On the other hand, for the first half hour of their game against Lyon, Madrid looked like the team worth every penny of the millions Florentino Perez shelled out this summer to create. After Cristiano Ronaldo scored with six minutes gone, with all the momentum in their favor, it seemed only a matter of time before a second Madrid goal went in. But it never came. A combination of poor finishing (striker Higuain was the biggest culprit), great saves by Hugo Lloris in the Lyon goal, and a lack of cutting edge in the final third stopped them from adding to their lead before the break.

By playing rugged defense (centerback Cris in particular was outstanding) and running down and pressuring Madrid players on every single pass, Lyon slowly crept back into the game. As the second half wore on, they started carving out chances of their own. On 75 minutes, calamity struck for Madrid when Miralim Pjanic fired home a sweet volley after an interchange with Lisandro Lopez. It was the crucial away goal they needed and was ultimately enough to send Lyon through.

After a summer of record-breaking spending, a sixth straight year of elimination in the first knockout round of the competition will not be acceptable in Madrid (and those words aren't even strong enough). The deafening silence around the Bernabeu after Lyon had scored spoke volumes as to just how shellshocked the Madrid fans were. They envisioned another era of Galacticos when they signed Ronaldo, Kaka and co., and although they still sit pretty atop the Spanish League Table, this team was forged with the specific purpose of returning Madrid of its heyday of European success. Believe me when I say Manuel Pellegrini better at least lead Real to glory in 'La Liga' if he wants to have any chance of keeping his job next year. Especially now Jorge Valdano has given him the dreaded "vote of confidence".

-Wayne Rooney's sparkling form continues. There have been few teams in the Alex Ferguson era that have relied so much on one player as this team does on Wayne Rooney (Anyone who saw Man U squeak by Wolves last weekend will testify that without Rooney, this is an entirely different unit). But Rooney might just be playing well enough to carry United deep into this competition. He was too good for Milan again on Wednesday scoring two more goals, both very cool finishes. Now the question is, can he live up to Ferguson's challenge?

-A breakthrough game for Samir Nasri. The diminutive Frenchman has flashed glimpses of his talents and ability during his season and a half with Arsenal. But there have been very few occasions when he has shown that he can completely take over a game.

On Tuesday with Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal's midfield maestro, out injured, Nasri did just that. He played out of his skin and most of what Arsenal did ran through him; including a great, defense-splitting ball that led to the Nicklas Bendter's first goal.

And that was all before he scored one of the best individual goals I've seen all season. Expect Arsene Wenger to use him again in that role just behind the frontline where he looked dangerous every time he touched the ball.

-Goal of the Week: Arjen Robben, Bayern Munich: Pushed a long, long way by Samir Nasri's stunning jinxing run and finish. Nasri's effort was probably more technically difficult but there's nothing better than seeing a football struck as sweetly as Robben did. It also carried far more weight in the tie: it turned out to be the goal that sent Bayern through, whereas Nasri's came with Arsenal already well on their way to victory.

-Goat of the Week: Hans Jorg Butt and Daniel Van Buyten, Bayern Munich: Take your pick between these two men at the heart of Bayern's defense. Butt couldn't hold onto anything - one of his flaps led to the first Fiorentina goal- and Van Buyten was pushed off the ball as if he weighed 120 pounds rather than the 215 he does on Fiorentina's third.

NFL Combine: Tuesday

Apologies for the lack of a Combine Monday post. A combination of school and work prevented me from watching much of Monday's action. If you want to find a run down of how the defensive line and linebacker prospects did, look here.

One thing that did catch my eye was that neither Ndamukong Suh not Gerald McCoy, the consensus two best football players regardless of position in the draft, were listed as top performers amongst defensive linemen in the most of the Combine drills.

Suh cracked the top ten in the bench press, but apart from that their names were absent from the top performer list in 40, the vertical jump, the three cone drill and the 20-yard shuffle.

Yet another example of the limitations of the Combine when it comes to evaluating the true value of football players.

With that in mind, here goes nothing....

Combine Risers and Sliders: Defensive Backs

Risers:

Eric Berry, S, Tennessee: Ran a fast 40 for a safety at 4.47, completed 19 reps on the bench and leaped 43 inches in the vertical. He looked as good as expected in all the positional drills too. Cemented his spot as a top-10 and quite possibly top-5 pick come draft day.

Earl Thomas, S, Texas: Making a strong claim to be the second safety picked in April. He put on about 10 pounds of muscle since the end of the college season, and proceeded to knock out 21 reps at the bench. He looked very fluid and natural in all of positional drills, had a decent 40 in the 4.5s, and just has the look of a player who can make it happen at the next level.

Taylor Mays, S, USC: People have been questioning Mays' game for the last two months after a disappointing senior year at USC. Before the Combine, he'd slipped from a preseason top-5 cinch to a risky first rounder. He started strong with a 41 inch vertical and then 24 reps on the bench. He had a terrific 40 in the low 4.4s (the NFL Network had his first run mistakenly timed at 4.24 which would have tied Chris Johnson's Combine record and created quite the buzz in the studio). He may not have the instincts of an Earl Thomas or an Eric Berry at the safety position (there was some definite tightness in the positional drills), but he has more of an athletic 'wow' factor than either of them.

A.J. Jefferson, CB, Fresno State: Helped his draft grade with good vertical (44”) and broad jumps (10'6”) (he was top five amongst DBs in both), and ran his 40 in the low 4.4s. Could turn out to be a really good small school product.

Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, CB, Indiana (PA): By all accounts Ghanian-American Owusu-Ansah impressed during his interviews and press conference earlier this weekend and he backed it up on the field on Tuesday. He was fast, and athletic and looked very smooth in the corner drills.

Stickers:

Kyle Wilson, CB, Boise State: After being one of the best performers at the Senior Bowl, he was poised for a big Combine too after completing the second most reps of any defensive back 25. But then he pulled out of the positional drills with a sore hamstring. Expect him to have a scintillating pro day though.

Sliders:

Joe Haden, CB, Florida: The consensus top-rated cornerback, who was considered a top-10 pick by many coming in, raised a huge red flag about himself by running two very slow (for a corner) 40s. His first was clocked at 4.57, his second was even worse at 4.6 flat. He looked as if those poor times affected him in the later drills, where he looked tight and unsure. Haden has a whole bunch of spectacular tape to fall back on and could well be more of a football than a workout guy, but no doubt he cost himself some draft slots here.

Myron Rolle, S, Florida State: His poor 40 time of 4.69 overshadowed the smooth turns and soft hands he showed in the positional drills.

Dennis Rogan, CB, Tennessee: Another prospect with a poor 40 time, he couldn't get under 4.7 (which would have been a poor time for a safety, let alone a cornerback). Without great height (he stands just under 5'9”) or great speed, talent evaluators might struggle to find much to like about him.