Fab-ulous Cesc

All the hype before Arsenal's Champions League tie against Juventus on Wednesday was about what Patrick Vieira would do to his former team-mates, but all the post-match plaudits went the way of Cesc Fabregas.

The 18-year-old Spanish midfielder did his World Cup chances no harm at all with a dominant display reminiscent of Vieira in his pomp, scoring once, setting up the second and wreaking havoc against his illustrious predecessor and World Cup winner Emerson.

Australia's Mark Viduka was - as Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren said - "unplayable" in the first half of his side's 4-3 rollercoaster Premiership win over Bolton on Sunday.

The former Leeds man scored one and Cruyff-turned with the daintiness of a Bolshoi ballerina to create himself a chance, before having a helping hand in his side's two other goals from open play.

Brazil striker Ronaldo answered his numerous critics with a vintage display in Real Madrid's 4-0 dismantling of Deportivo La Coruna last Sunday.

And the portly hitman scotched rumours his weight is ballooning claiming he weighs the same now - 87kg - as he did when he finished top scorer at the 2002 World Cup.

Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz looks set to be fit for the World Cup after returning to training with Bayern Munich on Monday for the first time since damaging cruciate knee ligaments in October.

Christian Vieri's slim World Cup chances took a further nosedive this week when the Italy striker was ruled out for a month after picking up a knee injury in Monaco's 1-1 Ligue 1 draw with Paris St. Germain last weekend.

Sweden's über-talented front man Zlatan Ibrahimovic put in a performance of worrying anonymity in Juventus' Champions League defeat to Arsenal.

The former Ajax man saw his control desert him on numerous occasions as he and France goal-sniffer David Trezeguet were shackled supremely by Ivory Coast's Kolo Toure and Switzerland stopper Philippe Senderos.

Things go from bad to worse for the World Cup Organising Committee who boobed badly this week.

A helpful booklet for tournament volunteers unhelpfully used the Communist-era Croatia flag - replete with red star - rather than the current ensign adopted after independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

"Of course this is immensely regrettable," said committee spokesman Jens Grittner. "The first edition of the publication in the cities of Munich, Berlin and Dortmund actually contained mistakes. However, fewer than 2,000 copies were affected."

The mis-guidebook also included errors on the Spanish, Ecuadorian and Saudi Arabian flags.

After Spain, racism rears its head at a German fourth division football match in Halle, where Leipzig's Nigerian defender Adebowale Ogungbure was taunted throughout the game and assaulted as he left the pitch before bizarrely responding with a Hitler salute.

"We take any disputes of a racist nature very seriously," DFB chief Theo Zwanziger said in a statement on Wednesday. "Despite the fact that events like those seen in Halle occur only occasionally among the approximately 80,000 soccer games which take place in Germany each weekend, we give them our fullest attention."

Making a Nazi salute is against the law in Germany, but Ogungbure will not be prosecuted say legal officials as his gesture was in protest - not support - of a banned political organisation.

Japan squeeze past Ecuador