Good, Bad & Ugly

Real Madrid continued their end-of-season winning burst with a 2-3 win away to Racing Santander.

And Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira will be happy, with both Roberto Carlos and Robinho getting on the scoresheet.

Elsewhere, Valencia winger Vicente could yet feature in Spain's World Cup plans after finally recovering from a four month-long ankle injury to be included in his club's squad to face Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

But in general, it's been a bad week for all football fans. As well as England fans, any true football lover that wanted to see the world's best players at this summer's World Cup would have been rocked by the news that Wayne Rooney's inclusion is in serious doubt.

The England striker suffered a broken metatarsal during his side's 3-0 defeat to Chelsea and will be up to six weeks.

That will almost definitely rule him out of the start of the World Cup, and he may not even be fit in time for the latter stages should England reach them.

Guti, Ivan de la Pena and Mauricio Pernia have also had a bad time of late. The Spaniards were dropped from Luis Aragones' national squad, casting serious shadows over their future this summer.

The ugliest act this week was committed by gifted France midfielder Johan Micoud.

Instead of using his talent to drive Werder Bremen towards another Champions League berth, the Frenchman showed his nasty side by grabbing Schalke defender Christian Poulsen's groin.