By Tim Stannard (@stannardsports)

1) Ronaldo hands Champions League gauntlet to eternal rival, Leo Messi

Well that was quite the mic drop from Cristiano Ronaldo. It was Taylor Swift doing a triple backward somersault and setting off a fifty-feet high firework display of a middle figure and the sizzling name of Kanye West.

Against Wolfsburg, when the chips were down, CR7 took a look at the man in the many mirrors and decided to make the change that Real Madrid needed with a hat-trick to drag the team into the bright lights of the Champions League semifinals. “For a poor season, it’s not so bad,” said a possibly peeved Ronaldo after the match.

Apparently, Madrid’s hotshot striker has a rivalry with a player called Leo Messi and the fans of the two footballers spend an awful lot of time having friendly, informed debates on the internet over the merits of the two players. Which is why Camp Ronaldo will be watching the action at the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday very closely to see if Barca’s Argentinean poacher can match his exploits. In reality, just the one goal might be enough with Barca going into the quarterfinal second leg with a 2-1 advantage over the Rojiblancos, who have an apparent mental and physical block over the Catalan club. Atleti have failed to win the past seven encounters between the pair.

As well as scoring more goals than Barcelona, which will certainly help, the key for Atletico Madrid is to try and keep eleven players on the pitch, which has been a bit of an issue of late with Rojiblanco tempers getting a little bit testy. Catch all the best highlights and analysis on the XTRA from 10PM ET.

2) Bayern boosted by missing marksman as King Zlatan hints at Laurent Blanc bungling  

Wednesday’s other Champions League clash should theoretically be a fairly comfortable one for Bayern Munich. The Bundesliga giants are on Portuguese soil against Benfica with a 1-0 advantage from last week’s first leg, which does at first sound a little precarious. However, the hosts have been weakened a touch with the absence of top scorer, Jonas, who is suspended for the clash.

King Zlatan’s final chance of winning the Champions League might just have gone up in smoke after Tuesday’s unfortunate result in the Etihad. That’s double the case if the Swedish striker joins Arsenal or Manchester United next season. PSG crashed out of the Champions League at the quarterfinal stages after a 3-2 aggregate defeat to Manchester City, and He is hinting that the fault may lie with Laurent Blanc after a first-half tactical experiment did not pan out.

3) Tata says no ta-ta to Copa America for Leo Messi despite fraud trial

Argentina boss, Tata Martino, has said that he fully expects Leo Messi to back in business for the Copa America this summer, despite the player’s fraud trial beginning on 31st of May, six days before Argentina’s first match in the competition. What Martino failed to say, which was a bit of a shame, was that despite what must be a “taxing” time for Messi, he fully expects his player to “declare” all his assets out on the pitch.

Peter Lim says Gary Neville sacking was a mutually agreed parting of the ways. Not sure El Gary would be on the same song sheet.

4) Villa cancel player of the year awards after sorry season

In a disappointing move, Aston Villa have announced that the club is cancelling the annual player of the year awards for the 2015-16 season, what with the team being blooming awful and on the brink of relegation to the Championship – the best and toughest league in the world and exclusively on beIN SPORTS. Indeed, you can have a full round-up of where we are in England’s fabulous second tier on Wednesday’s XTRA at 10PM.

Two clubs looking for three more points to avoid ending up in the Championship with Villa do battle on Wednesday with Crystal Palace hosting Everton in a snuck-in EPL clash.

In fact, there is even more football going on in England and the chance for Louis Van Gaal to disappoint Manchester United supporters all over again in an FA Cup quarterfinal replay clash away at a feisty West Ham side.

5) Lifeline for suspended Russian athletes after Meldonium admission

There may be hope on the horizon for a group of Russian athletes currently serving suspensions after failing doping tests. The World Anti-Doping Agency has said that it is still not scientifically clear how long Meldonium stays in an athlete’s system after it is taken. The drug was put onto the prohibited list from 1st January 2016, and admits that a hearing panel may rule that an athlete could not have known that the drug taken before that date would remain in their system long after.

USA World Cup winner, Abby Wambach has plead guilty to driving under the influence of intoxicants and has agreed to enter a diversion program after failing a sobriety test after running a red light last week in Portland.

Computer games really are bad for you. IBF world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has said that he had to give up playing FIFA until the early hours of the morning as it was messing with his training regime, and thus messing with his career.