UEFA: Barcelona prepare to face Villarreal

In the UEFA Champions League final, Barcelona is determined to win the Spanish Primera Liga title. The Catalan side plays host to Villarreal on Sunday.

BarcelonasoccerplayerSamuelEto'ovisits
theCatalunyaracetrackinMontmelo,near
Barcelona,Spain,onFriday,May8,2009.
TheSpanishGrandPrixwilltakeplaceon
Sunday.(APPhoto/DavidRamos)

The past week has been almost perfect for Barcelona. They thrashed arch rivals Real Madrid 6-2 in La Liga last Saturday, and secured their place in the UEFA Champions League final on Wednesday, thanks to a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Chelsea. And more glory could be in store.

Italy rocks Russians, leads 2-0 in semi-final

In tennis, Italy built a 2-0 lead over Russia after the first day of their Fed Cup semi-final on Saturday. Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone both won their singles matches.

Pennetta and Anna Chakvetadze clashed in the opening singles' match and immediately traded service breaks. But Pennetta began to show better consistency, breaking again in the fifth game before clinching the first set 6-4. Chakvetadze only won nine points in total in the second set. Pennetta closed out a 6-4, 6-0 victory in just 67 minutes give Italy a 1-0 lead overall.

The attention then switched to Schiavone versus Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Russian player got off to a quick start. A series of breaks helped her claim the opening set by six games to one. But, Schiavone took the second set 6-2 to send the contest into a tense decider. The Italian delivered the goods, moving into a 4-2 lead before closing out the third set 6-3. Italy took a surprising 2-0 lead over Russia.