DIEGO MARADONA will tell Lionel Messi to go out and destroy Germany – just like he himself did in the 1986 World Cup final.

FROM high in the south terrace or Curva Sud of the Stadio San Paulo, Napoli’s ultras hang a bespoke banner at every game. Stitched carefully into the sky-blue fabric is the poetic epithet: “I have seen him, now I can die”. The tifosi need not say who they mean.

David Beckham claims it is his “dream” to win the Champions League with AC Milan, even if they were to come up against his former club Manchester United in the final.

MORE than a thousand Holland fans had to watch the match against the Ivory Coast in their underwear after being forced to remove orange lederhosen that had been supplied to them by a Dutch beer-makers.