Christian Vieri sees his dream of brushing up on his German next summer fade as he is voted Serie A's biggest flop this season, while Ale del Piero nips ahead in the Italy pecking order. Germany has had a turbulent seven days on and off the pitch, and Ghana's Michael Essien shows his ugly side.
GOOD
England have had a fine week. Named amongst the top seeds for Friday's World Cup draw, Sven-Göran Eriksson's men will be relieved to be missing out on a group involving South America's big two and some of Europe's superpowers.
But all of the eight top seeds will be gripped by the fear of drawing the Netherlands or the Czech Republic from a ferocious Pool Three.
And the England boss will be looking on the bright side of Man United's European exit at the hands of Benfica on Wednesday, as starlet Wayne Rooney should be fresher come the summer.
Italy have a mass of top-quality strikers all vying for the four or five places Marcello Lippi is likely to have in his World Cup squad, but Alessandro del Piero put himself firmly into the reckoning in midweek.
With a two-goal burst in the 3-1 Champions League win over Rapid Vienna, Il Pinturrichio assured Juve finished top of Group A and put himself top of the all-time goalscorers' list at the Turin club.
BAD
But while Del Piero's hard times look to be ending, Christian Vieri's worries just go on and on. The well-travelled front man was this week given the dubious distinction of being named the Golden Dustbin winner as Serie A's top flop this season.
With Luca Toni and Vincenzo Iaquinta in fine form, Vieri is in real danger of missing out on Italy's summer trip to Germany.
Germany midfielder Sebastian Deisler has had a self-inflicted rough week - the Bayern midfielder was hit with a three-match ban by the German FA for kicking out at Switzerland and Stuttgart's Ludovic Magnin in last weekend's Bundesliga encounter.
While that was childish, Michael Essien's adults-only knee-high assault on Liverpool and Germany counterpart Dietmar Hamann ensured the lowlights of Tuesday's Champions League clash between the European champions and Chelsea carried a parental advisory.
The Ghana midfielder's tackle - which Hamann described as "the worst of [his] career" - went unpunished during the game, but eagle-eyed UEFA officials look set to take action after reviewing video footage of the incident and charging Essien with gross sporting misconduct.
The smooth ride the World Cup organising committee had hoped for ahead of the summer was hit by a major wobble as Kaiserslautern's Bundesliga game against Eintracht Frankfurt was called off last weekend due to stadium safety concerns.
The game was postponed after a crack was spotted in the east stand at Lautern's Fritz-Walter Stadion, one of the 12 World Cup venues.
UGLY
And worries over the stadia are not the only thing troubling organisers, with trouble flaring in the German Bundesliga ahead of what is expected not to be a trouble-free tournament.
Hamburg's Alex Laas had to be carried off by team-mate Daniel van Buyten with blood seeping from a head wound after being hit by a drumstick thrown from the crowd during his side's 3-1 win over Cologne.
And more troubled flared, literally, at the Bundesliga 2 game at Dresden as flares and missiles rained down on the pitch forcing the game to be delayed.
And back in Italy, the players were behaving little better.
After Milan's heated Champions League contest with Schalke on Tuesday, rossoneri and Italy enforcer Gennaro Gattuso lost his self-control, ranting and raving in the face of Schalke counterpart Christan Poulsen.
To his credit, Dane Poulsen maintained his sang froid or the melee which ensued could have been far more fiery.
eurosport.com
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