Spain winger Gerard Deulofeu has hinted at a possible return to Catalan football giants FC Barcelona over the summer.

Deulofeu is currently working with the Spain squad ahead of the forthcoming games against Colombia and Macedonia, before linking up with the Under-21 squad to play in the European under-21 Championships.

Serbia have earned an unassailable 3-0 lead over Spain in the Davis Cup quarter-finals at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade.

On the second day of the quarter-final tie on Saturday, Serbia's 40-year-old Nenad Zimonjic teamed up with Viktor Troicki to beat Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta and Marc Lopez 4-6, 7-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, and bring the third winning point and victory for Serbia.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic helped Serbia take a 2-0 lead over Spain in the Davis Cup quarter-finals at Aleksandar Nikolic hall here.

Djokovic, who missed Miami Open and was forced to an early exit in Indian Wells due to an elbow injury, beat Albert Ramos Vinolas 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the first singles on Friday before Viktor Troicki outplayed Pablo Carenno Busta 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

For many years, an unwritten rule in football said a game lasted 90 minutes. The survey by a sports magazine has now revealed that the actual average playing time in the top four football leagues in Europe is less than 58 minutes - even accounting for added time.

While in Germany's Bundesliga, the actual net playing time is 56 minutes and five seconds, in the English Premier League it is also about 56 minutes. The Spanish La Liga only provides its fans with just under 54 minutes. Italian fans are best off with the Serie A's 57 minutes.

Spain topped France 2-0 in a friendly match that saw a goal for the hosts disallowed and one confirmed based on video replay for the visitors. The value of the video replays was there for all to see, and one can only hope that football finally takes that leap of faith to bring it on par with other sports that is using video evidence to eradicate refereeing errors from the sport - a reality which more often than not alters the outcome of not just games, but careers.

The Spanish controlled the flow of the game throughout the first half on Tuesday, but posed no real threat to the French goal. France, after an anemic first half, mounted a surge at the start of the second and took a 1-0 lead on a header by Antoine Griezmann.

Spain and Italy eased past their opponents to stay unbeaten in Group G of the 2018 football World Cup European qualifiers, with Italian veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon playing the 1,000th game of his career.

Spain have extended their unbeaten streak in World Cup qualifiers to 58 matches with a 4-1 home victory over Israel, as David Silva, Vitolo, Diego Costa and Isco all found the net, while Thiago Alcantara and Silva himself saw the ball hit the woodwork. Lior Refaelov scored a consolation goal for the visitors in the 76th minute.

After making the final for the second time in as many tries, defending Champion Canada wasn’t able to convert on numerous chances and fell 0-1 to Spain in the Championship match of the Algarve Cup.

“Spain pressed well in the first half and disrupted our rhythm, but our goal in the first half was to catch them on the counterattack and exploit that high line and we had some good chances,” said Head Coach John Herdman.  “In the second half, we found our rhythm and established better control in the game, had a couple of good chances that should have gone in, and I have to think some of those players will be a bit disappointed with the opportunities lost.”