AC Milan are desperate to atone for their Istanbul nightmare when they face Liverpool in next Wednesday’s Champions League final rematch in Athens. Milan looked certain to beat Liverpool in the 2005 final after taking a 3-0 lead at half-time. But Milan inexplicably imploded in a bizarre six-minute spell in the second half.

Mauro Bergamasco scored a dramatic late try as Italy beat Wales 23-20 in Rome on Saturday to record an unprecedented second win in a Six Nations campaign. However, the match ended in controversy when the full-time whistle blew just after Wales had declined an opportunity to kick what could have been a score-levelling penalty.

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti admitted on Sunday his club’s eight-point penalty for match-fixing makes them rank outsiders for the Serie A title. Milan beat fellow offenders Lazio 2-1 in their first match of the new season to reduce their deficit to minus five points, but they failed to make any ground on title rivals Inter Milan and Roma, who both recorded wins on Saturday.

Juventus’s relegation from the top-flight of Italian football was confirmed on Tuesday but Lazio and Fiorentina were reinstated after a final appeal into the match-fixing scandal that has rocked Serie A. Fiorentina and Lazio were both restored to the top division, having originally been demoted to Serie B for their part in the scandal.

Rafael Nadal clinched his 50th successive victory on clay in Rome on Thursday with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Britain’s Tim Henman to reach the Rome Masters quarterfinals as he closed in on Guillermo Vilas’s all-time record on the surface. If Nadal successfully defends his title on Sunday, he will equal the record set by Argentine Vilas who managed 53 straight wins on clay in 1977.