Chris Wright

From the malign to the ridiculous, the madcap to the simply weird — there was no shortage of offbeat moments in world sport this year.

The eyes of the footballing world were focused on Rio de Janeiro on Saturday for the preliminary draw for the 20th World Cup.

Tottenham Hotspur managed to come back from the dead right at the start of their Champions League adventure last August.

Wayne Rooney scored as Manchester United beat Chelsea 1-0 in a Champions League first-leg quarterfinal clash on Wednesday night.

Tottenham shocked seven-times European champions AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro on Tuesday with Peter Crouch firing the only goal on the night.

England overcame a stuttering start to edge out Denmark 2-1 in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Not satisfied with reaching the last 16 of the Champions League in their debut season, Tottenham Hotspur wrapped up top spot in Group A.

Tuesday’s Euro qualifiers brought drama on and off the pitch on a night on which Italy’s match against Serbia was postponed owing to crowd trouble.

Mittal Steel chief executive Lakshmi Mittal said on Thursday that opposition to his hostile takeover bid for European steelmaker Arcelor could not weaken the "industrial logic"…