FC Barcelona Star Gerard Pique, Shakira Trapped in Sex-Tape Blackmail: Reports

FC Barcelona's Gerard Pique and his superstar wife Shakira are reportedly facing a blackmail plot by a former employee over an alleged sex video. Pique and Shakira have two sons -- Milan, two, and Sasha, 11-months.

Spanish football is already reeling under a major blackmail with Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema being probed for extortion of international teammate Mathieu Valbuena over another sex tape. According to Spanish law, blackmail is punishable by a serious jail term.

Spanish media has reported that Pique and Shakira have been threatened with the leak of an intimate video if the high-profile pair did not pay a significant sum of money. The footballer and his pop star wife have not confirmed or denied the reports, says the Mirror.

Shakira, 38, met Pique, 10 years her junior, when the Spanish star appeared in her music video for the single Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), the official song for 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Pique left Manchester United in 2008 to join Barcelona in a 5 million Pound deal. He has been a Barca regular, helping the team win the Champions League three times, and five La Liga titles.

With Spain, Pique won the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship two years later.

Serie A: Hot-shot Keisuke Honda Fires AC Milan up to Fourth

AC Milan are now only five points behind leaders Juventus, held 1-1 at Sassuolo on Saturday, while Roma put three unanswered goals past Chievo to reinforce their grip on second spot and reduce their deficit to a point.

Milan: Japan international Keisuke Honda struck a brace in a 3-1 win at Verona to go top of the Serie A scoring charts on Sunday as AC Milan moved up to fourth.

Milan travelled to the Bentegodi stadium looking for their second successive win having accounted for another Verona-based side, Chievo, two weeks ago.

The visitors were missing injured French forward Jeremy Menez, but Honda was in scintillating form.

"He's the consummate professional and a great player, I already said that back in August," Milan coach Filippo Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia.

"He rarely misses a scoring chance and deserves all the credit he gets."

Inzaghi added: "We're happy, these were three really important points, but we still have 

improvements to make especially in defence."

Milan were given a helping hand in the 21st minute when Brazilian Rafael Marques, one half of a centre-back pairing which also included Mexican international Rafa Marquez, skewed a volley into his own net from Ignazio Abate's cross from the right.

"It can happen to anyone," said Verona coach Andrea Mandorlini.

Milan were 2-0 up six minutes later when Stephan El Shaarawy, given a rare start on the left of a three-man forward line spearheaded by Spaniard Fernando Torres, found Honda in space on the right with a long ball from midfield.

Honda had time to run unmarked towards goal before curling a first-time shot past Verona 'keeper Rafael.

Verona striker Luca Toni came close to reducing the arrears with an acrobatic effort minutes later but Christian Abbiati pulled off a remarkable save to parry at his near post.

Abbiati was at full stretch again just after the half hour to push away Bosko Jankovic's header.

If Verona's defence had been conspicuously absent at Honda's first goal, they were even more so 10 minutes after the restart when the Japan international was left in acres of space.

French defender Adil Rami fired a low pass from just over the halfway line and Honda ran in practically unhindered to dink another left-footed shot over Rafael.

Verona grabbed a late consolation when Nico Lopez powered past Sulley Muntari before cutting in to beat Abbiati.

Milan are now only five points behind leaders Juventus, held 1-1 at Sassuolo on Saturday, while Roma put three unanswered goals past Chievo to reinforce their grip on second spot and reduce their deficit to a point.

Sampdoria are three points behind Roma in third after they drew 2-2 at Cagliari despite Manolo 

Gabbiadini and Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang giving them a 2-0 interval lead.

"We didn't draw, we lost," Samp coach Sinisa Mihajlovic told Sky. "We can't afford to give away points like we did today.

"The only positive is that we're still in third place and still unbeaten."

Cagliari were given hope 13 minutes into the second half when Fabrizio Cacciatore saw red for a second bookable offence and defender Danilo Avelar stepped up to slam the resulting spot-kick into the top right-hand corner of Emiliano Viviano's net.

The pressure on Cagliari coach Zdenek Zeman eased somewhat when Marco Sau fired a late leveller after superbly controlling Avelar's quickfire pass into the area.

"It wasn't easy to claw back two goals from Sampdoria," said Sau, who now has three goals in seven games.

Elswhere, Palermo moved off bottom spot after Giancarlo Gonzalez's precision header secured a 2-1 home win for the Sicilians against Cesena.

Fabio Quagliarella's 62nd-minute strike was enough to secure a 1-0 home win for Torino against Udinese, while in Bergamo Yiadom Boakye bundled home a 90th-minute winner to secure a 1-0 win for Atalanta against Parma.

Parma now sit bottom of Serie A with six defeats and just one win in seven games.

Earlier, Serbian international Filip Djordjevic scored his fifth goal in three games as Lazio won 2-0 away to misfiring Fiorentina.

Lazio sit sixth, seven points off top spot, with Fiorentina in ninth place, 10 points off the pace.

La Liga: Atletico Madrid Beat Espanyol 2-0, Move Within Five Points of Barcelona

Atletico Madrid had been beaten by an early three-goal blitz at Valencia last time out and they set out to make amends early on against Espanyol on Sunday.

Atletico Madrid's Portuguese midfielder Tiago (R) celebrates with Atletico Madrid's Turkish midfielder Arda Turan (C) after scoring during the Spanish league football match Club Atletico de Madrid vs RCD Espanyol at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on October 19, 2014.

© AFP

Madrid: Atletico Madrid moved back to within five points of La Liga leaders Barcelona with a 2-0 win over Espanyol on Sunday thanks to goals from Tiago and Mario Suarez.

Tiago opened the scoring with a wonderful looping header into the far corner from Gabi's cross two minutes before half-time to settle the hosts' nerves.

The Portuguese midfielder then limped off early in the second half, making him a doubt for Atletico's Champions League game against Malmo in midweek.

However, his replacement Suarez had the easy task of tapping home the second from Jose Gimenez's header 20 minutes from time.

"The team played the way they had to," said Atletico boss Diego Simeone.

"We played with a good tempo and with patience until the first goal arrived. Then, in the second half, we controlled the game."

Simeone's men had been beaten by an early three-goal blitz at Valencia last time out and they set out to make amends early on as Kiko Casilla denied Arda Turan from point-blank range before the Turkish midfielder had a goal ruled out for offside.

Casilla also turned behind a fierce drive from Koke, but Atletico were thankful to their own 'keeper Miguel Angel Moya moments later as he smothered Lucas Vazquez's effort at the back post.

The home side continued to enjoy the majority of the play, though, and made the breakthrough just before half-time when Gabi's cross to the far post was looped back across goal and over the helpless Casilla from Tiago.

Sergio Garcia could have punished some slack defending by Atletico with the last kick of the half as he blasted over from a narrow angle.

And the champions were dealt a blow at the start of the second period as Tiago hobbled off to be replaced by Suarez.

Espanyol had claims for a penalty waved away 25 minutes from time when Christian Stuani tumbled under pressure from Gimenez in the box, but within 60 seconds it was Casilla who was forced into action once more as he repelled Mario Mandzukic's low drive.

Atletico made the game safe on 70 minutes as Espanyol struggled to defend a corner and Gimenez's header across goal was tapped home by Suarez for his first goal in two years.

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero is the Mozart of football, says Mauricio Pochettino

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has admitted that watching Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero play is like listening to Mozart.

Pochettino said Spurs would aim to stop Aguero from scoring in their league fixture against City, at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Aguero already has six goals in 2014, and also scored 28 goals, as City clinched the title in 2013-14.

The Spur's boss further elaborated that his side would do what it takes to stop the Argentine from scoring, and also labeled him as the 'best striker in the world'.

Aguero and Yaya Toure, recently scored in the 2-0 win at Aston Villa, to lift City into second spot behind leaders Chelsea. 

Lionel Messi Scores Brace as Argentina Rout Hong Kong

On a day when Neymar put four goals past Japan, his Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi scored two in Argentina's 7-0 thumping vs Hong Kong. 

Argentina strolled to a 7-0 friendly win over Hong Kong on Tuesday, with superstar Lionel Messi and Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain both netting a brace. (Four-star Neymar mesmerises Japan)

Coach Gerardo Martino started with a second-string side that saw Barcelona's Messi, Manchester United's Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero of Manchester City all on the bench.

Messi came on with half an hour of the match remaining. By then the score was already 4-0 but soon the little wizard had made it five, playing a neat one-two before dinking the ball over goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai.

He was then instrumental in Argentina's sixth, pulling the ball back from the byline to give Nicolas Gaitan of Benfica the easiest of tap-ins from inside the six-yard box.

It was Gaitan's second goal of the match. The first came just before half-time when he cut in from the right and smashed the ball in with his left foot.

Just a minute earlier Higuain had scored his first, heading down a cross from the left.

The forward got his brace and Argentina's fourth with a simple pass into a open goal less than ten minutes into the second half.

Sevilla's Ever Banega had opened for Argentina on 19 minutes, pouncing on some woeful Hong Kong defending.

Yapp fumbled a weak effort which landed at the feet of Lee Chi-ho who scuffed a clearance straight to Banega, for the midfielder to drill the ball home.

With five minutes to go Messi scored his second and Argentina's seventh, taking the ball down beautifully with his left foot before going past three Hong Kong defenders and rifling it low into the corner.

Other stars who didn't start for Argentina included Sergio Romero, Pablo Zabaleta, Javier Mascherano, Martin Demichelis and Erik Lamela.

Manchester City's Zabaleta entered the fray on 60 minutes with Di Maria and Mascherano coming on ten minutes later -- all three coming through the match unscathed.

 

Four-Star Neymar Helps Brazil Thrash Japan in Friendly

Neymar underlined his star billing as he moved to 40 goals in just 58 games for Brazil and gave new coach Dunga a fourth straight win with no goals conceded. 

Singapore: Barcelona superstar Neymar thumped four goals past Japan in a spectacular solo performance as Brazil hammered the Asian champions 4-0 in Singapore on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Barcelona forward was a class apart at Singapore's national stadium as he scored all of Brazil's goals and nearly provided more in front of a sell-out crowd.

Neymar underlined his star billing as he moved to 40 goals in just 58 games for Brazil and gave new coach Dunga a fourth straight win with no goals conceded.

The victory also rounded off a successful Asian mini-tour for this year's World Cup hosts after Saturday's convincing 2-0 win over arch-rivals Argentina in Beijing.

Neymar looked dangerous from the off. In an ominous start, he had a penalty shout waved away and grazed the side-netting with a free-kick.

He duly put Brazil ahead on 18 minutes when he ran on to Diego Tardelli's penetrating through-ball, scampered around goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima and finished with aplomb.

Neymar pierced the Japanese defence once again when he evaded the attentions of Tsukasa Shiotani on the left and went close with a shot which rolled across the goalface.

But Japan were not prepared to roll over and Yu Kobayashi flashed a volley over the crossbar as the Blue Samurai nearly found a quick reply.

Bundesliga's Shinji Okazaki almost found the target with a glancing header and Brazil dealt poorly with a corner on the stroke of half-time in signs of hope for Japan.

But Japanese optimism receded three minutes after the break when half-time substitute Philippe Coutinho won possession in midfield and prodded the ball forward for Neymar.

With Japan's offside trap sprung, Neymar had plenty of time to pick his spot and put his second goal of the night past Kawashima.

Okazaki, now bolstered by substitute Keisuke Honda, remained industrious and made the Brazilian woodwork shudder with a fierce shot that cannoned off the near post.

Neymar should have have sealed his hat-trick when he rounded a defender and shot with the goal at his mercy, only to see the side-netting bulge.

The 22-year-old was tormenting the defence and he set up first Liverpool's Coutinho and then 65th-minute substitute Robinho for carbon-copy chances on the left which both went wide.

Kaka arrived to huge applause in the 72nd minute and he quickly drew the best from Kawashima as his firm header, from a Neymar cross, was palmed onto the bar.

But the ball was not cleared and although Kawashima kept out Coutinho's fierce drive, Neymar pounced on the rebound for his third on 77 minutes.

Four minutes later and Neymar got his fourth of the night, and 40th in a Brazil shirt, when he met Kaka's hanging cross from the left at the far post.

Substitute Yoichiro Kakitani nearly grabbed a late consolation for Japan. But there was to be no fillip as the Blue Samurai look ahead to their Asian Cup defence in January.