By Tim Stannard

1) Big boys back for Barca in Atletico Copa clash

With Atletico Madrid promising to deliver a full-frontal assault against Barcelona – three shots on target in 90 minutes by Rojiblanco wary standards – Barcelona have been boosted by the return of a couple of very familiar faces.

The two sides are facing off Cage-Travolta style in the Camp Nou on Tuesday in a Copa del Rey second-leg clash, with Atletico looking to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the Calderon last week.  Happily, for Barca fans, both Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta should be present and correct to help them in that testing task. Unhappily, Gerard Pique is in the squad, too.

Both are expected to start the cup clash with an X-Factor style audition from Luis Enrique on who will take up the third midfield spot. Ivan Rakitic looks the likely winner at the moment. That clash is live on beIN SPORTS from 2:55PM ET / 11:55AM PT.

2) Roma looking to squeeze into second spot

Merciful Zeus, Barca and Atletico are not the only big beasts in action on Tuesday on beIN SPORTS as the Serie A and Ligue Un are taking care of a bit of business as well. A truly madcap few days of action in Italy continues with Roma hosting Fiorentina and looking for a win to ping the capital city side back into second spot, above Napoli. Coverage of that clash begins on beIN SPORTS CONNECT from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT.

A new round of action in Ligue Un also kicks off on Tuesday – arguably the most exciting title race in Europe this season – with free-scoring and league-leading Monaco away at Montpelier, live on beIN SPORTS CONNECT from 1PM ET / 11AM PT.

This is followed by a much-improved PSG hosting Lille at 3PM ET / 12PM PT also on CONNECT. Catch all the highlights of all these games on the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT. Go on, you know you want to.

3) Ranieri giving official backing despite sacking stories

Leicester City are becoming the sports story of the century for a second successive season.

Firstly, the plucky outfit won the English Premier League at odds of 5000-1. But secondly, pretty much the same squad and the same manager are merrily on their way to being relegated. However, despite stories of a dressing room fallout between players and Claudio Ranieri, Leicester City have released a statement saying that the Italian manager has the 100% backing of his bosses. Mmm.

Leicester are back in action on Wednesday in a FA Cup replay against local rivals, Derby County.

4) Oscar has scoring start in Champions League clash

Oscar has begun earning his hefty wages and even heftier transfer free at Shanghai SIPG.

The Brazilian played his first competitive game for the Chinese Super League outfit and it resulted in both a goal and a 3-0 victory in an Asian Champions League qualifier against Sukhothai.

5) Tough start for Lindsey Vonn at World Champs

The World Alpine Ski Championships got off to a challenging start for Lindsey Vonn. The US skiing legend failed to complete the first run of the women’s Super-G final in the opening day of competition in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Vonn is on the comeback trail after breaking her right arm in November, another of a string of injuries suffered and overcome by this truly remarkable athlete.

WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?

The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.