By Tim Stannard

1) Barcelona in links with Serie A supercoach

Technically, Barcelona’s sporting director, Ariedo Braida, did not say that the story had any truth in its legs. But technically, the Barca bigwig did not deny it, either.

That story is that the current Juventus boss, Massimiliano Allegri, could be in line to take over the Camp Nou hot seat after Luis Enrique this summer. The tick marks in favor of the tale are that Allegri is thought to want a move away from Serie A and could well be doing so as a Champions League winning coach.

The downside is that the manager is an Italian and it is likely that much of the Barcelona massive simply won’t stand for that. "Allegri? We know him well, but at this time we cannot talk about it,” were the words from Braida. Stand by for an Italian stallion in charge at Barcelona.

2) Madrid to dig deep in rearguard action in Naples

Real Madrid have landed on Italy’s shores for what will fundamentally be a defensive mission against Napoli. The Bernabeu outfit hold a 3-1 lead against their Serie A opponents in the Champions League and know that just a single goal should be enough to ease the team through to the quarterfinals. Those are handy odds considering Madrid have scored in every one of the past 46 games in all competitions.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale return to the squad after injury and suspension respectively and should start Tuesday’s clash in Naples despite the tremendous performance by Karim Benzema and the apparent understudies in the weekend crushing of Eibar.

Remember to tune into the Locker Room from 7:30PM ET /4:30PM PT for a look back at the weekend across Europe.

3) Sevilla looks to stay in title hunt with Alaves action

That figure bouncing up and down shouting “Me! Me!” is an attention-seeking Sevilla, a team who are in the La Liga title race on Monday and not larking about in Naples or trying to find a new manager.

The Andalusians are wrapping up the weekend in La Liga and have the chance to go within two points of Barcelona by overcoming Alaves, up north in Spain.

Sevilla have been hampered by the absence of the inspirational Sami Nasri so tune into beIN SPORTS live from 2:35PM ET / 11:35AM PT to find out how they get on.

4) Wenger and Sanchez officially BFF as Arsenal boss denies rift

Fake news is now apparently pinging its way over to English football. On Saturday, Arsene Wenger opted to leave the pivotal Alexis Sanchez on the bench for Arsenal in the disastrous Liverpool defeat at Anfield. ‘Tactical’ was the rationale from the French boss. ‘Training ground bust-up!’ was the view of the English media.

On Monday, photographs were released of the two figures shaking hands and Wenger himself said all reports of a fall-out were nonsense. "I'm not aware, nothing happened," said the Arsenal boss ahead a day ahead of the attempt by his plucky London outfit to overturn a 5-1 deficit to Bayern Munich in a Champions League Last-16 second-leg clash.

5) Conte pretends there’s a Premier League title race

Waaaaay above Arsenal in the Premier League pecking order, thirteen points away, are plucky Chelsea.

And the Stamford Bridge thrill-killers are set to grind out another 2-0 win against West Ham on Monday to tighten their merciless grip at the top of the table. However, Antonio Conte was being charitable over the rest of the division’s runners and riders. "To win the title and also find a place to play the Champions League is not easy,” noted the Italian boss.

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the highlights of Monday’s action from around Europe as well as a poke into the future in another great week of Champions League footie.

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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.