1) Monaco to prove mettle against Man City

The Champions League plays a great role as a footballing petri-dish – putting teams from different leagues together, standing back with a microscope of judgement and seeing what takes place.

That then kicks off the eternal La Liga is better than Premier League is better than Bundesliga is better than Serie A is better than Ligue Un is better than La Liga debate, which drives the internet aside from that whole Messi v Ronaldo thing. Such a clash is taking place on Tuesday in the north-west of England with Pep Guardiola’s hard-to-work-out but usually entertaining Manchester City facing the free-scoring Monaco, a team which has 76 Ligue Un goals this season. 76!

Tuesday’s game is an experiment to see whether Monaco are the real deal as with PSG against Barcelona, or a big fish getting league lucky in a small pond. Either way, the Monte Carlo outfit won’t be pulling their punches in the Etihad. "It is in our DNA to play the way we play,” vowed Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim.

2) Chicharito leads anti-Atletico charge

Hopes are not so high of such a super-octane uber-clash between Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid with the two teams taking part in a match-up so awful two-years-ago, that FIFA almost considered wiping the match-up from time. That was the certainly the fate of the naked Leo Messi v Cristiano Ronaldo fist-fight from the 2011 league Clasico at the Camp Nou that so tainted the beautiful game.

The clip notes of this encounter in Leverkusen is that both teams were a bit rubbish a few weeks ago, but are now a heck of a lot better. Even Chicharito is scoring again for the Bundesliga outfit and the Rojiblancos have lost just once in ten.

The big call for Diego Simeone to make is whether Jan Oblak will start in goal having returned from injury, in place of Miguel Angel Moya who has acquitted himself reasonably well. That clash is live on beIN SPORTS CANADA from 2:45PM ET / 11:45AM PT. Remember to tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT across North America for the highlights and best analysis of all the games of the week.

3) Zizou hopes for Isco stay ahead of Valencia catch-up clash

Coach Zizou has been talking! But not about the Champions League. Instead Real Madrid are at an improving Valencia on Wednesday in one of the club’s two catch-up games in La Liga that could either see the Bernabeu club building a camp at the summit of la Liga with a win or allowing others such as Barcelona and Sevilla, a sliver of hope.

One of the topics of the chattering press in Madrid was Isco, with talk in Tuesday’s papers that the footballer was no longer interested in talking about a new deal with the club and wanting to leave over the summer due to a lack of playing time. “He knows I am counting on him and I like him as a player,” said the Real Madrid manager.

On the team news front, Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to start after returning to training with the first team on Tuesday, whilst Zizou was still coy on the role of Gareth Bale in Mestalla. Valencia v Real Madrid is live on beIN SPORTS on Wednesday at the more unusual time of 12:35PM ET / 9:35AM PT.

4) Cristiano Ronaldo is richer than you

Just a reminder…

5) England’s FA will not be pie’s wide shut at betting bust

Scandal at Arsenal!

Well. Scandal at Arsenal’s opposition on Monday, lower league outfit Sutton United. The two teams were facing off in the FA Cup but the real focus of attention ahead of and during the match was Sutton’s reserve goalkeeper, the 280-pound Wayne Shaw. The cult figure was seen eating a pie on the bench – as you do - during the 2-0 loss, leading to suspicions that Shaw knew that there were odds on him doing just that.

An investigation has been opened by England’s FA on the matter, with betting by footballers very much frowned upon.

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