By Tim Stannard  

1) Juve make bid to be world’s best with Dybala deal

By Jimmeny, Juventus are having quite the time of it this week. 

To top off the already sumptuous cake of triumph that was a 3-0 victory over Barcelona in the Champions League, the club have tied down the latest heir apparent to the Leo Messi thrown – Paulo Dybala. Not in the literal sense, but very much contractually by announcing a deal with the 23-year-old Argentinean that keeps the forward at Juve to 2022. 

"I've always just wanted to succeed in everything that I do and I know that Juventus is the perfect place to be if you want to win things," said Dybala who has scored 16 goals for Juve this season, including the first two against Barcelona, the bearers of best team in Europe crown that Juve quite fancy for themselves  

2) Argentinean bigwig tells Leo Messi to lawyer-up 

Speaking of Argentineans and Leo Messi, the president of the country’s federation has denied that his trip to Europe is to try and lure Jorge Sampaoli from Sevilla – not surprising considering Claudio Tapia was threatened with legal action on Wednesday by the La Liga club. 

Instead, the trip is purely to persuade Messi to take lawyers with him to a FIFA meeting in May where the player can plead his case against a four-match suspension, currently hanging over the Barcelona forward. 

"It is very important he attends accompanied by the lawyers of the AFA to achieve a reduction of the penalty,” claimed Tapia who is not in Spain to see Sampaoli or Simeone at all. Oh no.  ​ 

3) Madrid boosted by another Bale-out

The news was already rosy for Real Madrid for next week’s rematch against Bayern Munich. Not only do the Spanish outfit hold a 2-1 lead going into the second-leg quarter-final clash but the team won’t have to carry Gareth Bale through another game, before substituting the Welshman midway through the second-half. 

That’s because Bale is currently lame in two different ways. A knock to a calf muscle sees the injury-prone powerhouse missing the weekend’s clash against Sporting and a huge doubt for next week’s Bayern battle.  Remember to tune into the XTRA on Thursday for all the latest news out of the Barcelona and Madrid camps. 7PM ET / 4PM PT every night. Set your DVRs!   

4) Mourinho covers two fronts in Champions League chase 

Sports Burst may well be getting ahead of itself a little with tittle-tattle over next week when the European action is not yet over for this week. The Europa League quarterfinals are upon us and Manchester United continues to be the headline act with a quarterfinal first leg clash against Belgian outfit, Anderlecht. 

And with United still in with a chance of making the top four in the Premier League and Champions League quarterfinal qualification – four points away with a game in hand -Mourinho is still in a tizz over which competition has the priority at this stage of the season. "We still have two open doors. If one day, one door closes, we have another open and we have to go with everything until the end,” said the cryptic Portuguese provoker. 

The good people of Canada have the choice of two fine Europa League clashes with Schalke taking on Ajax in a Germany v Netherlands clash and the last remaining Spanish side, Celta, facing Genk. Both get underway at 3:05PM ET / 12:05PM PT. Catch all the best goals from the game on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.   

5) Milan sale to Chinese investors sealed and delivered 

And very BREAKING NEWS from Milan. The on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off sale of the Italian super-club is now officially done and dusted. Or so it seems. After 31-years of ownership Silvio Berlusconi has sold the club to Chinese investors for around $786m. 

"The buyers have confirmed their commitment to make important recapitalization investments to the balance sheet and the financial strengthening of AC Milan,” said an official statement. Milan’s first game under new ownership just so happens to be the derby clash against Inter live on beIN SPORTS at 6:30AM ET / 3:30AM PT.    

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.