by Tim Stannard

River Plate book another Copa Libertadores final date to face Flamengo or Gremio who face off on Wednesday night 

River Plate have hustled and bustled their way through to the Copa Libertadores final for a second year in a row. 

Now it's the turn of Brazil to find a challenger and put the Argentinean holders in their place.

It was all a little dicey and dramatic in the end for River in La Bombonera on Tuesday night with the visitors losing 1-0, however the two goal advantage from the first leg was enough in the Superclasico clash for River to go through.

Wednesday night sees Flamengo against Gremio in the second semifinal second leg. The 101 on this is that the tie is beautifully balanced at 1-1 with Flamengo going into the clash as favorites having been in imperious form this season, unbeaten in any competition since the beginning of August. 

Gremio have been considerably more erratic but have the firepower to prevail with the much-coveted Everton Soares as a threat up front.

Flamengo v Gremio is live, live, live on beIN SPORTS with the coverage getting underway at 8PM ET.  

Speaking of Clasico type things, it looks like the impasse between pretty much everyone in Spain has been resolved on when to play the postponed Barcelona v Real Madrid clash. 

Wednesday December 18th at 3PM ET looks set to be the date.

For the moment anyway. 

Liverpool looking for Champions League lift 

Tuesday's Champions League action ended up being a 'turn that frown, upside down' kind of day for a lot of clubs in need. 

Real Madrid ground out a 1-0 victory in Turkey against Galatasaray to stabilize the team's Champions League rowboat of destiny and see Jose Mourinho stepping back from sending through his resume to the Santiago Bernabeu. 

Atletico Madrid got back to their 1-0 winning ways with a home victory over Bayer Leverkusen. Tottenham released a megaton of pressure with a 5-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade, while Raheem Sterling scored a hattrick in 11 minutes to lead Manchester City to a 5-1 victory over Atalanta. 

PSG also racked up five with no reply at Club Brugge thanks to Kylian Mbappe getting back into his groove with a hattrick. 

The team most in need of a lift in Wednesday's action is probably Liverpool. The defending champions have lost to Napoli and hung on for dear life to beat Salzburg in the team's first two group games. A visit to Genk could be a tricky one for Jurgen Klopp. 

Barcelona's sketchy away form in the Champions League - just three wins in the past 11 games - may well continue against Slavia Prague. Especially if Lionel Messi stayed up half the night to watch Boca Juniors v River Plate as he promised. 

Wednesday sees a double edition of Sports Burst at 12PM ET and 5PM PT to preview and react to all the Champions League action. Head to our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page. 

Leonard lauds over LeBron in Clippers debut

Time to talk 'Merica for a little bit and the NBA season got underway on Tuesday night. Biggest winners were the Clippers who defeated the Lakers 112-102 in an all-Los Angeles affair. 

Kawhi Leonard won his duel over LeBron James on his Clippers debut with a points tally of 30 for his new team, having been booed by Lakers fans when giving a pregame message. "He talks with his game," noted Clipper coach, Doc Rivers. 

The defending champions, the Toronto Raptors, defeated the Zion-less New Orleans Pelicans 130-122. 

A bunch of games are taking place on Thursday including the Miami Heat which has the beIN SPORTS offices giddy in anticipation of a spectacular season to match that of the Dolphins in NFL. 

The baseball World Series got underway with a bad night for the Houston Astros at home against the Washington Nationals who game away with a 5-4 victory in the team's debut World Series game. 

The MLS playoffs have reached the conference semifinal stages and the first two games are out of the traps on Wednesday night. NYCFC will be hosting Toronto FC while Seattle takes on Real Salt Lake in a couple of winner takes all events. 

The real humdinger is on Thursday with El Trafico which pits LAFC against LA Galaxy in what could be King Zlatan's last MLS match.