Ricardo Pereira made his long-awaited comeback in competitive senior football on Thursday evening in Leicester City’s Europa League match with Zorya in Ukraine.

The Seleção right-back had been out of action for 270 days since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in March, but Pereira played the first half before being replaced as the Foxes, who were already qualified from Group G, went down 1-0 at the Slavutych-Arena.

• Carlos Queiroz

Carlos Queiroz is no longer the coach of the Colombian national team, following an official announcement by the country’s football federation on Tuesday evening.

The Portuguese, who took charge of the South American side in February 2019, had been widely expected to lose his job after Colombia suffered a 3-0 home defeat to Uruguay before being hammered 6-1 by Ecuador during the latest round of CONMEBOL World Cup qualification.

A largely positive night for Portuguese in the Champions League began with Luís Castro leading Shakhtar to victory and a famous double over Real Madrid in Ukraine. Castro’s men now have qualification in their own hands in Group H after a 2-0 victory over the competition’s most successful club.

In the later matches, João Félix scored for Atletico Madrid in their 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich as Los Rojiblancos failed to get the win they needed to seal qualification ahead of the final matchday. In Group C, the battle for a Europa League place will go to the final day after André Villas-Boas and Marseille beat Pedro Martins’ Olympiacos 2-1 in France.

Francisco Trincão was the Barcelona player designated to attend the pre-match Champions League press conference this week, ahead of Los Cules’ meeting with Hungarians Ferencvaros on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old, who has seen his only two starts for the club come in the European competition, fielded the media’s enquiries with confidence, including a somewhat tedious question on the Messi-Ronaldo ‘debate’ as Trincão is a teammate of both players.