Lionel Messi could only sit by helplessly and watch as Barcelona suffered the most astonishing humiliation in its recent history.

While as an individual Messi, nursing his ailing hamstring on the sidelines, remains undisputedly the best on the planet, his team may no longer be able to make the same boast after Bayern Munich ripped them apart at the seams in the second leg of this Champions League semifinal.

Barcelona forward David Villa reacts during the Champions League semifinal. (AP)As if its 4-0 victory in the opening leg was not enough, Bayern followed it up on Wednesday by marching into Barca's famed Nou Camp stadium and drilling the hosts 3-0 on their own turf.

Even the absence of Messi could not be used as an excuse as the Spanish side, so well-drilled and tireless and dominant in recent years, were simply outplayed in all facets of the game.

Embarrassment does not even begin to describe the feeling in this proud Catalan city, one which has become so accustomed to seeing its pride and joy conquer all.

If soccer is a religion in Barcelona, this was its

Justin Fashanu, shown here in a portrait from 1981. (Getty Images)Fifteen years before Jason Collins took his ground breaking steps out of the closet and into American sports history, a 37-year-old man named Justin Fashanu walked into a London storage unit and took his own life.

Fashanu, an English professional soccer player, was the Collins of his time, having revealed his homosexuality midway through a career that flirted with stardom and ended in tragedy.

But Fashanu's time wasn't ready for him. Neither England, nor the 1990s, nor soccer, were prepared to embrace an openly gay athlete, setting into motion a spiral of self-destruction that ended in a premature death.

While Collins has rightly been lauded for his bravery after his revelation earlier this week, Fashanu's sexuality made him a target in a sport that still does a shockingly poor job at tolerance. His own coaches spat homophobic epithets in his direction. His teammates made crude and insulting attempts at humor. Opposition fans concocted vile songs and chants. Even his own brother spoke out

Despite spending two months in prison for punching former long-term partner Josie Harris, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has wasted no opportunity to deny and downplay the events of Sept. 9, 2010. In fact, boxing's biggest draw tells a very different version of what happened on the night that ultimately led to his incarceration last summer.

Harris has refused to detail the attack until now, choosing instead to relocate with the three children she shares with Mayweather to Valencia, Calif.

Josie Harris and Floyd Mayweather have three kids together. (Courtesy of Josie Harris)However, after a scene in Showtime's "30 Days In May" – an hour-long documentary used to promote Mayweather's May 4 bout against Robert Guerrero – attempted to rationalize Mayweather's domestic violence conviction, Harris decided to speak out.

In an exclusive interview at her home with Yahoo! Sports, Harris first sought to answer the messages put forward by the documentary:

That she, and her children, had lied.

That Mayweather's incarceration was wrong.

And that the beating was either falsified, embellished,

Flowers are left on Boylston Street after two explosions hit the Boston Marathon. (REUTERS)The running community considers itself a global family, and less than a week after the mindless tragedy that ripped through the Boston streets and sent shock waves around the world, it will put its shoes on and hit the road once more.

Sunday's London Marathon will go ahead as usual, but not exactly as planned. In the hours that followed one of Boston's bleakest days, a series of tributes, symbols and gestures were put together, all aimed at sending a message of solidarity across the Atlantic.

Race organizers swiftly arranged for three separate moments of silence, while every runner will wear a black ribbon of commemoration. There are other tokens of togetherness, too, ones that stem from a basic human desire for compassion.

Like from Colby Hanks, a Texan now running a personal well-being business in London, who will offer a silent prayer as she stands at the start.

Or from Olympic champion Mo Farah, expected to wear a special patch on his running vest. Or from Prince Harry,

(Getty Images)If any further proof was needed that runners possess an endearing streak of quirky madness, the Scottsdale Beat The Heat race this summer may just provide it.

Billed as the hottest sporting event on the planet, the inaugural race is being deliberately staged at the warmest time of year and during the most oppressive part of the day, all to maximize the discomfort and enhance the challenge of those either courageous or deranged enough to sign up.

Temperatures in the fashionable Arizona city are expected to tip the thermometer at upwards of 110 Fahrenheit on June 22, with participants set to complete a seven-mile course beginning at 2:47 p.m., the specific time when the heat is predicted to be at its fiercest.

"Whether someone has gone bungee jumping, ran an Ironman or run with the bulls, this is something they won't have experienced before," said race inventor Jason Rose, a Scottsdale PR executive. "This is about us choosing to celebrate the heat, not retreat from it."

The

The Cinderella story of the soccer season ended in a most heartbreaking fashion on Tuesday, as Spanish underdog Malaga was cruelly denied a place in the Champions League semifinals by an astonishing comeback from Borussia Dortmund.

Malaga, beset by financial crisis and in its first-ever season in Europe's top competition, was just seconds away from clinching an unexpected place in the last four when it led Dortmund 2-1 in the dying moments of the second leg of the home-and-home quarterfinal.

Sergio Sanchez of Malaga after defeat in the Champions League quarterfinal. (Getty Images)On the heels of a scoreless first leg in Malaga, nothing short of two Dortmund goals would have been enough to deny the underdogs, yet that was exactly what happened, with the Germans, who had hit the net just once in the previous 180 minutes of action between the teams, striking twice within the space of 60 seconds.

By the time Marco Reus and then Felipe Santana completed Dortmund's miracle recovery, regulation time had already expired and the additional four minutes allowed for injuries

(AP)A South American soccer club has made history by unfurling a giant banner that completely covered three-quarters of its stadium.

Fans of Nacional, based in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, spent nearly two years preparing the enormous banner that took hundreds of people to carry it into the Estadio Centenario arena ahead of a game on Thursday.

Fans of Uruguay's Nacional unfurl a gigantic flag before the start of a Copa Libertadores soccer match. (AP)The banner – spanning 1,800 feet by 150 feet – was created in Nacional's red, white and blue colors, complete with a team crest and a series of slogans. It was primarily made with fan volunteers, with the club providing some financial assistance and backing the project.

Each of the 5,400 fans who assisted in the production had their named etched into the material, along with the names of the club founders.

Preparation for the unfurling began several hours before the match against Mexican side Toluca in the Copa Libertadores tournament, which Nacional went on to win 4-0.

"It was extraordinary," said Jimmy Lianis, an Australian