After coming through part one of a huge week unscathed – albeit with Karim Benzema suffering an injury scare – Real Madrid now turn focus to a huge showdown with fierce rivals Barcelona at Camp Nou.
While the odds were massively stacked in Madrid s favour when protecting a 5-2 lead in their Champions League last-16 tie with Liverpool, going through 6-2 aggregate winners, the opposite is true in their LaLiga title battle with Barca.
Madrid have struggled for consistency domestically and are nine points adrift of the leaders with 12 rounds of games to play after this weekend. Put simply, it is win-or-bust for Los Blancos outside title hopes.
Carlo Ancelotti s side have a great recent record against their Clasico foes in the league but, regardless of Sunday s re…
Yeremy Pino and Borja Iglesias have been called up to Spain s squad for their upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Norway and Scotland.
Pedri and Gerard Moreno withdrew from the squad over the weekend due to injury.
Barcelona star Pedri missed Sunday s crucial Clasico win over Real Madrid after he failed to recover from a hamstring issue, and he will not feature in Luis de la Fuente s first games as Spain boss.
Moreno, meanwhile, suffered a muscular problem during Villarreal s 3-0 LaLiga win over Osasuna.
Winger Pino teed up Villarreal s final goal in that win, and the 20-year-old – who has netted three times in LaLiga this term and was included in Spain s World Cup squad – has been called in.
He is joined by Real Betis forward Iglesias, who …
Monaco have confirmed their interest in Lyon youngster Willem Geubbels and hit out at the 16-year-old s club for suggesting previous wrongdoing relating to the transfers of Rachid Ghezzal and Jordy Gaspar.
Geubbels is regarded as one of France s most talented young players and has reportedly attracted interest from some of Europe s biggest clubs during his time at Lyon.
His contract expires at the end of next season and Lyon revealed on Thursday they have been told he will seek to join another club instead of signing professional terms with them.
In their statement, Lyon highlighted the lengths they have gone to during Geubbels development, giving him personalised education, progressive introduction to the first-team squad and extremely important contract proposa…
Newcastle United have confirmed that winger Florian Thauvin has re-joined Marseille on a one-year loan deal, with an obligation to make the move permanent.
The 23-year-old left the Stade Velodrome for Newcastle in August 2015 for a fee believed to be in the region of £15million, signing a five-year deal at St James Park.
Thauvin failed to live up to that price tag, though, and returned to the Ligue 1 side on a temporary basis in January after just 16 competitive appearances for Newcastle.
He returned to Newcastle at the end of his loan spell and featured in four of their five pre-season friendlies, but will now ply his trade for Marseille again in France.
CONFIRMED: returns to
…
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez says Victor Moses may leave the club but only after his transfer value is met.
Chelsea have been consistently linked with a move for forward Moses throughout pre-season, however the Champions League winners have refused to budge on their nine million-pound offer, with Wigan believed to be holding out for 10.
Moses joined the Latics for an undisclosed fee in 2010 from Championship outfit Crystal Palace and Martinez says it is only a matter of time before the 21-year-old moves on to one of the English Premier League giants.
There s been a lot of talk and speculation about Victor Moses, he said.
For Victor it s been an exciting summer. I spoke with him and told him he should be very proud, as a footballer at 21, to get the i…
Werder Bremen have announced the permanent signing of Nils Petersen from Bayern Munich on a four-year contract.
The striker has spent the last year on loan at Werder, scoring 11 goals in his 35 appearances for the club as they survived relegation with one game of the Bundesliga season remaining.
His move to Werder proved a good one, as he ended the season as the club s joint top goalscorer with Aaron Hunt and impressed the hierarchy enough to want to sign him on a permanent basis.
We re delighted that Nils will be continuing to go for goal wearing the Werder crest over the coming years, sporting director Thomas Eichin told the club s official website. He s shown this season that he fits in perfectly here.
We know he s got tremendous potential and now, with this long…
Virgil van Dijk was not included in Liverpool s squad to face Monterrey due to illness, while Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino were named on the bench.
Liverpool travelled to Qatar with just two fit first-team centre-backs in Van Dijk and Joe Gomez, and with the former ruled out Jordan Henderson was selected to partner his fellow England international in defence for Wednesday s semi-final.
Jurgen Klopp picked Divock Origi to spearhead an attack that included Xherdan Shaqiri and Mohamed Salah, resting Mane and Firmino with an eye on a potential final against Flamengo on Sunday.
James Milner was selected to start at right-back for his 200th Liverpool appearance, meaning Trent Alexander-Arnold was on the bench with two goalkeepers Adrian and Andy Lonergan – Neco Wil…
Matthijs de Ligt hailed Bayern Munich for their unbelievable performance against Bochum but admitted he wants to be playing more for the team.
The Netherlands international started for the first time in Bayern s dominant 7-0 win on the road, opening his account for the club with Bayern s second goal.
Signed from Juventus, De Ligt came off the bench in the German Super Cup victory against RB Leipzig and in the opening Bundesliga game of the season, with early opportunities limited as he entered the weekend with just eight minutes of league football.
De Ligt got his chance on Sunday and capped off his display with a goal in Bayern s rout, before later making it clear he wants to be starting more games – though he acknowledged the fierce competition he faces.<…
Paris Saint-Germain cruised to a fifth Ligue 1 title in six years thanks to an astonishing 7-1 win over defending champions Monaco at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.
Leonardo Jardim s young team caused an upset in winning the title last term, but PSG responded with significant investment in the form of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and have been in charge for the majority of the campaign, ultimately regaining their crown in emphatic style with five games to spare.
A stunning six-minute spell in the first half put PSG in complete control as they scored three times through Giovani Lo Celso, Edinson Cavani and Angel Di Maria, before former got his second of the day and the team s 100th this season just before the half-hour mark.
Rony Lopes at least prevented PSG from cl…
The Egyptian King was rewarded for an already impressive season with the PFA Player of the Year crown this week, topping off an incredible year that could yet bring the biggest success for Mohamed Salah both on personal and club level.
From a Premier League reject in 2016 the 25-year-old Liverpool star went through a remarkable transformation in just a two-year’s time to climb the top of the chart in front of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Leroy Sane and David Silva – the Premier League winners with Manchester City.
The Egyptian international has developed into one of the world’s most prolific footballers with 49 goals in 43 appearances for club and country, 41 of which he raked in a Liverpool shirt across all the competitions he took part in – the Premier…