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The league championship, while not quite sown up yet, is slowly wending its way to the trophy cabinet in the Bernabéu museum. Real Madrid took full advantage of Barcelona’s late draw in Sevilla on Saturday night to stretch their lead to an impressive eight points. For the seven goals, these are seven keys to last […]
Analysing Real’s defeat to Almería on Saturday, Phil Ball makes an interesting statement about why Mahamadou Diarra may not have a long and illustrious career at the Bernabéu. He draws a parallel with Claude Makélélé, a player who performed a very similar role, but was unloved by the Madrid faithful because of his lack of […]
Schuster called Real’s 2-0 defeat at Almería, the first after 8 straight league wins, “the best time to lose“. Following days and weeks of triumphalist reporting by some sectors of the Spanish sports press (you know who they are), with the championship “in the bag” according to some, it is perhaps a welcome return to […]
In the latest twist to the problems afflicting Real Madrid central defenders Metzelder has suffered a relapse of the plantar fasciitis he had nearly recovered from. All told, he’s been unavailable for selection through injury or lack of fitness for most of the season, featuring in only 7 of 21 league games so far, and […]
Antonio Cassano, that troubled yet talented footballer, has found a new lease of life at Serie A outfit Sampdoria, exceeding all expectations to become a key component of a side battling for a Champions League spot. His goal against lowly Siena on Saturday put Sampdoria 6 points behind the 4th placed team in the Italian […]
Real Madrid showed a refreshing lack of complacency and bags of self belief to beat Villareal and extend their lead at the top of the standings to 9 points. Contrast this with their closest rivals, Barcelona, who failed to hold onto their one-goal lead in Bilbao and ended up dropping two points. All the participants […]
A recent article in El País sheds a little light into the kind of coach Bernd Schuster is at Real Madrid. Since joining the club last July his public statements to the press have been characterised by his heavy use of irony and off-the-cuff pronouncements. He is often misinterpreted by the press, probably intentionally, but […]
The press had been building up this game as the most exciting Madrid derby in years. Atlético finally were playing like a team that deserves to be in the Champions League spots and Real, though in front by a considerable margin, had just been knocked out of the Copa del Rey and their win at […]
The man they call Van Gol has tied his fortunes to Real Madrid until 2010, the club announced earlier today. His contract was due to expire at the end of the current season, although it included a clause extending it for one further year if he made 35 appearances for Real Madrid. He left his […]
…and Zaragoza did not score on the rebound. Casillas spared his side from a potentially embarrassing defeat by saving at least 10 shots on goal by Zaragoza. His providential reflexes (and the woodwork) kept Real in the game long enough to enable the clinical finishing of first Van Nistelrooy and second Robinho, to put paid […]