Karim Benzema's Houdini Act All But Destroys Atlético Madrid's Comeback Dreams

Atlético Madrid had a mountain to climb in order to get back into their Champions League semifinal tie against Real Madrid after losing the first leg 3-0, and it looked for a minute that they just might do it. Atleti jumped out to a 2-0 lead just 16 minutes into the match, needing just one more goal to at least force…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Cristiano Ronaldo Gutted Atlético Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo has a penchant for doing only two or three things in any given game, but those two or three things usually end up being the most important things. That’s exactly what happened today, when Ronaldo scored a hat trick today against Atlético Madrid. His second was the prettiest, when he stared down an…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

May The Soccer Gods Bless Atlético Madrid, Who Deserve To Win The Champions League

O ye mighty Soccer Gods, how blessed are we, the fans of the sport you so nobly watch over! You’ve given us over a decade of The One, your favorite son, the one and only Lionel Messi, and we have praised you for it! In recent times, you saw fit to grant us arguably the greatest team feat of all time, guiding poor,…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Report: Text Messages Show Cristiano Ronaldo Knew About Settlement For Rape Allegation

A couple weeks ago, German paper Der Spiegel released a report that claimed Cristiano Ronaldo had settled out of court with an American woman who alleged he raped her in 2009. Ronaldo’s camp issued a strong denunciation of the report, calling it “journalistic fiction” and denying any ties between the settlement…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Lionel Messi Turned A Meaningless Clásico Into One For The Ages

Barcelona probably won’t win anything significant this season. They remain underdogs for the league title, were ousted from the Champions League by Juventus after surviving the Paris Saint-Germain tie by the skin of their teeth, and can only really count on a Copa del Rey consolation prize to cap off what has been an…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Madrid Derby Is The Highlight Of The Champions League Semifinal Draw

Another Madrid Derby in the Champions League had to happen sooner or later. And after two UCL finals in three years between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, it’s a nice change of pace to see the city rivals clash in the semifinal this time. Here’s the semifinal draw in it’s entirety:

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Referee Blunders Spur On Real Madrid's Murdalization Of Bayern Munich

Real Madrid scored three goals in about 10 rampaging minutes of extra time against 10-man Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals to win 4-2, and advance to the semifinals, 6-3 on aggregate. And while Bayern blew it and Real made the plays they needed to win it, it’s hard not to come away from the match…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Report: Cristiano Ronaldo Paid $375K To Woman Who Claimed He Raped Her

German news magazine Der Spiegel released a report yesterday saying that Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo reached a $375,000 settlement in 2010 with a woman who alleged he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel. Gestifute, the sports agency that represents Ronaldo, later released a statement calling the report “journalistic…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Sergio Ramos Orchestrates Nearly Perfect Set Piece With Just A Few Nods Of His Head

We’ve previously extolled the virtues of Real Madrid’s header-scoring genius, Sergio Ramos, and our appreciation for this set piece savant has only grown after seeing the following video. Watching Ramos’s mind work in realtime—as he interprets the situation, visualizes the best outcome, then effectuates his plan by…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Cristiano Ronaldo Is Old And Slow And Still The Best

Because of the enduring nature of athletic greatness, it’s often difficult to notice in real time the inevitable fall as the best players slip from amazing to very good to eventually old and bad. The greatest players are great for so long, then begin to peter off so subtlety before the inexorable effects of age eat…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Man, Cristiano Ronaldo Really Blew This One

Okay, okay, this isn’t quite a gimme goal here that Cristiano Ronaldo just missed. The angle was tough, and he had a lot to focus on with the keeper and defender right on top of him. Still, it was an open net, it would’ve been a hugely important goal in this second leg of Real Madrid’s Champions League tie against…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Mesut Özil Recounts Ridiculously Dramatic Tiff With José Mourinho In New Book

If you hear about this anecdote from Mesut Özil’s forthcoming autobiography excerpted in Bild, it will probably focus on the fact that when Özil and José Mourinho were at Real Madrid, they once got into an argument in which Mourinho called Özil a coward. This is true, and pretty interesting in itself, but the full…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Sevilla End Real Madrid's 40 Game Unbeaten Run With Two Late Goals

Real Madrid hadn’t lost since an April Champions League match against Wolfsburg, winning or drawing 40 games in a row to set the record for longest unbeaten streak in Spanish soccer history. But that ended at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in Seville this evening, as Sevilla stormed back from a 1-0 deficit to…

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico

Real Madrid's Transfer Ban Reduced To One Window

Real Madrid’s appeal of a FIFA-imposed two-window transfer ban for violations in the signing of foreign youth players has been successful, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport today reduced that initial penalty to a single window, citing errors in FIFA’s investigation as justification for why they reduced the sanction.

Read more…

Powered by WPeMatico