Real Madrid

Real Madrid’s hopes of winning the treble suffered a blow as Celta Vigo scored an improbable 2-1 victory in the Copa del Rey quarterfinal first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu. Real will now look to overturn the deficit on January 25 at the Balaidos in Galicia. 

Zinedine Zidane has seen his total number of losses as Real Madrid manager double in the space of three days, although that speaks more for his remarkable success at the helm than it does any sort of crisis in the Spanish capital.

According to reports from German weekly sports magazine Sport Bild, Bayern Munich midfielder and Spanish legend Xabi Alonso is planning to retire at the end of the season. Alonso, who still plays a key role for the Bavarian club in the center of the park, is said to have informed the club of his decision to hang up his boots at the conclusion of this season.

Three days after Real Madrid heroically set the Spanish unbeaten streak record by scoring at the death against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey, Sevilla returned the favor in La Liga action on Sunday.

Sevilla and Real Madrid drew 3-3 in their Copa del Rey round of 16 second leg match, extending Real’s unbeaten run to 40 games, and Los Blancos advanced to the quarterfinals, 6-3 on aggregate. Karim Benzema scored with the final touch of the match to continue Madrid's remarkable streak. 

Norwegian prodigy Martin Odegaard joined Real Madrid two years ago at the age of 16, and having failed so far to break into Madrid's first team, the 18-year-old midfielder is going on loan to Heerenveen in the Netherlands. 

After only two first-team appearances in two years, Odegaard will benefit from regular action against top division professionals.

The loan is reportedly for 18 months, and Odegaard will not be 20 years old yet at the end of it. There's room to grow here.

Odegaard joins a squad that sits fourth in the Eredivisie, in line for a Europa League place.

The FIFA FIFPro World XI, which doesn't matter but people pretend to care about anyway, was announced at the FIFA Awards Gala, which doesn't matter but people pretend to care about anyway, today.

It was, as it is every year, basically Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manuel Neuer.

Well, and Dani Alves, who played the first part of this year with Barcelona and the second part with Juventus. Here's the full squad:

Goalkeeper

Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/Germany)

Defenders

Dani Alves (Juventus/Brazil)

Real Madrid cruised to a 5-0 victory over Granada on Saturday, moving six points clear of Barcelona in the La Liga table. Goals from Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Casemiro and a brace from Isco condemned Granada to their tenth defeat of the season — they’re currently 19th in the table.

The Bernabeu crowd were treated to five goals within the hour, and Real Madrid made it 39 consecutive matches unbeaten, equalling the all time Spanish record.

The prematch festivities included a presentation of Cristiano Ronaldo’s fourth Ballon d’Or trophy. 

When you’re undefeated in 38 consecutive matches, the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rings particularly true. Unfortunately for James Rodriguez, he’s not a beneficiary of Real Madrid's continuity. The Colombian captain has been limited to four La Liga starts this season, and his minutes across all competitions amount to not even eight full matches.