After putting three past tournament dark horse Napoli on Wednesday, Real Madrid quickly turned around and showed just how frightening a prospect they are this season by defeating Espanyol 2-0.
The gap on Barcelona is four points, and Real maintain a game in hand. Cristiano Ronaldo, having just celebrated his 32nd birthday, remains a wizard on the wing. And they said he couldn't dribble anymore.
Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t make the headlines following Real Madrid’s 3-1 victory against Napoli Wednesday, those all belonged to Casemiro after his stunning, vital volley, but it was a vintage performance from Real’s No. 7. Whether cropping up on the left or right side of attack, Ronaldo was a constant threat to Napoli’s fullbacks, and his assist to Toni Kroos for Real’s second was sensational.
A match between Serie A’s leading scorers, Napoli, and the side with the second-highest total in La Liga, Real Madrid, was always likely to contain fireworks. Wednesday’s first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu didn’t disappoint.
Napoli tried to play their attacking game against the Champions League holders, but Real Madrid were simply a class above Napoli with Diego Maradona watching on.
Napoli have played adventurously at the Santiago Bernabeu, but Real Madrid have shown why they’re the defending champions of this competition by extending their lead to 3-1 thanks to a wonder goal from Casemiro.
The defensive midfielder smashed this effort in the 54th minute to give Real a commanding advantage in the Spanish capital.
It’s not often you see an attempt like this when a goalkeeper is off his line. Our first instinct was to blame Keylor Navas for Lorenzo Insigne’s eighth-minute opener for Napoli in their round of 16 match with Real Madrid, but this is a sensationally instinctive finish from Insigne.
Rather than attempt to chip the goalkeeper, Insigne sends a low, curling shot beyond a scrambling Navas and into the side-netting. Karim Benzema has since equalized for Real Madrid as we approach halftime.
Barcelona and Alaves will face off in the 2017 Copa del Rey Final on May 27th at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid. Although the venue has already been selected, it’s incredible to think that a country that has been dominating European football in recent years can’t even set a location beforehand to play their domestic cup final.
This time around, the decision was made much quicker as Atletico Madrid had already offered to host the final months in advance, but the selection process in years past would sometimes take almost a month to determine a venue.
A lot can change in a few months. The gap between the draw for the Champions League round of 16 and the matches themselves can be vast. Even in countries where a winter break (or the lack thereof) is not just an annual excuse for under-pressure managers, the sides which face off in February can be entirely different from those which were first drawn out of the pots. Now, after a relatively normal week in Serie A, what should we expect from the Italian teams still in Europe’s premier cup competition?
On Sunday, the game that was supposed to see Celta Vigo take on Real Madrid the Estadio de Balaidos was postponed because of stadium concerns. Extreme weather on the Friday before the game had caused some damage to Celta’s home stadium and after a report presented by Vigo’s city council, Balaidos was not deemed safe for the game to go on.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the foundation launched by the International Olympic Committee to combat performance-enhancing drugs in sports, has spoken out against Spanish football over its “alarming” lack of drug testing.
Elite goalkeepers have to be extremely accurate with their punts. You can't just lump it down the field and hope your team comes up with the ball if you play for one of the best clubs in the world.
Inaccuracy is not a concern for Real Madrid goalie Keylor Navas, who knocked the phone out of an unsuspecting BBC producer's hands at a recent training session. Better yet, the producer was recording video at the time, so we get to watch this: