Spain

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. 

Ray Hudson wasn't on this game for BeIN Sports, but he should have been, because WOW.

Sadly, this game probably won't count for anything because the second leg is at the Camp Nou and Barcelona are Barcelona. But it was fun, so it should be appreciated.

Athletic Bilbao opened the scoring, to the surprise of everyone.

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.

Just when you thought Valencia’s situation couldn’t get any worse, another manager leaves the club. Last Thursday, Cesare Prandelli surprised the Valencia board and fan base by resigning just three months after taking over the team. 

Samuel Umtiti has only played half a season for Barcelona, so it's a shame he has to retire now.

Look at what Lionel Messi did to hin in training.

Never mind the double nutmeg at the end. The double nutmeg was cool, but not as cool as Messi causing a grown man, one of the best defenders in the world, to flop around like a fish out of water.

First grade is a time of personal discovery. At six years of age, it's a time when children learn simple things like raising their hands, not interrupting the speaker and respecting the feelings of others. It’s a time of collaboration, sharing and complex learning in different subject areas.

Unless your Cristiano Ronaldo Jr, whose elementary experience is, according to his father, like braving the comment section of any soccer website — the one place where you'll never find co-operation, manners and mutual respect.

The Barcelona and Real Madrid attacking trios of MSN and BBC took to Instagram to show us how they celebrated the New Year. From all of us at The18, we wish you nothing but the best for 2017!

Barcelona's MSN

Lionel Messi

The exorbitant fees that the Chinese Super League has been willing to pay to land the world’s best look like peanuts compared to what one unnamed CSL club was willing to pay Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo to bring the Ballon d’Or winner to East Asia.

Warning: the following article contains screenshots of tweets that should not be viewed by children or anyone who might be near a child in the future.

Also: Tweets are NSFW

Samir Nasri's Twitter, um, did a thing. Meet me on the other side of these screencaps.

Samir Nasri and Drip Doctors: a true love story pic.twitter.com/LvEr7AFfQm