Real Madrid

Sergio Ramos has been at Real Madrid for a long, long time. He has seen enough of the crowd at the Bernabeu to know what’s good from bad, and his latest quotes defending Cristiano Ronaldo speak to that. Ronaldo was booed by his own fans on Tuesday despite scoring the opening goal against AS Roma. Sergio Ramos tells Real Madrid fans to be more supportive, but he understands where they are coming from (H/T Bleacher Report).

Leg 2 of the Champions League Round of 16 resumed today with AS Roma needing a big win in Madrid, while KAA Gent only trailed by 1 on aggregate. For Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez scored in the 64th and 68th minutes, respectively. The match would end up at 2 - 0 with Real Madrid advancing on 4 - 0 aggregate. Andres Schurrle's goal for Wolfsburg was a dagger in the hearts of KAA Gent supporters. Schurrle's 75th minute goal put Wolfsburg up 1 - 0. They would advance on aggregate, 4 - 2. 

Zinedine Zidane showed an impressive ability to manage Real Madrid’s notoriously fickle fan base during a press conference on Monday.

Real Madrid absolutely demolished Celta Vigo on Saturday. Cristiano Ronaldo scored four goals as Real cruised to a comfortable 7-1 victory. Celta Vigo visited the Santiago Bernabeu near the top of the La Liga table, in sixth place and trailing Villarreal by 11 points in the race for a coveted Champions League spot.

If James Rodriguez is a Golden Boy, then he plays like one as well. We have all heard of a Golden Boy, or Golden Girl, who always did or said the right thing, and more so than that, always did the exceptional thing exceptionally well.

Looking through the honors of James’ on-field career, we see that same ability. He has been voted young player of the year in Argentina, player of the year in France, won the golden boot at the World Cup, and scored FIFA’s goal of the year.

This past week Cristiano Ronaldo scored yet another goal in the Champions League. It was his 12th goal in seven such games this year, and his 89th goal in the competition all time — effectively breaking and extending his own Champions League goal-scoring record. 

In an interview with BT Sport, Rafa Benitez opened up about the complications of working under the high-pressure conditions at Real Madrid. Benitez was sacked after just seven months in charge of Los Blancos, despite losing just three times while at the helm. 

"You have to do everything perfect," Benitez told Gary Lineker. "As soon as something is wrong, or the chairman thinks something is wrong, then you start having problems." 

The Champions League Round of 16 continued today with a number of goals between the two matches. AS Roma hosted Real Madrid at Stadio Olimpico, while VFL Wolfsburg traveled to KAA Gent. 

Cristiano Ronaldo and co. defeated AS Roma 2-0 with CR7 opening the scoring in the 57th minute with a beautiful curling effort into the top left of the box. Subsititute Jesé came on for James Rodgriuez in the 82nd minute and, four minutes later, scored another crucial away goal for Los Blancos.

Cristiano Ronaldo has not scored a goal away from Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in over two months. His last goal in a road game was on November 29, 2015, when he scored the final goal in a Real Madrid 2-0 against Eibar in Ipurua.

Coincidentally, that was also Los Blancos' last win as a visitor until two weeks ago, when, thanks to a Luka Modric goal, Real Madrid got a 2-1 win at Granada.