Real Madrid

Everyone thought Tuesday's Champions League match between Wolfsburg and Real Madrid was exciting: fans, journalists, players, etc. One man, though, stood above the rest in freaking out about the sheer excitement of Madrid's 3-0 victory that erased a 2-0 aggregate deficit and earned them a place in the semifinals: Zinedine Zidane.

Yes, that Zidane. The same Zidane that won everything there is to win in soccer. The same Zidane who could do things with a soccer ball we hadn't seen before and haven't seen since.

Sometimes we forget just how good Cristiano Ronaldo is. For example, after Wolfsburg's 2-0 win against Real Madrid last week in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, we forgot how good Cristiano is. 

Just how good is he?

While James Rodriguez has been struggling to assert himself into Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane’s preferred starting eleven, there’s no doubting the quality of the Colombian midfielder. His penchant for spectacular goals has left many viewers wondering just how good the talented attacker could ultimately be. 

Well that didn’t last very long. 

Real Madrid were supposed to have turned their season around after winning el Clasico, or at least, that’s what they would have hoped. Hopes, it seems, don’t count for much in the Champions League. 

Real Madrid lost to VfB Wolfsburg 2-0, and it was exactly the kind of frustrating loss that Real Madrid needed least. They looked lost on defense, something made all the more apparent by Wolfsburg’s counterattacks.

It’s been over eight years since David Beckham last sported the white of Real Madrid. You can forget a lot in the space of nearly a decade. Couple that time with Beckham’s constant appearances in advertisements, ambassador projects and tabloids, and it’s easy to forget that the man was one hell of a footballer back in the day.

Imagine you are a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo, and you are sitting behind a goal at which he is about to shoot a penalty. Because you are a fan, you know that penalties are his jam, there is arguably no better penalty taker in the world. So a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty should be as sure a bet as there is to see your hero succeed; you are almost guaranteed to get the classic Ronaldo jump-spin celebration. You are probably stoked. 

And then, in the case of this fan, you are really not. In this case, you get hit in the face by that Cristiano Ronaldo penalty.

Having one of the worst seasons in his young career, Eden Hazard could be looking to trade that deep blue kit for an all-white kit in the Spanish capital. Before this season, Hazard was one of the top young talents in all of Europe, especially the summer of his big move to Chelsea.  

Racking up 49 goals in 162 games as well as a few trophies his first couple of seasons, Hazard was the new face of Chelsea FC. Unfortunately, a poor season for Hazard has taken all that from the young Belgian.

Karim Benzema has 20 goals for Real Madrid so far this season, but that's not what everyone has been talking about in regards to the French striker.

Instead, Benzema has mostly been in the news for various run-ins witht the law and various appearances in various courtrooms.

We thought everything was on its way to settling itself, but we were wrong. Benzema finds himself banned from the French National Team until his legal troubles sort themselves out, putting his Euro 2016 in doubt.