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The only thing which will be quivering more than the woodwork at the Bernabeu will be Jose Mourinho with indignation. For a bad loser at the best of times, this defeat, Real Madrid's first to Atletico Madrid in 14 years, means that if he leaves th...

It has been about a century, perhaps two, since Atletico beat Real Madrid; the Copa del Rey final is in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium; and the bookmakers don't give a fig for Los Colchoneros' chances of victory Friday evening -- but it was Jose Mouri...

Just a few short months ago I was standing a few hundred metres away from where Levante plays: the Ciutat de Valencia stadium. Juan Francisco Garcia -- or Juanfran, to use his working name -- was showing me the three-minute sprint he used to have ...

The past few weeks have been full of Barcelona's players and staff emphasising that any feeling that the title victory isn't all that impressive, that it doesn't need to be properly celebrated or appreciated is false. They have taken turns, Andres...

As evidenced by Sir Alex Ferguson's fascinating decision, this is the time of year when football's men and women turn their minds to change, challenge, personal ambitions and tough decisions. We always want this column to be all-embracing -- welc...

Given that they've won this competition four times, played in 13 semifinals and been finalists seven times, it's remarkable that Barcelona's home record in the semifinal of the Champions League/European Cup is absolutely atrocious. In fact, they h...

This is one of those matches that, in football terms, raises a question just as interesting and as hard to resolve as the nature-versus-nurture debate. How on Earth can it be possible for history to influence what happens this week? In other words...

So it isn't just the initials FCB that Barca and Bayern share. On this evidence, the Bavarians have broken into not only the Camp Nou but La Masia and extracted Barca DNA, pinched the blueprint documents and, just for good measure, handed these c...

One of the beauties of the Champions League semifinal draw is that the pairings of Bayern Munich with Barcelona and Real Madrid with Borussia Dortmund are going to stoke the brewing battle for complete domination of European football -- the battle be...

Messi's fitness. Alexis or Fabregas. Bartra, Song, Adriano, Busquets with Pique at the back. The opinions, the headlines, the choices will all flood at you until the teams are announced at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening. What state is Messi's t...

For those who write or broadcast about football for a living, it's extremely tempting to evoke the romanticism, the heroic both in previewing and reviewing tantalising matches. It's obviously important to do so, too. Most of us accept football is ...

Fortunately for Jose Mourinho -- and vicariously for Diego Lopez -- the Iker Casillas situation at Real Madrid remains clear cut now that he's about to be fit enough for duty again. Mourinho and Casillas have had an increasingly antagonistic relat...

As the teams line up at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night the president, directors and technical staff of FC Barcelona could be forgiven for casting moist-eyed, "What might have been" looks in the direction of Paris Saint-Germain's Thiago Silva. ...

In retrospect, Spain's draw with Finland on Friday -- and the hot, harsh sting of wounded pride Vicente del Bosque's men felt -- was absolutely the worst thing possible that could have happened to France. History isn't on Spain's side when it com...

Not if their test of fire were in Rio, Buenos Aires, Dortmund, Lisbon, Wembley or even Milan could Spain have a less appetizing place to play what looks like an all-or-bust fixture than in Paris on Tuesday night. There have been only eight competitiv...

Make no mistake about it, Spain's six-year status as the uncontested world No. 1 international side is about to be attacked with all weapons and -- hopefully for the contenders -- battered into submission over the next 15 months, starting this week. ...