Dortmund: Manchester United's Premier League title win came as no surprise to Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, who praised coach Alex Ferguson on Tuesday and said winning was his life. Mourinho, who challenged United's domestic dominance while at Chelsea between 2004-2007, was speaking Real's their Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund. Real eliminated United in the last 16. "What he did is what he has been doing all his life,...
09:55 PM, Apr 23, 2013
Barcelona: Radamel Falcao scored his 25th goal of the Spanish league season to give Atletico Madrid a hard-fought 1-0 win at Sevilla and keep his team in the hunt for a second-place finish on Sunday. Also, Real Sociedad extended their unbeaten run to 14 straight games by drawing 0-0 at Osasuna, while Espanyol beat nine-man Getafe 2-0 for their third straight away victory. After 76 minutes featuring more hard fouls...
08:57 AM, Apr 22, 2013
Barcelona: Espanyol beat nine-man Getafe 2-0 for their third straight away victory in the Spanish league on Sunday. Joan Verdu finished off a well-orchestrated passing combination by his team culminating in Sergio Garcia's chested assist for the midfielder to volley home in the 37th minute. Getafe was decimated by Borja Fernandez's second yellow card in the 52nd and Federico Fernandez's red card in the 72nd for a low tackle on...
10:48 PM, Apr 21, 2013
Barcelona: Cesc Fabregas scored late to give Barcelona a hard-fought 1-0 win over Levante, while Real Madrid beat Real Betis 3-1 on Saturday as both Spanish powerhouses prepared for the Champions League semi-finals. With top-scorer Lionel Messi out trying to heal his right hamstring in time for Tuesday's first leg at Bayern Munich, Barcelona's attack lacked the pace and creativity to break through Levante's disciplined defense until Fabregas struck six...
01:45 AM, Apr 21, 2013
Madrid: Mesut Oezil scored twice in Real Madrid's 3-1 win over Real Betis on Saturday as the Spanish side warmed up for their Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund. Oezil worked a clever one-two passing combination with Karim Benzema to net Madrid's opener in the 45th minute, before the France striker polished off a counterattack in the 57th from a pass by Cristiano Ronaldo. Oezil struck again in stoppage time...
12:21 AM, Apr 21, 2013
Madrid: Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho refrained from committing to remaining at the club beyond the end of this season on Friday and said a decision on his future would be taken at the end of the current campaign. Speculation about the Portuguese's possible exit has been a near-constant feature of his stint at Real, whom he joined from Inter Milan in 2010, and he has been linked with a...
06:08 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Madrid: FC Barcelona defender Eric Abidal explained that he is still unsure about his future at the football club. The French international returned to action in Barcelona's 5-0 home win over Mallorca a fortnight ago and 402 days after undergoing a liver transplant as he had been diagnosed with a liver tumour in 2011, reports Xinhua. He did not play in Barcelona's Champions League game against Paris Saint Germain (PSG)...
05:46 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Barcelona: Barcelona and Real Madrid both play at home on Saturday in the Spanish league looking to make their final adjustments while resting some weary legs for the Champions League semifinals set to start next week against a pair of German rivals. Barcelona host a struggling Levante side with Lionel Messi doubtful to play as he tries to fully recover from a right hamstring pull in time for the Catalan...
08:20 AM, Apr 19, 2013
Madrid: FC Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has made a passionate defence of his side's passing style of football as they prepare for the run-in to the end of the season. Barcelona are almost assured of winning Spain's BBVA Primera Liga thanks to an impressive 13-point lead over Real Madrid, but face a tough task in the Champions League, where they will meet last season's defeated finalists Bayern Munich in what...
01:41 PM, Apr 18, 2013
Barcelona: Spanish giants Barcelona will play a friendly against a Malaysian XI at the 100,000 capacity Bukit Jalil Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, organisers said on Thursday. Barcelona managing director Antoni Rossich announced the August 10 fixture alongside Asian Football Confederation vice president Prince Abdullah Ibni Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah in the Malaysian capital. It will be the four-times European champions' first fixture in Malaysia, where they will face a side...
01:13 PM, Apr 18, 2013
Nine-time European champion Real Madrid have ended Manchester United's run as the world's most valuable soccer team, according to an annual survey released by Forbes on Wednesday. The value of Real, a Spanish club owned by its thousands of members, surged 76 percent to $3.3 billion from a year ago, Forbes said in a statement. (www.forbes.com/soccer) United, who have won the English title a record 19 times and are controlled...
10:40 PM, Apr 17, 2013
Madrid: A late goal by Giovani Dos Santos gave Mallorca a 1-0 win over fellow relegation struggler Celta Vigo in the Spanish league on Monday. Dos Santos netted from a rebound in the third minute of injury time after Mallorca midfielder Tomas Pina sent a cross toward the far post and goalkeeper Javier Varas saved a header from striker Tomer Hamed. The win lifts Mallorca above Celta into 19th place...
09:22 AM, Apr 16, 2013
Barcelona: Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 49th and 50th goals in all competitions this season as Real Madrid won 3-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, while Barcelona didn't need Lionel Messi to brush aside Real Zaragoza 3-0 and ease closer to the Spanish league title. Ronaldo opened with a dipping free kick two minutes in and scored again in the 69th, before passing for Gonzalo Higuain to net a third in...
08:33 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Barcelona: Barcelona eased one step closer to the Spanish league title by winning 3-0 at Real Zaragoza on Sunday, as forward Cristian Tello filled in for the absent Lionel Messi with a brace. Thiago Alcantara put Barcelona ahead 20 minutes in and set up Tello to double the advantage in the 39th. The 21-year-old Tello then added another in the 53rd with a brilliant individual effort. Barcelona increased their lead...
01:11 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Barcelona: Deportivo La Coruna rolled to a 4-0 victory at Levante to provisionally escape the Spanish league's relegation zone for the first time in 18 weeks after their fourth consecutive win on Saturday. Also, Malaga forward Julio Baptista struck in injury time to grab a 1-0 win over visiting Osasuna four days after the Costa del Sol side was eliminated from the Champions League quarter-finals. Sergio Garcia's last-gasp equalizer secured...
10:25 AM, Apr 14, 2013
Seville: Striker Alvaro Negredo scored twice on Monday to give Sevilla a 2-1 win over Athletic Bilbao in a physical Spanish league match in which both teams had a man sent off. With the game heading for a draw, Negredo surged forward to tap in Jose Antonio Reyes' cross between last defender and the goalkeeper to grab the win three minutes from time. The game at Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium had...
04:57 AM, Apr 09, 2013
Madrid: Nine-man Atletico Madrid sputtered to a 0-0 draw at Getafe Sunday in the Spanish league, as Diego Simeone's team fell further adrift of Real Madrid in their fight for a second-place finish. Atletico have only one win in their last five games and failed to match Madrid's victory from Saturday to fall four points behind the defending champions. Barcelona are cruising to the title 13 points clear. "The league...
09:47 AM, Apr 08, 2013
Madrid: If Saturday's La Liga match at home to Real Mallorca was a test to see if Barcelona could cope without Lionel Messi, they passed it with flying colours. The World Player of the Year was ruled out with a damaged hamstring, the first league game he has missed through injury since the 2010-11 season, but Barca made light of his absence with a crushing 5-0 victory that maintained their...
02:28 PM, Apr 07, 2013
Barcelona: Cesc Fabregas scored his first hat-trick to shine in place of the injured Lionel Messi, powering Barcelona to a 5-0 thrashing of Mallorca in La Liga on Saturday. The Catalan club's festive night got even better in the 70th minute when Eric Abidal went on for his first game with Barcelona since a liver transplant last year. "Tonight is for Abi," said Fabregas. "Any other night would have been...
03:42 AM, Apr 07, 2013
Barcelona: Cristiano Ronaldo went on as a substitute to seal Real Madrid's 5-1 win over Levante as they maintained their dominant form on Saturday ahead of their Champions League quarter-final at Galatasaray. Madrid reduced Barcelona's lead in the Spanish league to 10 points before the Catalan side hosted Mallorca later. Gonzalo Higuain's exquisite volley pulled Madrid level in the 36th minute after Miguel "Michel" Alfonso grabbed the visitors the lead...
11:47 PM, Apr 06, 2013
