The Catalan club is also close to reaching a deal to sign Sporting Lisbon's highly rated young winger Ricardo Quaresma.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said there was nothing wrong with talisman Cristiano Ronaldo as the Portuguese marked his longest run without scoring at the Santiago Bernabeu with a near anonymous display in a 3-0 win over Leganes on Sunday. A Gareth Bale double and a second half strike from Alvaro Morata sealed the win that kept Real top of La Liga but Zidane faced further questions about the form of Ronaldo, who has not scored in five home games, his longest run without a goal in front of Real's fans since joining the club in 2009. Ronaldo's last goal at the Bernabeu came against Sporting Lisbon on Sept. 14. His only goal there in the league was against Osasuna on Sept. 10.
Two years on from their defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League final, Atletico Madrid are back on the same stage against the same rival - wiser and determined not to be haunted by the memories of Lisbon.
Heavyweights Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Lazio took big steps towards reaching the Europa League semi-finals after convincing home first-leg victories and RB Leipzig also stayed on course with a 1-0 win over Olympique de Marseille on Thursday.
Juventus scraped a 2-2 draw with Swedish underdogs Djurgarden, while Liverpool strolled to a 2-0 win at Graz AK in the Champions League's third qualifying round.
The 44-year-old Italian will take charge of the opening Euro 2004 game between Portugal and Greece.
The striker believes England has some promising talent to win Euro 2004.
Cristiano Ronaldo said Real Madrid's late escape act against Sporting Lisbon should serve as a warning after the European champions staged a remarkable four-minute turnaround to open their Champions League defence with a 2-1 win on Wednesday.
A round of Wednesday night's Champions League group stage matches.
Records tumbled in the transfer window as Premier League spending totalled 1.165 billion pounds ($1.54 billion), financial analyst Deloitte's Sports Business Group said on Thursday. The outlay represents a 34 percent rise on the previous highest in all windows of 870 million pounds set 12 months ago and means the overall spend by clubs in 2016-17 already represents a record for a single Premier League season.
CBI sources said the gangster's remand was to end on Tuesday.
- "He could not stop showing off his technical skills and was dribbling too much' - 'Ronaldo has always shown stunning adapting skills and an incredible maturity'
Pep Guardiola will return to the Nou Camp in the Champions League group stage after his new club Manchester City were drawn against his former Barcelona team on Thursday. The two sides were drawn in Group C alongside Borussia Moenchengladbach and former European champions Celtic in one of the toughest of the eight sections. Spanish coach Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice with Barca, faced the Catalans when he was in charge of Bayern Munich two seasons ago and suffered a 5-3 defeat in the semi-finals.
Belgium became the first European team to qualify for next year's World Cup when a Romelu Lukaku header gave them a 2-1 win away to Greece on Sunday with the goals coming in a five-minute second-half spell.
Sporting eased to a 3-1 win over the English champions in a pre-season friendly.
Manchester United winger Nani has signed a new five-year contract with the club, the Premier League champions said on their website (www.manutd.com) on Thursday.
Factbox on the Real Madrid and Portugal forward who was voted FIFA Player of the Year on Monday.
Uruguay will head to the World Cup on a winning note after beating Uzbekistan 3-0 in a chilly warmup in front of their own fans on Thursday.
We know that the new Thruxton R looks so beautiful that anyone can fall in love with it but its capabilities are best discovered on the roads
FIFA president Gianni Infantino is planning a fresh 24-team Club World Cup to start with a 'pilot' edition in 2021.
These architectural masterpieces have retained the flair of the era gone by and they still remain part of commuters' daily life.
Hegerberg hat-trick fires Lyon to fourth straight Champions League
'There is no advantage. I always prefer to play in front of supporters even away from home because that's what football is all about, but that's the situation we face'
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo has urged his team mates not to get carried away by the 7-0 romp over Estonia ahead of their campaign at the Euro 2016. The 31-year-old forward, warming up for his side's Group F opener against Iceland on Tuesday in Saint-Etienne, made his first appearance with Portugal this summer in Lisbon on Wednesday night. "It was just a friendly and even though we won 7-0, it doesn't mean anything," Ronaldo was quoted
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
The date of May 27 will go down as one of the worst days in the history of world soccer's governing body FIFA, former presidential candidate Luis Figo said on Thursday.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has praised Zinedine Zidane for changing the "recent history" of the club as a player and a coach. Promoted from his position as head coach of the club's reserve team to be Rafa Benitez's replacement in January, three-times world player of the year Zidane steered Real to a runners-up finish in La Liga and to their 11th European Cup. "The key element is Zidane," Perez told Marca on Tuesday. "He has changed the recent history of Real Madrid. Since 2001 he has created a way to understand football that has helped us win these European Cups." Zidane was signed as a player in Perez's first term as president and his spectacular volley in the final in Glasgow in 2002 gave Real their ninth European title. The Frenchman was an assistant to head coach Carlo Ancelotti when Real beat Atletico in Lisbon in the 2014 final.
The Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy, which opened last autumn on the Spanish island of Mallorca, is charging kids 56,000 euros ($62,000) a year for tennis lessons and school.
Cristiano Ronaldo reassured Real Madrid fans he will be fit to play in Saturday's Champions League final against Atletico Madrid in Milan after limping out of Tuesday's training session.
A chronology of events in the case in which the main trial ended in 2007.
Real Madrid talisman Cristiano Ronaldo will play the full 90 minutes against boyhood club Sporting Lisbon as he steps up his return from injury in the Champions League on Wednesday, coach Zinedine Zidane said.
In the dying minutes of their Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid, a thunderstorm rolled in and drenched Atletico Madrid's Vicente Calderon stadium.
Here's your weekly digest of odd, crazy moments from around the world
Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek had a Europa League night to remember by scoring the first hat-trick of his career as the midfielder inspired them to a 3-1 home win over Belarus champions BATE Borisov on Thursday.
The first of a number of legal challenges to Britain's exit from the European Union without parliamentary approval opened in the high court in London on Tuesday.
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