Can Carrie Underwood Save Real Madrid’s Season?
New acronym needed to boost Real Madrid’s failing forward line, Liverpool sail into Yellow Submarine’s periscope sights and Falcao makes curious prediction. All this & more in your morning muffin.
1) Canadian country music to salvage Real Madrid’s football finale
A Boca Raton bank, a business journal, a vineyard, a jewelry story in India, an airport in Turkey and a Canadian country music festival.
Those are the various results that Google throws up when a search is put in for a front three of Gareth Bale, Lucas Vasquez and Jese, which is what Real Madrid are now set to be fielding at a crucial juncture of the season. Although the winner of the new BBC is not quite as catchy as the old BBC, Sports Burst is going with BVJ – the Big Valley Jamboree held in Camrose, Alberta in July. Carrie Underwood is going to be there! Matters might get a bit tricky though in terms of acronyms if Zinedine Zidane switches to a front two of Bale and Jese.
Anyhoo, some reports out of Spain on Thursday are saying that Karim Benzema is a major doubt for Manchester City after tests reveal a small leg muscle tear. Then again, others including ‘Marca’ suggest that the Frenchman will be A-OK. The other big headache for Madrid is that Cristiano Ronaldo appears to be in the same situation, with the footballer reportedly having taken stem cell treatment, on Wednesday, to accelerate the healing process on a muscle tear, as well. Crutches may well have been involved too.
Tune into the XTRA on Thursday at 10PM ET for the latest news from the Spanish capital, as Real Madrid’s La Liga and Champions League fate hangs in the balance.
2) Pep Guardiola starts challenge of stopping tide of predictable inevitability
On the other side of the coin, it really doesn’t seem to matter who is missing for Atletico Madrid, as the Rojiblancos always seem to prevail. The 1-0 win over Bayern Munich – a fun 1-0 win in the end – turned out to be a thriller with one of the best goals of the season from Saul. Once again, Atletico turned up, did their thing, won and went home leaving Pep Guardiola scratching what’s left of his hair trying to figure out how to clamber over the Atletico wall next week.
Don’t forget that you can see if Atletico Madrid can deliver the goods in La Liga with all three teams in action back-to-back on Saturday morning starting with Real Sociedad against Real Madrid. Coverage begins from 9.30AM ET.
3) Liverpool look to avoid Yellow Submarine sinking
The Europa League has reached the stages when it is actually worth watching – the semifinals. Liverpool are off to Villarreal to take on Spain’s fourth-placed side in a match-up that seems so random that it is quite hard to know what exactly is going to happen. And that’s why Jurgen Klopp was warning against complacency against the Yellow Submarines of La Liga. Catch the highlights and analysis of the clash on the XTRA at 10PM ET.
One player who will definitely be absent from the game is Liverpool defender, Mamadou Sakho, who has been suspended by UEFA for 30 days, while a disciplinary process begins over the footballer’s recent failed doping test
The lucky people of Canada will be able to see the other semifinal first-leg tie between Shakhtar and Sevilla live on beIN SPORTS at 2.45ET PM, with the Andalusians continuing their quest to win the Europa League for the third time in a row.
4) Falcao ‘pulls a Pele’ with a pleasing home-fan prediction
Not playing football seems to have made Falcao lose his Colombian mind a little. The Chelsea-Manchester United-not-entirely-sure-who-he-plays-for-these-days has said that the USA can win the Made-up Copa America tournament this season. Mmm.
In a comment that would have the PSG bosses all perked up, Tottenham boss, Mauricio Pochettinno has said that he would love to return to the club one day – presumably in the form of manager, as his legs are getting on a bit – having spent two years there in the French capital in his playing days.
5) Hillsborough families to launch legal action against police
The families of the Hillsborough victims are set to launch a multimillion-pound high court claim against two police forces for “abuse on an industrial scale”, two days after an inquest ruled that the 96 victims at the football stadium were unlawfully killed at a football game in 1989 with police failures to blame.