By Tim Stannard

1) Madrid looking for cold comfort in Copa  

Real Madrid made the crucial mistake in Spain of failing to win a game of football, by losing to Sevilla on Sunday after a 40-match unbeaten streak. Celta Vigo are in a freezing Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday in a first-leg, quarterfinal Copa del Rey clash to see if Coach Zizou is made of the right stuff, or if the team will have to be thrown into the crisis bin on Thursday morning with Keylor Navas and even the finger of judgement being pointed at Cristiano Ronaldo for the loss in La Liga that opens the title race up again nicely.

The other big story of the day lies in the visiting camp with winger, Fabian Orellana, being told by Celta’s manager that he will never play for the club again after a still unknown but tantalizing incident. Eduardo Berizzo fumed that his player had shown an “unacceptable lack of respect." Orellana has since moaned that he is being treated a little unfairly.

Tune into beIN SPORTS live at 3:15 ET / 12:15 PT for Real Madrid against Celta Vigo. As a tempting warm up, fancy one of the best strikers in the world? That’s the plan with Gabon and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in action in a very must-win match against Burkino Faso in AFCON 2017.

Oh, and tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the big goals from across Europe and Africa and every other nook and cranny, followed by a bumper edition of the Locker Room.

2) Leo Messi victim of media lies. Sad!

Curiouser and curiouser. Such is the fevered interest in Leo Messi’s contract wrangle with Barcelona as the Catalan club looks to find the pocket change to pay for a renewed deal past 2018, that stories are now being completely made up. An interview was supposedly published by Coach magazine with the Argentine footballer, and Messi stating that he wanted to stay at Barcelona if the club wanted him. Tantalizing stuff in theory. Instead it looks like the lying media at it once again.

Barcelona are live on beIN SPORTS on Thursday in a Copa del Rey quarterfinal clash against Real Sociedad from 3:15PM ET / 12:15PM PT.

3) Xabi Alonso tipped to be retiring

A story is sneaking out from Germany that a footballer who is almost certainly going to be a very excellent coach one day is set to retire. That player is Xabi Alonso with ‘Bild’ reporting that the Bayern Munich and former Real Madrid midfielder is stepping down at the end of the current campaign. Bayern are reportedly interested in keeping the 35-year-old on for at least another campaign.  

4) Kalinic still on brink of Super League swap

The winter transfer market is still a bit rubbish with contract renewals having to keep everyone going rather than actual moves. In this regard, Milan have announced that Giacomo Bonaventura will be renewing his deal at the San Siro club until 2020. Nikola Kalinic’s move to the Chinese Super League has stalled a little after looking a done deal overnight.

Meanwhile, Tuttosport are reporting that Juventus are going to tempt Arsenal with Miralem Pjanic in attempt to lure the unsettled Alexis Sanchez from the Emirates.

5) Murray and Kerber keep on keeping on in Australia

Tennis time! And the big ‘uns keep on powering through Down Under at the Australia Open. Roger Federer made it through to the third round after powering through against American qualifier Noah Rubin. However, the player admitted that he needs to up his wonderful game.

World number one, Andy Murray, breezed through his own second round clash, beating Andre Rublev in three sets. Local bad boy, Nick Kyrgios, contrived to get knocked out on home soil dropping two sets and a match point against Andreas Seppi in the process. The swear jar will be a little fuller.

Over in the women’s bracket, Angelique Kerber, went through to the third round with a three-set victory over Carina Witthoeft.

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.