By Tim Stannard

1) Zidane still believes in La Liga title chase

Yes, Sports Burst is, by nature, a bit of a gloom merchant, but even the most optimistic, happy-go-lucky, butter-side-up, Real Madrid fan would probably admit that there is no chance of Coach Zizou and his men winning La Liga season.

Although Barcelona slipped up in a 1-1 draw against Las Palmas on Thursday, Madrid’s defeat to Espanyol the day before put the capital side 15-points behind Barca with 12 games to go. But Zidane currently has his French frown turned upside down. “There’s life until the very end,” announced the Frenchman at a press conference on Friday, “difficult, yes. Impossible, no.”

Then again, to be fair to Coach Zizou, had he admitted that the league title was a fruitless pursuit, a hole would have opened up beneath his chair to drop the Madrid boss into the crocodile pit below.

Now, the competition that Madrid definitely can win is the Champions League. And although a huge amount of gas has been expended on discussing Neymar’s absence from the Last 16, second leg clash with PSG on Tuesday, Madrid face injury issues of their own with the midfield maestro pair of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric yet to return to full training. The one bright spark is that Marcelo is back with the squad and is expected to see some action in Saturday’s home La Liga clash with Getafe.

Tune into the Locker Room to see if Barcelona are vulnerable at the top of the table, but from Real Madrid’s city rivals, Atletico Madrid. It all gets going at 7:30PM ET / 4:30AM PT.

2) Unai Emery says all in agreement over Neymar op

PSG boss Unai Emery was also up before the press on Friday and he was very surprised to find out that 99% of the questions involved Neymar and if there was going to be a Robert Mueller style investigation of what collusion PSG had with the Brazil medical staff over the decision to operate on Neymar’s fractured foot.

The answer from Unai was that everyone was in agreement that it was the right move to make and then the media should just calm down really.

“We simply cannot go out there denying stories,” noted the Spanish boss on the 18 articles a day that have been written about Neymar over his trips to Brazil, parties, penalty-taking, Demi Lovato’s music career and so-on.

PSG are in action on Saturday against Troyes, a light warm up ahead of Tuesday’ Madrid madness. The action gets underway at 11AM PT / 8AM PT live on beIN SPORTS.

3) Bellerin and Balotelli looking for summer shake-up

TRANSFER TRACKER TIME!

Hector Bellerin has had enough of Arsenal. And it’s just as likely that Arsenal fans have had enough of Hector Bellerin. The Guardian is reporting that Juventus will be making a huge push for the Spanish 22-year-old right back last seen on Thursday failing dismally to do anything to stop Manchester City.

The king of hype, Mino Raiola, has been in action trying to tout Mario Balotelli around a series of Serie A clubs pointing out that the striker, currently housed at Ligue Un side, Nice, will be free this summer, but is worth over $100 million. “I’m already negotiating with many clubs in England and in Italy. I’ve spoken with Juve, Roma, Napoli and Inter,” claimed Raiola on a footballer who has bagged 13 goals in Ligue Un this season.

Balotelli will be in action on beIN SPORTS CONNECT 3 at 12:45PM ET / 9:45AM PT as Nice face Lille. That will be followed by second-place Monaco hoping for a vintage performance against Bordeaux, live on beIN SPORTS at 2:40PM ET / 11:40AM PT.

Catch all the action on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

4) Early VAR-ning as La Liga confirms ref system next season

VAR-Wars on Friday with La Liga and Spanish FA officially announcing that the spanking new video assistant system designed to cause even more arguments and confuse fans will be used in Spanish football next season across all competitions.

However, the BBC is reporting that the Premier League is still reluctant to implement a system which could genuinely cause damage to a league that is largely based on headless chicken style running around after the ball without interruption.

Tune into the Locker Room on Friday to see whether our panel feel that Sport Burst needs to get the with program or say ‘nah’ to VAR.

WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?

The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. Sports Burst 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.