Sports Burst - Real Madrid's ZZ Flops
Real Madrid's farewell tour hits bum notes as band refuses to play hits and Zidane gets mad
By Tim Stannard
A tale of two cities as Barcelona celebrates title and Real Madrid faces another week of woe
While Barcelona is Lady Gaga-ing it on Monday as champions of LaLiga (again) and preparing for a glamor, double stadium sell-out against Liverpool in the Champions League, Real Madrid is facing a very different reality.
The team is now akin to a disgraced and disgruntled band on a farewell tour that no-one cares about, where the members can barely make an effort to perform, refuse to play the hits and the dismayed fans boo from the opening chords of the first song.
Sunday's 1-0 defeat to the then bottom-of-the-table Rayo Vallecano was a new low of really low lows for Real Madrid this season. Even Tour Manager Zizou had to go out on the attack after a bleak display in Vallecas.
"We did nothing. We gave nothing," was the terse response from Zidane whose team has picked up just two points in recent local duels against Leganes, Getafe and Rayo.
While Monday's front pages of the sports papers in Barcelona laud the triumphant title win for Leo Messi and co, those in Madrid make for bleak reading with Marca's front page blasting that "Real Madrid makes Zidane explode" and AS quoting Zidane that an apology needs to be made to the fans.
What was set to be a fairly quiet week for Madrid might turn into quite the hullabaloo, starting with the Sports Burst live show at 12PM ET / 9AM PT which may ask the dreaded question - Zizou out? Just head to the beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page for all the fun.
Alanyaspor in shock after death of Czech striker Josef Sural
The Turkish Super League has a potentially title-defining game on beIN SPORTS today with Galatasaray in action at Konyaspor at 1PM ET / 10am PT with the chance to go top of the table with a win.
However that importance has been dwarfed with the news that Czech international and Aytemiz Alanyaspor striker Josef Sural was killed on Sunday night in a bus crash that also injured a number of his teammates.
Sural died at the hospital where he and six other players were taken when the minibus transporting the footballers home from Sunday's away match at Kayserispor crashed. The other players are not in a critical condition. The club chairman Hasan Cavusoglu claimed that the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Sural joined the Turkish team in January but was a regular with the Czech international side having picked up 20 appearances, featuring most recently in October.
The XTRA will bring the latest news from Turkey along with the rest of Monday's big stories at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.
Thomas Tuchel faces media heat after Coupe de France farce
Elsewhere on Monday and the coaches and players of Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax will be talking ahead of tomorrow's Champions League semifinal first leg clash.
PSG coach Thomas Tuchel also faces the media after an eventful few days to say the least after the team choked once again - this time in the Coupe de France final - Kylian Mbappe got a red card for a reckless challenge, Neymar appeared to push a fan and then call out the younger members of the PSG team.
PSG is in action against away at Montpelier on Tuesday and before that, the Locker Room panel is likely to pour through the ashes of Saturday's colossal collapse from the club at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT.
Serie A is also wrapping up its weekend on Monday with an Atalanta side that has been plugging away of late with the chance of moving into the top four should the team beat Udinese.