Lopetegui offers up no clues on Keylor v Courtois keeper kerfuffle

Julen Lopetegui was borrowing a trick out of Mauricio Pochettino’s book – not the ‘sucking’ one – but being cagey and philosophical when asked perfectly plain questions by the media. The Spurs boss was all about cows watching trains this week in a press conference while the Real Madrid manager on Friday spoke about the still hot Keylor Navas v Thibaut Courtois debate and gave away very little aside from an enigmatic "everything is much simpler than what you want to see on the outside looking in.”

The current pattern of affairs at Madrid has Thibaut Courtois as the goalkeeper to play in La Liga with the Costa Rican in the Champions League. Another run-out for the Belgian on Saturday could confirm that theory.

There will definitely be one change to the starting line-up with Dani Carvajal missing on Saturday’s game against Espanyol to leave a nice spot for new signing, Alvaro Odriozola, to make a league debut.

Coach Lopetegui even dropped a hint that Vinicius Junior will make his first Real Madrid squad in La Liga after playing for the youth team so far this season. “We shall see tomorrow,” was the enigmatic response from the Real Madrid manager. A bit of a theme for the day.

The Locker Room will make its Real Madrid predictions at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT on Friday as well as debate the rights and wrongs of Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card controversy.

Monaco already in must-win match after drop-zone looms

It's safe to come out now! 

The Europa League is over and hot Friday football across Europe returns. The Monaco players have woken up from another night of casino action and yacht-buying to find themselves just one point from the relegation zone. 

That's certainly a situation that needs to be rectified swiftly in a home clash against newly-promoted and very feisty, Nimes. That six-pointer is live on beIN SPORTS at 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT. 

La Liga is offering up Huesca taking on Real Sociedad on beIN SPORTS ESPANYOL at 3PM ET / 12PM PT while in the Turkish Superlig, Istanbul Basaksehir has the chance to move into top spot in the standings with a either a draw or win at Bursaspor. That game gets going on beIN SPORTS CONNECT at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. 

Catch the best of the action from all these games as well as Bundesliga and Serie A fun on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT. 

Miami move for Barcelona takes another step back 

La Liga's plans to hold an official game in Miami, USA in January - the clash between Girona and Barcelona - looks like ramming into another roadblock on Friday with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) expected to block the plan. 

Spanish radio station, Cadena COPE, reported on Thursday night then a written response to the request from La Liga will be issued on Friday which will state that there is "zero chance" of the game being approved. 

That will be another setback after the head of the Spanish Footballers' Union, David Aganzo, who declared on Thursday that there was just a 20% of chance of approval being given from his group after a meeting with La Liga's head, Javier Tebas. 

Tebas himself has been declaring consistently that the match on the 27th January was 90% done, which, using all these new variables, puts the chances of a South Beach jaunt for the Girona and Barcelona players to at around 48%.

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for a special update from Spain on whether Girona and Barcelona fans will make the trip Stateside for the game, should it go ahead. 

Cleveland Browns ruin world's fun with Thursday night victory 

Well, the Cleveland Browns have gone and ruined all the fun. 

After 19 matches without a win (18 defeats) and 635 days, the much-maligned NFL outfit finally won a match with the New York Jets being the poor saps, after the Browns' opponents through away a 14-point lead to lose 24-17. 

The victory was inspired by rookie quarterback, Baker Mayfield, who was the top draft pick and came into the game late in the second half after leading QB Tyrod Taylor was taken out due to concussion. 

Fans in 10 bars across Cleveland were even given free bars after a promotional campaign from Budweiser unlocked sealed fridges in the unlikely event of a victory.