by Tim Stannard

Raul to take over coaching role after Real Madrid make dramatic pre-Clasico sacking

Real Madrid has been involved in yet another coach firing!

Right before El Clasico on Saturday!

Panic stations at the Santiago Bernabeu!

To be fair, Sports Burst has potentially been a tad naughty here. But, you know…it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there on the internet.

While it is true that Real Madrid has fired ‘A’ coach in the past 24 hours, it has not fired ‘The’ coach in the past 24 hours. At least not for the moment. Santiago Solari is still in charge. But more on him in a moment.

The coach that was canned was called Alvaro Benito and looked after one of the club’s youth teams – Juvenil B to be exact. The sacking came on Thursday after he opted to go onto Spanish radio and suggest that Casemiro was hopeless – “isn’t ready to play a single minute in my opinion”,  Toni Kroos was only useful in parts of the game, and Sergio Ramos was too wobbly during Wednesday’s El Clasico defeat.

That lead to Benito’s swift firing, and possible replacement by a fairly well-known figure in Raul Gonzalez Blanco, the future Real Madrid coach in 2021, once Jose Mourinho comes in again and is sacked.

Back to the current Real Madrid coaching incumbent and the eternally cheery Santiago Solari was talking on Friday ahead of Saturday’s el Clasico Groundhog Day rematch. A victory for Madrid would close the gap on Barca to six and potentially allow Atletico Madrid to move to just four points from the top. Another defeat or a draw - then that’s not good. “All matches are big,” noted the Argentinean, “from the first to the last.”

Get the latest news on the game from our live Sports Burst show from Madrid at 12PM ET / 9AM PT – just head to our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page. And the Locker Room is a can’t miss affair as our pundits predict whether Real Madrid will have slightly better luck on Saturday.

Landon Donovan concerned over all things Christian Pulisic

Landon Donovan is worried! Not, ‘going off to Cambodia for a bit worried’, but worried none the less.

The USMNT legend is concerned over the present and future of Christian Pulisic, who is jumping ship to Chelsea this summer from Borussia Dortmund to either play for a coach in Maurizio Sarri that didn’t know he was going to be bought and may not fit into his Sarri-ball system, or being coached by someone completely unknown should the trigger-happy Stamford Bridge club opt to fire the prickly Italian. “I am a little worried and I think American fans should be a little bit,” sighed Landon to ESPN.

The concerns are well-founded as these are joined with the fact that Pulisic is currently due to be on the bench today for Borussia Dortmund – more on that game in a moment – having lost his place in the starting line-up. It’s a situation that won’t improve with Dortmund seeing as the player is leaving soon. “He is now either 20 or approaching 20 and needs to be playing games so that could be concerning,” – noted Donovan. Oh dear.

Dortmund in new chance to blow Bundesliga title 

What feels in Sports Burst's juices as a big weekend in the Bundesliga title race that will inevitably be won by Bundesliga gets underway on Friday. Borussia Dortmund had a win last weekend to stop a whopping wobble but face another banana skin away at relegation-threatened Augsburg. 

The Inter players and bosses will stop trying to work through Mauro Icardi's endlessly bizarre Instagram post and what it all means on Friday and play some football. 

That activity will once again take place without Icardi who is sitting and stewing about being disrespected and nursing whatever injury he seems to be having this week. Inter is at Cagliari in an attempt to further secure third spot in the Serie A standings. 

beIN SPORTS will be wading into the LaLiga relegation battle with Rayo Vallecano looking to at least move temporarily out of the relegation zone with a win against Girona.

The XTRA is the place to be with the best of the day's action and all the latest ahead of El Clasico from Madrid and Barcelona.