By Tim Stannard

Real Madrid start such for love after Zizou rejection

Thursday saw a shocked Real Madrid returning home to fine Coach Zizou’s bags packed and a smooth, sensuous Frenchman waiting at the kitchen table to tell the club that it was time to move on but that “it’s not you, it’s me.”

After 24 hours of ice-cream eating, Kleenex-snorting and binge-watching Scandal, a brave, plucky Real Madrid is back on the market and looking for a new partner to guide them through football life. And one-by-one, a number have been responding to a fresh posting on the soccer world’s Tinder. The energetic, fun-loving Mauricio Pochettino – London-based but willing to travel – said on Friday that he was completely happy in his current relationship with Tottenham Hotspur but reportedly told a Spanish outlet - “when Real Madrid call you, you have to listen.”

Unfortunately, the response from jet-setting Germany coach, Joachim Low, was considerably less encouraging with firm response from his country’s training camp that - "I absolutely rule it out." As the weekend progresses, more responses and possible dates could be arranged with the likes of the urbane and veteran Arsene Wenger, and even a debutante fresh on the dating market, Guti.

Tune into the Locker Room at 7.30PM ET / 4:30PM PT for a look back at a whirlwind few days for Real Madrid.  

World Cup warm-ups continue across the globe

Time to leave aside the wacky world of Real Madrid for a moment and focus on the pressing matters of the World Cup.

Friday sees a gaggle of countries hacking through some warm-up matches. And the action got underway on the other side of the planet – if you reading on this side of the planet, that is – with South Korea suffering a morale-sucking 3-1 defeat to Bosnia Herzegovina. Better news for Australia though, with the Socceroos defeating the Czech Republic 4-0, in Austria.

The big action for Friday sees France taking on Italy. One player who won’t be involved in the game is Karim Benzema who has been excluded from Les Bleus since 2015 over his involvement in a blackmail case with a teammate – a bit of back-story there – and has come out haughtily in response to comments made by French federation head Noel Le Graet, who backtracked from saying the door was never closed on Benzema to sniffing that the country has "a style of play and we cannot go back."

"I've discovered your true face, and this isn't the one that said he appreciated me and wouldn't discuss the subject of team selections!" stormed the Madrid man through the medium of Twitter.

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the best of the goals on a busy Friday of international action. Oh, and head to beIN SPORTS at 9:50AM ET / 6:50AM PT on Sunday as Brazil takes on Croatia in Liverpool.

Bayern Munich summer clear out starts

TRANSFER TRACKER TIME!

German outlet Bild is reporting that Bayern Munich are releasing four players onto the market this summer with incoming boss, Niko Kovac, wanting to make some changes. The footballers reportedly heading for the exit door are Thiago Alcántara, Arturo Vidal, Jerome Boateng y Juan Bernat, which might well bring in close to $200m in revenue.

Over to France and L’Equipe is claiming that Atletico Madrid have struck a deal with Monaco fullback, Djibril Sidibé, on personal terms but have yet to reach an agreement with his club which looks like losing another stack of footballers this summer.

And swinging back through Italy and now feeling more than tipsy having imbibed in each country and Juventus has reportedly had an opening offer of nearly $100m rejected for Lazio midfielder, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

The XTRA is the place to be for the daily transfer tracker at 7PM ET / 4PM PT

J.R. Smith becomes new Loris Karius

Some controversy then in the first clash in NBA Play-off series between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. 4.7 seconds left and with the scores tied in regular time, the Cavs were in position but a J.R. Smith apparently thinking that they were winning took the ball up the wrong end of the court, presumably to kill time. LeBron did not like that, considering his team lost in overtime. That certainly takes the heat off Loris Karius.

Over at the French Open and good news for US player, Madison Keys, who is through to the fourth round after an early win against Naomi Osaka. Compatriot, Sloane Stephens will be in action later. In the men’s bracket, Novak Djokovic continues his comeback trail and is currently taking on Roberto Bautista Agut at time of writing.

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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. 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.