By Tim Stannard

1) Zidane’s dual Real Madrid reality 

Poor Coach Zizou – the French manager is on the brink of winning a first double for the club and Real Madrid’s main man is still thinking about getting the sack one day. That’s because his boss is the very trigger-happy Florentino Perez, and Zidane is also aware that his team could end up winning absolutely nothing this year. Schrodinger’s Cat and all that. Two realities at once. 

Zizou was ruminating on all these philosophical issues on Friday, ahead of the following day’s La Liga clash with Granada. “If you don’t win here, you go home,” said Zidane when asked why he was unable to guarantee his future on the Santiago Bernabeu bench. 

The squad for Saturday’s match has yet to be released but Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to be left off the list, firstly to give him more time to bask in the glory of reaching 100 million Instagram followers, as well as rest up and also avoid a suspension against an upcoming Sevilla clash. 

Oh, before you move on, Madrid are going to sign Kylian MBappe apparently. And sell Alvaro Morata. Or not. Who knows! 

Tune into the XTRA every weekday at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for your daily dose of Clasico Corner – all the news, views and made-up stuff from the world of Real Madrid and Barcelona. 

2) Sevilla continues third-placed chase 

Friday is just hours away from getting into gear in the football world. 

As ever, there is a ton of action to be consumed on beIN SPORTS. Sevilla are playing kiss-chase with Atletico Madrid once again with the prize being a third-placed spot. A win against a Europa League chasing Real Sociedad puts the Andalusian side alongside Atletico in the table, all be it with one extra game played and an inferior head-to-head record. That clash is live on beIN SPORTS CONNECT from 3:00PM ET / 12:00PM PT. 

Over in Ligue Un and Bordeaux need a victory at St. Etienne to keep up the pressure on fourth-placed Lyon in France’s Europa League chase. That task was made a little bit harder on Friday when an extra win was given to Lyon after an abandoned match against Bastia. St. Etienne against Bordeaux is live on beIN SPORTS at 2:40PM ET / 11:40AM PT. 

The Premier League is having a rare outing with quite the clash too. Tottenham are looking to keep up the pressure on Chelsea at the top of the table against West Ham. Spurs are currently four points behind Antonio Conte’s men with four to play. 

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the goals from around the world in one beautiful place. 

3) Novak’s shock therapy as coaching team let go

Big news from the heady world of tennis. In an attempt to prevent the spiraling of a career, Novak Djokovic has taken the decision to sack his entire coaching team, on top of letting Boris Becker go back in December. 

The former world number one has suffered a poor run of form, been hampered by injuries and has won just six of 9 ATP matches after being knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open. Djokovic has called the move “shock therapy.” “I am a hunter and my biggest goal is to find the winning spark on the court again.”

4) Fight! Fight! Fight! 

Merciful Zeus this could be good. 

As regular readers will know, Maria Sharapova has recently made her return to the WTA circuit after a 15-month suspension from doping. Not everyone is happy about that, including Genie Bouchard who branded the Russian a “cheater” who basically shouldn’t be allowed to play again.

Well, the pair are set to meet in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open if they both get through their opening rounds. Which is not guaranteed in Genie’s case. beIN SPORTS is the proud home of WTA tennis and will bring full and extensive coverage of the tournament from 6:30AM PT / 3:30AM PT. 

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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. SB 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.