By Tim Stannard (@stannardsports)

1) Ronaldo rested against Rayo ahead of Champions League challenge

Forget the Clasico, the comeback against Wolfsburg, surviving the pouts and foot stomps from James Rodriguez after plonking the Colombian on the bench for any game considered vaguely important. On Friday, Zinedine Zidane overcame his biggest challenge so far in his short but tumultuous tenure as Real Madrid manager. And that’s telling Cristiano Ronaldo that he could not play against Rayo on Saturday.

Whether there were tears or doors ripped off their hinges as a reaction is something we will never know, but the French boss announced that a muscle strain picked up in the dying stages of Wednesday’s Villarreal win will see the footballer missing the three mile trip to face Rayo. “It’s true that we had to put the brakes on him,” revealed Coach Zizou, who instead expects Ronaldo to be all pumped and primed for the Manchester City match-up on Tuesday.

Considering Rayo shipped 10 goals against Madrid earlier this season in the Santiago Bernabeu, CR7’s absence should not be too much of a miss, and the downtime does allow the footballer to get some mirror time over the weekend.

Tune in to beIN SPORTS on Saturday at 10.00AM ET for another Madrid derby and catch up with Kay Murray and the gang on the Locker Room from 10.30ET PM on Friday night, when they will peer ahead into the La Liga title race this weekend.

Sergio Ramos, who is always an entertaining fella both on and off the pitch, had a long chat with a Spanish radio station on Thursday night, where he suggested Gerard Pique might be a bit childish at times, admitted that he considered a move to Manchester United over the summer, that Ronaldo should never be sold and that he is clearly enjoying Barcelona’s current issues considering what’s bad for them is good for Real Madrid. The Madrid defender also suggests that Diego Simeone plays the victim ‘woe, is us’ card a little bit too much, too.

2) Atletico are one big man down in defense with Godin hamstring hammerblow

Speaking of Atletico Madrid, the Rojiblancos also had a bad bit of news on Friday morning, with the confirmation that Diego Godin is out-of-action at the weekend against Malaga but more importantly, is a huge doubt on Wednesday for the Champions League battle against Bayern Munich. Find some kind of match-watching device at 12.10PM ET on Saturday, to see how Atletico Madrid get on without him.

And then don’t move from the aforementioned device as Barcelona against Sporting is straight after on beIN Español in a triple whammy of La Liga title race action. Luis Enrique spoke on Friday and knows that all his team have to do is win the next four games to retain the league title, after what was an alarming wobble.

Although the last round of La Liga only just finished on Thursday, the new one gets underway on Friday with Las Palmas hosting Espanyol from 2.45ET PM over on beIN Español. They would love to have you along. 

3) “Most shameful” moment in Milan’s history and the $100m match in the Championship

Here’s something to make you smile or cry on a Friday morning. In a move that a Milan fan has just told Sports Burst is “the most shameful” ever seen for his club, the players did a New Zealand-style Haka before the goalless draw against Carpi to assist a promotional campaign for the club sponsors. Yep. They went there.

There will be no dancing about in the Championship on Friday with Burnley taking on Preston North End. Burnley are caught up in a three-way tussle at the top of the table with Middlesbrough and Brighton and a defeat could genuinely cost the team promotion to the Premier League and a good $100m dollars. No pressure then. Luckily that clash is on beIN SPORTS from 2.40PM ET.

4) Lorenzo says all focus on present, not future as Moto GP bikers tear up tarmac in Spain

Moto GP – lunatics going at 220MPH on a bike and constantly falling off, therefore brilliant – returns to beIN SPORTS this weekend with Round 4 in Jerez, Spain.

Although Marc Marquez is leading the way in the standings, all the talk throughout the week has been the decision of Jorge Lorenzo to leave his current Yamaha team, to move to Ducati next year. "At this moment I have all my attention and all my focus in the present, and in this championship,” said Lorenzo despite having his eye on a rival’s bike in more ways than one on Sunday. Catch the all the thrills and spills from Spain on Sunday morning from 4.55AM ET. It’ll be good for you.

5) Tyson still furious and Chinese sport hit by new doping scandal

Tyson Fury – a truly charming character – has said that his “fire is back” and that he is ready to face Wladimir Klitschko in a rematch in Germany in July, after beating the Ukrainian in a surprise win last November.

More doping news, unfortunately. On Thursday, the World Anti-Doping Agency suspended Beijing’s National Anti-Doping laboratory for four months after newspaper stories suggesting cover-ups in failed doping tests. “Technical mistakes” was the response from China on Friday.