Raul

The forgotten man in Real Madrid's offensive rotation reminded La Liga fans that he is still among the best goal scorers. With Cristiano Ronaldo out for a while it is Raul's time to shine and prove once again in his career that he is as valuable as any player on the squad.

Click to continue reading...

One for the future.

Portsmouth Vs Liverpool Tickets Still Available!

Watch Ukraine Vs England Live Online!

Many Reports have linked the club with a move for Iker Muniain, a player who you may not have heard much about, but who is certain to be a star of the future.

Click to continue reading...

Sevilla made light work of Bilbao, Racing into a three goal lead in the first 45 minutes before Renato added a fourth in the second half.

0-1 Renato

0-2 Negredo

0-3 Kanoute

0-4 Renato

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

Click to continue reading...

(video gol: Getafe-Barcellona)
Il Barcellona vola con Ibra-Messi e si prepara alla grande per la sfida di Champions, di mercoledì prossimo, con l'Inter del suo ex tecnico Mourinho. Lo svedese dapprima realizza il gol del vantaggio (spizzando quel tanto che basta la palla recapitatagli da Abidal), poi serve su di un piatto d'argento la palla del secondo gol al compagno argentino (gustatevi il video). Click to continue reading...

Barca continued last years scintillating form by completely wiping the floor with Atletico Bilbao in the Spanish Supercup final last night. It was like a training drill in front of 80,000 fans as the players lined up to have a crack at the Bilbao goal. A week out from the ... Click to continue reading...

Benitez looks strengthening his defensive options.

LIVERPOOL were in Bilbao last night to run the rule over their £10million-rated central defender Fernando Amorebieta.
Bilbao's 6ft 3in stopper was facing Barcelona in the first leg of Spain's version of the Community Shield.

Click to continue reading...

So Los Culés won the first leg of the Spanish Supercopa yesterday thanks to the outstanding Xavi (quem mais, really?!) Bilbao tried, but you know you're in trouble when Barca don't field Messiah, Iniesta or even Ibracadabra and still pull off a lovely win.

Click to continue reading...

Listen up Rafa!

With some of the Alonso cash still burning a hole in Rafa's pocket and some cash from Leto and Arbeloa sales on the table, perhaps Messrs Hicks and Gillett can dig into their pockets to cover these signings, they could well lead the club to a sustained title push and perhaps end the painful wait for a Premier League title!

Click to continue reading...

Youngster targeted by Rafa.

Athletic Bilbao midfielder Javi Martinez remains a target for Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez.

A tall, powerful, hard-working midfielder, Martinez's game is viewed by Benitez as ideal for the rigours of the Premiership.

Despite a disappointing U21 European Championships with Spain, Benitez intends to move for Benitez if Real Madrid meet his asking price for Xabi Alonso.

Click to continue reading...

We wish there was enough news coming down the wire to have a weekly Aitor Ocio update, don't you?

The Atletico Bilbao defender is our latest obsession, and he was spotted on vacation in Cadiz, Spain recently with his ex, Laura Sanchez and their daughter, Naia.

Don't panic.

Sources close to the couple say that the trip together is not a reconciliation and that there is "no chance" they will get back together.

Click to continue reading...

We wish there was enough news coming down the wire to have a weekly Aitor Ocio update, don't you?

The Atletico Bilbao defender is our latest obsession, and he was spotted on vacation in Cadiz, Spain recently with his ex, Laura Sanchez and their daughter, Naia.

Don't panic.

Sources close to the couple say that the trip together is not a reconciliation and that there is "no chance" they will get back together.

Click to continue reading...

All images copyright Atletic Bilbao

He's one of our favourite go-to boys when we need a six-pack pick-me-up, and today is a six-pack pick-me-up kind of day. So let's return to check in on Atletico Bilbao's Aitor Ocio, photographed recently doing his medical tests at the club.

As you can see, he's still doing his crunches.

Click to continue reading...

All images copyright Atletic Bilbao

He's one of our favourite go-to boys when we need a six-pack pick-me-up, and today is a six-pack pick-me-up kind of day. So let's return to check in on Atletico Bilbao's Aitor Ocio, photographed recently doing his medical tests at the club.

As you can see, he's still doing his crunches.

Click to continue reading...

With the supply of live football drying out, tournaments like the European U21 Championships take on added significance for those who are already feeling the first twinges of a withdrawal symptoms.
Yet there is more to these championships as they provide the opportunity of taking a look at some players who could be genuine world stars in coming years. Click to continue reading...

The Guadiana Tournament in Algarve this summer has been announced. The tournament will be held between July 16-18, the teams confirmed so far are Benfica, Olhanense and Atletico Bilbao a fourth team will be added to the tournament from Anderlecht or Sunderland. Sporting who won the cup last season will not be in this seasons tournament as they try to qualify for the Champions League Group Click to continue reading...

Real Sociedad picked up a brilliant win at the weekend over Huesca to keep the club in the promotion hunt. A fantastic goal by Abreu in the 1st minute (see video below) was doubled by Aranburu in 31 minutes. Huesca pulled a goal back through Camacho but Real held on despite losing Markel to a red card in the 56th minute. Click to continue reading...

And just like that, the joy evaporates, in the snap of our fingers.

Atletico Madrid's controversial 1-0 victory over our Valencia CF further compounded a recurrent theme this season: we're horribly inconsistent.
We play like the world's greatest team in a 2-2 tie with champions FC Barcelona only to falter to relegation fodder Espanyol.

Click to continue reading...

Barca won their first of three potential pieces of silverware last night, even though it took them a little while to wake up and get firing. This isn't really a good for them, especially with Man-Utd lurking in the bushes, waiting, watching sizing up the slow and the weak... and well Barca's defense is a little lightweight, and quite fragile around set pieces at the moment, so it's going to be interesting to see what kind of attack United will throw at them in the final. Click to continue reading...

A lot has happened and much of it exactly like readers of this blog might have anticipated. The Top 25 once again rang true as predictor of European Champions League results. But in the UEFA Cup, things did not exactly go according to script. Meanwhile, the swine flu has thrown a wrench in the Copa Libertadores, which will unfortunately prevent us from getting realistic gauge of Mexican league clubs against their South American rivals. Click to continue reading...

Looks like a steady procession of injured and suspended players is complicating Pep Guardiola's preparation for the Cl final. He has a depleted back four with Abidal and Alves out through suspension. Rafa Marquez is injured.

However the bitterest blow could be Andres Iniesta who suffered a suspected muscle tear in his right thigh.

Click to continue reading...

pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/hCjOUpiv7WUJ-EyasjujpjMvGew/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/hCjOUpiv7WUJ-EyasjujpjMvGew/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff259/parttimepundit/09-03-14-bilbao-madrid.jpg" alt="The boys of Los Blancos celebrate yet another goal for Madrid" /! Click to continue reading...

As expected this match was one way traffic for Barcelona and I guess more importantly, they managed to get back to winning ways, whilst creating a bucket load of chances! Man Inanimate objects of the match: I couldn't decide which object saw more action, whether it was Athletic Bilbao's post or their crossbar. Click to continue reading...

Even with three months until the January transfer window opens, the rumors are starting to sprout. Today we have Fernando Amorebieta, a 22-year-old Venezuela-born, Spain eligible player, who currently wears the Athletic Bilbao kit. For some reason, he's ineligible to play for Venezuela though.
He stands six-foot-three, is somewhat highly-rated, and though his primary position is centre back, he has also started at left-back. Click to continue reading...