First it was Cristiano Ronaldo who was going to bring the title to the capital, now it is Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo who will bring the title to the capital. Can they really stop a star-studded Catalan army?

Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO) and RunningBall developed a new statistics model for football and the model helped predict the probable national champions in Europe's top five leagues in 2011.

Real Madrid 3 - 0 Espanyol
(1-0) 28' Cristiano Ronaldo (p), (2-0) 79' Higuain, (3-0) 87' Benzema
Strange old game that saw Real Madrid struggle before putting nine man Espanyol to the sword. The first half saw Espanyol battle away in the middle of the park, although Madrid carryed the greater threat.

::: FistedAway today welcomes a guest post from Elliott, editor of the rather lovely Futfanatico ::: Never before have the parallel universes of entertainment, movies and sport, come so closely intertwined. After a dismal 0-0 draw with Mallorca last week, Florentino Perez was not amused by Mourinho's sombre post game press conference.

::: FistedAway today welcomes a guest post from Elliott, editor of the rather lovely Futfanatico ::: Never before have the parallel universes of entertainment, movies and sport, come so closely intertwined. After a dismal 0-0 draw with Mallorca last week, Florentino Perez was not amused by Mourinho's sombre post game press conference.

Rafael van der Vaart has revealed that he chose to join Tottenham ahead of Liverpool this summer.
The Holland international made a dramatic deadline day switch to White Hart Lane after seeing Harry Redknapp move late for his services.
It had appeared that the playmaker was all set to remain at Spanish giants Real Madrid, with no agreement in place to take him away from the Bernabeu.

Real Madrid decided to let go of another promising teenager as they sold Pablo Sarabia to Liga Zon Sagres runners-up SC Braga. The move will cost the Portuguese club €3m and will be completed in January during the transfer window. The Spaniard is the fourth high profile youngster to leave the Bernabeu and follows the footsteps of Alipio, Marcos Alonso and Rodrigo.

Chelsea and Arsenal get their UEFA Champions League campaigns underway as the English pair tackle MSK Zilina and Braga respectively on Wednesday night. Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho, who won the Champions League with Inter Milan last season, sees his talented side lock horns with Ajax at the Bernabeu in Group G.

After a goal strewn Champions League opener (unless you were at Old Trafford) highlighted the quality on show in the world's Elite club competition. The games in Group A were a particular highlight. Tonight see's the rest of the competition kicking off and provides me with another opportunity to embarrass myself publicly with my predictions, Bursaspor anyone?

After every World Cup there are players that get noticed for their performances, sign on to big contracts, and then never live up to the hype. In fact that is more the case than not. After watching the first several performances from Mesut Ozil you can already see that in his case he is in the divine minority.

By Ollie Irish

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Real Madrid's Mesut Ozil

Photos: PA

A dominant win (62% possession, 15 shots on target it should have been much more comfortable) for Jose Mourinho's New All-Star Galacticos (© Pies) in the Special One's first European game in charge at the Bernabeu.

Three games played: none conceded. Typical Mourinho. Two league games played: One goal scored. Hardly vintage Real Madrid. Even last night's 2-0 win against Ajax in the Bernabeu did not satisfy the fans' gluttonous hunger for goals. Starved of silver for the past two seasons, Madridistas will be quick to bay for blood.

Jose Mourinho wants to take charge of the Portuguese national team. Temporarily anyway. The Portugal team has been managerless since firing Carlos Queiroz on September 9th, and are desperately in need of someone to take over for the two Euro 2012 qualifying games vs. Denmark and Iceland in October.

In a surprise move which could have consequences for Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant Mike Phelan, former Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz could be on his way back to Old Trafford for the THIRD time. The...
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Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho believes victory in their next Champions League tie with AC Milan will almost certainly clinch qualification to the last-sixteen.

He was delighted with his team's 1-0 victory in Auxerre where his decision to bring on Angel di Maria swung the tie in the favour of Los Blancos.

By Chris Wright

Jose Potter and the Wizzigoggle from Mooglepipe

Despite mounting speculation to the contrary, Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has once again refuted claims that he is child magician Harry Potter.

Speaking after his sides' opening-day goalless stalemate with Real Mallorca (a result that can best be described as 'underwhelming', given the preceding fanfare), Mourinho urged the Real fans to remain patient and allow his new squad time to gel;

"Look, I'm a coach, I'm not Harry Potter.

The summer transfer window came to a close at the stroke of midnight on September 1st and some clubs waited until August 31st to complete several deals to strengthen their squads or lighten their wage load. Here are the highlights of Deadline Day which could effect the Premiership lansdcape.

Rafael van der Vaart (Real Madrid to Tottenham Hotspur – £8m):Famous for snubbing Manchester United a few summers ago for the seemingly richer pastures of the Bernabeu, the last of the Dutch contingent at Real Madrid signed with the London club late on the 31st.

La Noche en Blanco
Real Madrid 1-0 Osasuna (11:10:10)
Photos will follow upon my return home to England. I´m penning this on a laptop with comfortably the world´s slowest internet connection in the village of Salinas del Manzano, Castilla-La Mancha.

His opening day 0-0 draw at Real Mallorca two weeks ago was something of a comedown after all the pre-season build up. Now Jose Mourinho will be making his home debut at the Bernabeu against Osasuna and the supporters are going to expect nothing less than a victory in impressive fashion.

Barcelona easily sealed an early two point lead with their convincing defeat of Racing Santander to throw salt in the wound.

Karim Benzema's agent has played down speculation linking his client with a move away from Real Madrid.
Having found first-team football hard to come by since moving to Spain last summer, reports have suggested the striker could soon be leaving Real.
Rumours throughout the summer claimed he was attracting interest from England, with the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City said to be keen.

Real Madrid vs Ajax A trip down memory lane is a post from: Just Football

The Champions League 2010/2011 group stage kicks off this week, and while the draw undoubtedly threw up some intriguing clashes, is any as nostalgia-inducingly intriguing as Real Madrid vs Ajax? David Cockcroft assesses a fixture just dripping with history.

Seems there is only one force in the world that will make Jose Mourinho bite his tongue, and that's the fans at the Bernanbeu. Apparently Mourinho's Real Madrid were jeered by fans during their 1-0 win over Osasuna this weekend, presumably for not playing with enough verve or providing enough excitement.

La Noche en Blanco
Real Madrid 1-0 Osasuna (11:10:10)
Photos will follow upon my return home to England. I´m penning this on a laptop with comfortably the world´s slowest internet connection in the village of Salinas del Manzano, Castilla-La Mancha.

When Karm Benzema made his way to Real Madrid, much was expected from the French International striker. After enjoying play for Ligue 1 club ‘Olympique Lyonnaies', Benzema looked like he will be a great addition to Madrid but unfortunately hasn't played to his expectations.

Not finding a sport on the first-team of Madrid, many rumors started to surface that Benzema will be making his way out of Madrid but his agent is stating otherwise.

>> Click Here To Watch Real Madrid Vs Ajax Live Now <<

Real Madrid Vs Ajax Live Streaming & Match Preview
Champions League – Real Madrid Vs Ajax Live Online Click Here
Wednesday, 15th September 2010
Kick Off : 19:45 BST
Venue : Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid

The Champions League fixture between Real Madrid and Portuguese side Ajax will be played at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu on Wednesday 15th September 2010, kick-off is set for 7:45 PM.

From a marketing standpoint, what's the best way to lose a huge number of potential customers? Well, Banc de Sabadell figured that one out just about perfectly. The bank put an advertisement of Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola right outside of Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu. Sin verguenza?

It was supposedly only 2 days between our match at the Anoeta and our return to the Bernabeu to face Espanyol but it sure as hell felt like longer than that. And then some... And I blame the media for it... as if our dour & dull performance last weekend wasn't enough..
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Mourinho & Portugal IssuesMourinho's tenure at Real Madrid is merely a few months old.

By Ollie Irish

It took ground staff at Real Madrid less than two days to returf the Bernabeu, after the old pitch was blighted by a fungus. Fast work chaps.

Athletic Bilbao 1 - 3 Barcelona
(0-1) 54' Keita, (0-2) 73' Xavi, (1-2) 90' Gabilondo, (1-3) 92' Busquets
After their lacklustre win over Sporting at home midweek, all the talk in the Spanish press had been about Barcelonas 'Messidependencia'. When you think about it, which team wouldn't depend on a player like Messi?

Yeah, why not! Let's say it. Ajax did well! My post from yesterday was lost but Ajax did learn from the debacle in the Bernabeu and used bravado and courage (and Suarez) as weapons against a stronger (but unmotivated) opponent. Bravo! AC Milan played a bit like Oranje at the [read more]