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The yellow is an unlucky colour for Real Madrid. On Wednesday, Los Blancos drew againtst Villarreal and only three days later the team couldn’t beat Las Palmas. Real Madrid had the lead several times but couldn’t get the points and now Barcelona is just one point behind.

Zidane decided to choose Casilla as the goalkeeper and Keylor Navas was on the bench. Nacho was Marcelo’s substitute and Marco Asensio has another opportunity in the starting eleven. The youngster is taking every opportunity he’s haing and again he was very important.

Actually, Real Madrid started the game attacking a lot and Javi Varas -Las Palmas goalkeeper- was the best in the game. Luckily for Los Blancos, Marco Asensio was again very lucky and he scored the first goal of the game with a header. The joy didn’t last a lot for Los Blancos because Las Palmas drew quite soon with a goal scored by Tania. With one each we arrived at the half time.

This result wasn’t enough for Zidane’s squad. The team needed to win because just a few hours before, Barcelona thrashed Sporting. Real Madrid looked decided to get the three points and Benzema scored the second goal. The French striker started on the bench and Morata has his opportunity in the starting eleven.

It seemed that Real Madrid could get the three points from a difficult stadium but Las Palmas is a tough team and this year they are showing they can be very competitive. Araujo, only five minutes before the final whistle, scored the second goal for Las Palmas. Another blow for Real Madrid, who couldn’t win the last two games in La Liga but they are still top of the table. On Tuesday they have to travel to Germany to face Borussia, another yellow and very difficult team.. Can Real Madrid win again?

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In December we’ll know the FIFA Ballon D’Or winner in 2016. The newspapers in Barcelona, Madrid and France are already talking about the issue and putting pressure in the journalists and coached who have to vote for the winner. Last year, Messi won ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suárez, but this year Cristiano Ronaldo is the big favourite.

The Portuguese has won the Champions League and the Euro with Portugal. These are reason enough to win the trophy but he has also been very important in his club to achieve all these goals. Again, Cristiano Ronaldo was the top scorer of the Champions League, so he’s big favourite to win his fourth Ballon D’Or, the third in the last four years.

If we have a look at the bookmakers, Cristiano Ronaldo is huge favourite to win the trophy. In Betfair, you can back Cristiano to win with 1/6 odds. The second favourite to lift the trophy is Leo Messi, who has already won five. In Betfair the odds are 5/1 if the Argentinian wins. Messi lost the final of the Copa América with Argentina and won La Liga and Copa del Rey with Barcelona.

BET HERE TO THE BALLON D’OR WINNER

The third favourite to win Ballon D’Or is Antoine Griezmann. L’Equipe even published a first page to support the Atlético striker. Griezmann lost the Champions League and Euro finals this year but he played an amazing season. The odds are 6/1. With less options we can see Luis Suárez, who was the topscorer in La Liga and the key player for Barcelona to lift the trophy. The odds are 8/1.

With less options, we can see Gareth Bale. Despite playing an amazing Euro with Wales and helping Real Madrid to win the Champions League, Bale has only 25/1 odds. Neymar is behind the Welshman with 33/1 in Betfair, same odds of Payet or Pogba. Finally, you can back Iniesta to win Ballon D’Or with 50/1 odds.

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José Mourinho has already asked for some players to be signed for Manchester United in the winter transfer window. As we previously reported, the Red Devils are targeting Isco, who might be thinking on changing club as soon as possible.

The bad start of Manchester United, who have lost three games in the last week, make Mourinho think about getting new players. The Portuguese manager is not happy with Wayne Rooney, Marcus Rashford or Luke Shaw and he always wants more quality in his squad.

The other team that has shown interest in Isco is AC Milan. The Italian club has started quite well the season despite all the doubts they had in summer. Vincenzo Montella’s project is working so far with Carlos Bacca in the front but the squad still needs a lot of quality. Recently, Chinese groups have invested in AC Milan, so the club has no longer the economic problems they had in the past. Silvio Berlusconi was in real trouble because AC Milan was losing quality and money but it looks like the club is trying to come back.

These two options could make Isco happy. However, both clubs are not playing in the Champions League and Milan are not even in Europe. It might be a major problem for Isco, who is trying to step up and make some good appearances to come back to the national team and be the player he was just two years ago.

Isco expected to play some minutes against Villarreal. Casemiro was injured and Luka Modric was out of the list, so there will be more space for the Spaniard. However, Zidane decided to play with Kovacic, Kroos and James Rodríguez and the Málaga born player didn’t have his opportunity. Since the start of the season, Isco only played some minutes in the first game against Real Sociedad and he is losing his spot in the team.

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This is a challenging week for Real Madrid. After drawing the first game in the season against Villarreal, Los Blancos will face Las Palmas away and then they will have to travel to Germany to face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. We’ll see in the next seven days if Real Madrid are ready for big challenges.

Real Madrid had problems in the first halves against Sporting Lisbon and Villarreal. There is a lack of intensity: “In a game, at the half time, there are always things to be changed. We had ten minutes to talk and discuss and I think we changed, not the attitude but the intensity”, Zidane said in press conference.

The good news for Real Madrid is that Keylor Navas is back in the list. We don’t know if the Costa Rican or Kiko Casilla will play but there are options to alternate both: “Keylor is a very important goalkeeper, like Casilla or Rubén. I’ll speak with him and with Kiko and I’ll see how to organize myself. For me there is also the rotation in the goalkeeper position, like the rest of the players”.

Coentrao is still out of the list and Casemiro and Marcelo are both injured. Zidane will have to change some things in the team: “Our idea is always the same, independently from the formation. Of course something change, we don’t have the same player, but the idea is look for the ball, play in the rival’s field… Our idea is always the same”.

Another important injury is the one suffered by Leo Messi. Zidane was asked about this matter: “If Barcelona is worse without Messi? Yes. Well, worse is a word I don’t like. Everybody knows Messi is Messi. We all know what he gives to Barcelona and, obviously, without him we’ll see a different Barcelona”.

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Real Madrid will play their sixth match in the regular season against Las Palmas in the Estadio de Gran Canaria next Saturday (19:45, UK time). It will be a very tough match for the team managed by Zidane because Las Palmas are doing a great season.

After the draw against Villarreal, Real Madrid want to convince and not to lose more points with the other big teams in La Liga. Los Blancos played a very poor first half at Santiago Bernabéu, but in the second they improved a lot and they could almost win the match, but a great Asenjo prevented it.

Zinedine Zidane received very bad news about the injury of one of the most used midfielder, Casemiro. The Brazilian has a serious injury. He has a fracture of his left fibula and this injury requires a recovery period of one to two months. With this injury, Kroos will be the player who replace him in his position. Marcelo also had to leave the match against Villarreal and he also will miss the macht against Las Palmas and probably the recovery period will be of two weeks.

Real Madrid will make some rotations in the line-up because they have the second fixture of Champions League next weekend against Borussia Dortmund. Nacho and Carvajal could return to the defense replacing Marcelo and Danilo and in the midfield, Kroos and Modric will also return to the starting 11.

Las Palmas are being the revelation of La Liga. The team managed by Quique Setién are playing a very good football and they are having amazing results, being currently in the fifth position of the league. In the last match against Real Sociedad, Las Palmas lost 4-1 because they played with one player less almost the entire game because of a hand ball of Kevin Prince Boateng.

Possible Las Palmas XI: Varas, Dani Castellano, Aythami, Lemos, Michel; Roque Mesa, Vicente, Tana; Viera Livaja, El Zhar

Possible Real Madrid XI: Casilla, Nacho, Ramos, Varane, Carvajal; Kroos, Isco, Modric; Ronaldo,Benzema, Bale

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Bad news for Real Madrid. Los Blancos drew against Villarreal on Wednesday but they’ve also lost two key players for the next fixtures: Marcelo and Casemiro. Maybe these are the two positions where Zidane doesn’t have an easy replacement, so he will have to come up with a solution.

Casemiro already missed the game against Villarreal because he suffered a hit on Sunday with Espanyol. The Brazilian was substituted at Cornellà and he had test early this week. Apparently, it was only a hit, so he should be fit to play in Las Palmas. However, new medical test revealed he suffered a fissure in the fibula, so he will be out of the pitch for a month.

The Brazilian stopper will miss the games against Las Palmas, Borussia Dortmund, Eibar and then the international fixtures. Then, it will be hard for him to come back against Betis and he should be back again with Athletic. It will be a hard month without the only stopper Zinedine Zidane has.

Mateo Kovacic was Casemiro’s replacement when he was out. However, the Croatian midfielder has more offensive skills and Toni Kroos might play more defensively when Casemiro is out. There are two difficult games against Las Palmas and Borussia Dortmund where Real Madrid will be tested.

Besides, Zidane cannot count with Marcelo, also injured against Villarreal. The Brazilian left back suffered an injury in the calf muscle and he should be out only two weeks. Carvajal, Danilo or Nacho will cover this position as a left back because Fabio Coentrao is still injured.

These two injuries are very important for Real Madrid, maybe more than Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale. It will be harder to replace both Brazilian because their position are not covered in the squad. However, players like Kovacic, Kroos, Carvajal or Nacho should adapt their performance to the team needs.

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Real Madrid summer transfer window was extremely quite this summer. Especially if we talk about signings. We know that Los Blancos were interested in undertaking great operations like the one with Paul Pogba, but they finally discarded it because the French player was really expensive and his agent, Mino Raiola, had to take a huge fee.

Now, the website Squawka has revealed that Real Madrid had also asked for Dmitri Payet, one of the stars of the Euro and linked to Los Blancos several times during the summer. Surprisingly, West Ham star decided to stay in the East-London club and he didn’t join any big European club. Now, the ‘Hammers’ are having a really poor start of the season and Payet might be regretting not leaving London in time.

According to this site, Zinedine Zidane approved Payet’s signing and Real Madrid asked about him. However, West Ham rejected to talk about him and Real Madrid finally only signed Álvaro Morata or Marco Asensio. Now this position is really well-covered with James Rodríguez, Isco or Marco Asensio fighting for one spot in the starting eleven.

Another team interested in Payet was PSG. The French giants were even closer to sign the playmaker but the deal couldn’t go through. Now, PSG are having problems in Ligue One and Champions League and Unai Emery has had already a fight with Hatem Ben Arfa, who plays in the same position as Payet. Maybe, the West Ham player could have done it better in Paris.

West Ham are now in the three bottom teams in the Premier League with only 3 points. They only beat Bournemouth at home and have lost every single game since then. On top of that, the Romanian team Astra knocked them out of the Europa League. Payet has played only three games in the Premier League this season and he’s still to score a goal.

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Karim Benzema

The ‘gunners’ are trying to add some stars to their squad so they can step forward and finally fight for the Premier League title. Despite signing top world quality players like Mesut Özil or Alexis Sánchez, Arsenal are still far away from the top teams and they’re not favourites to win the titles. This year, Lucas Péres has been their top signing, a striker for Deportivo La Coruña.

Arsène Wenger team is trying to change this and, according to the Daily Star, they are targeting Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema. The French manager has always liked the Real Madrid striker and he has targeted French players. Benzema would replace another French player, Olivier Giroud, who failed to score a lot of goals for the gunners and make the difference.

According to this British newspaper, Arsenal have prepared an offer of £40M for Benzema. It could be a high bid for the 28-year-old striker but Benzema is one of the favourites player for Florentino Pérez and it wouldn’t be easy to take him from Bernabéu. Actually, the president himself went to Lyon to convince Benzema to sign for the Spanish club, back in 2009.

Besides, there is an important issue. Real Madrid can’t sign any new player in the next two transfer window due to a FIFA ban. Therefore, it’s very unlikely that the Spanish team decides to sell one of their top players to Arsenal.

Benzema has started this season injured so he has missed all the pre-season friendly games and the first official games. After that, he played some poor games but against Espanyol Benzema was again decisive and he scored the second goal of the team. In the last game against Villarreal he was substituted again and Morata came in. If The Spaniard starts to get confidence and play more, maybe Benzema could think on playing in the Premier League. Wenger will wait for him.

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Zinedine Zidane couldn’t break Pep Guardiola’s record of 16 straight victories in La Liga. In the 17th game, Villarreal drew at Bernabéu, s the record is over. The French manager is not worry about this and he is even relief because “we are not going to speak anymore about records”.

Again, Real Madrid played really bad in the first half. Villarreal scored first and Real Madrid had to come back: “Mistakes can happen in football, but generally speaking was the first half of the team. We can’t always win in the last minute. We missed the first half. I can’t say anything to my players, I’m happy with everything they’re doing”.

The French manager wanted to analyze the performance of the team: “We like to start the games with pressure, but we lack on that. We can’t always play well and start from the first minute. I like the second half and the effort of everybody. Physically we are very good”.

The first points fly from Bernabéu and Zidane is concerned about this: “I already remember these two points but can happen. It’s not for the attitude but we need to work from the beginning. We are going to rectify it because it’s not the first time it happened. It’s always complicated to change everything on the way, for this reason, in the half time, we changed some things, the formation and the pace, especially”.

Some players didn’t perform really good, especially Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, the manager didn’t want to point them: “It’s always important that Cristiano is in the pitch. I’m not concerned because he didn’t score. I want him to recover the form little by little”, Zidane commented.

Finally, Zidane spoke about the differences between the Sporting Lisbon game and the one against Villarreal: “We’ve improved because the second half today was superb. It’s a bit similar to the Champions League game but sometimes, when you’re behind, it’s complicated. If we are ahead, it’s difficult for the rival. We need more intensity from the beginning, especially if we play at home”, Zidane finished.

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Sergio Ramos

Zinedine Zidane squad couldn’t win their 17th straight game. Real Madrid drew (1-1) against Villarreal who picked up a great point at Bernabéu stadium. Los Blancos are still unbeaten in La Liga but left a great opportunity to enlarge the gap at the top of the table.

Real Madrid tried to win the game until the end and they have several chances to earn the three points but Sergio Asenjo, Villarreal goalkeeper was excellent. This time, Los Blancos couldn’t come back after the goal at the end of the first half from Bruno Soriano from the penalty spot.

Zinedine Zidane put the BBC on the pitch and James Rodríguez with Kovacic and Kroos in the midfield. The problems start really soon because Marcelo needed to be substituted in the first half due to injury problems. Carvajal played as a right back whereas Danilo was the left back. The team didn’t play well in the first half and they barely caused any problems to Asenjo but Villarreal didn’t arrive neither to Casilla’s goal. However, in the very last minute of the first half, Sergio Ramos, again with a handball, committed penalty. Bruno Soriano, in a panenka style, scored the penalty.

The second half was completely different. Real Madrid played much better and they start attacking from the first minute. Really early, in the 48th minute, Sergio Ramos scored the draw from a header. There were 45 minutes to attack and score the decisive goal. There were lot of chances from Benzema, Bale and James Rodríguez but Sergio Asenjo saved every chance. Zidane changed Bale and Benzema and introduced Morata and Vázquez, but it wasn’t enough.

Real Madrid have to improve because, again, they didn’t play well in the first half. However, the team deserved to win and Los Blancos are still top of the table.

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