#athletic-bilbao

#athletic-bilbao

Rodrygo's double steered Real Madrid to Copa del Rey glory as they defeated a valiant Osasuna 2-1 in Saturday's final.The Brazil forward netted twice to guide Los Blancos to their second piece of silverware this season in front of a packed Estadio de La Cartuja.For Carlo Ancelotti's side, victory ends a nine-year drought in Spain's most prestigious cup competition, with Madrid having last won in 2014 during the Italian's previous spell in charge.

Karim Benzema marked his final Real Madrid appearance with a goal as they drew their last game of the La Liga season at home to Athletic Bilbao.The 35-year-old, second on the club's all-time record goalscoring list, slotted in from the penalty spot after Eder Militao was fouled in the box.Real confirmed the end of Benzema's 14-year stay at the Bernabeu on Sunday, before a reported move to Saudi Arabia.

Real Madrid came from behind to cut Barcelona's lead at the top of LaLiga to six points, with Vinicius Junior, Eder Militao and Marco Asensio scoring in a 3-1 win over Espanyol at the Santiago Bernabeu.Madrid entered Saturday's game having gone three matches without a win, and they threatened to lose further ground in the title race when Joselu's early strike put Espanyol ahead.

Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior scored in extra time as Real Madrid fought back to beat local rivals Atletico 3-1 on Thursday and reach the Copa del Rey semifinals.Forward Alvaro Morata, a former Real academy player, put Atletico ahead with a close-range strike in the 19th minute and Real substitute Rodrygo equalised in the 79th with a delightful goal, dribbling past three defenders before finishing well.

Real Madrid needed extra-time to seal a dramatic Copa del Rey comeback as they downed rivals Atletico Madrid with a 3-1 quarter-final victory on Thursday.Los Blancos were heading out at the Santiago Bernabeu after their former striker Alvaro Morata had struck in the first half for Atletico.But Rodrygo's fantastic solo effort forced an extra half-hour in the Spanish capital, before Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior completed the turnaround for the hosts.

Goals for Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos saw Real Madrid battle their way to a 2-0 win against Athletic Bilbao in a lively LaLiga encounter on Sunday.Veteran France international Benzema hooked back a loose ball with a sensational volley to beat Unai Simon in the 24th minute at San Mames Stadium.Kroos then swept home a breakaway finish in the 90th minute to wrap up the points for Carlo Ancelotti's men and keep the pressure on league leaders Barcelona.

Best odds: 27/20 Bookmaker: BetUS At the end of this week, the finalists of all three UEFA competitions will be known.On Thursday, the second legs of the semifinals are up, and while Bayer Leverkusen host AS Roma after losing 1-0 in Rome, Sevilla will welcome Juventus to their Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium after drawing the Turin game 1-1.

FC Barcelona are currently in a legal battle with UEFA over the "Negreira Case" where the Catalans allegedly paid Jose Mara Enriquez Negreira, the ex-Vice President of the Spanish football refereeing committee.Negreira held his position from 1994 to 2018 and allegedly put together reports on referees and was paid 7.3 million euros by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018.

FC Barcelona's Franck Kessie celebrates scoring their second goal.JUAN MEDINA (REUTERS) Barcelona took a major step toward winning its first Spanish league title since 2019 after coming from behind to beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday.Franck Kessie scored in stoppage time to give Barcelona the home victory and a 12-point lead over second-place Madrid with 12 matches to go.

Barcelona restored their nine-point lead at the top of La Liga with a narrow victory at Athletic Bilbao.Raphinha hit the winner with a drilled effort in first-half injury-time.Barca goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen made several fine stops to deny Bilbao, who had a late Inaki Williams goal ruled out for handball after a lengthy Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check.

Sign up to Miguel Delaney's Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free Sign up to Miguel's Delaney's free weekly newsletter Paris St Germain's indifferent form continued with a 3-1 defeat by Monaco in Ligue 1. PSG, who will take on Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League clash on Tuesday, have now lost four of their last 10 games in all competitions.

Prediction: Barcelona to win 3-0
Barcelona and Valencia will face each other in La Liga this coming weekend.The match between the Blaugrana and Los Che will be held at Camp Now and is scheduled to kick off at 3:15pm UK time on Sunday.Barcelona
Barcelona are not having the best of times in Europe this season, but Xavi's side are going great guns in La Liga at the moment.

Barcelona's run of 62 consecutive wins in Liga F was ended by Sevilla on Wednesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw.Cristina Martin-Prieto gave Sevilla a surprise lead at the Estadio Jesus Navas, and for large parts of the second half it looked like the home side would hold on for a memorable three points.

Contact has been made between Real Madrid and German Jurgen Klopp, 55, over the Liverpool manager replacing their Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti, 63, this summer.Gerrard would bring former Leeds United midfielder and ex-Liverpool team-mate Gary McAllister back to Elland Road as part of his coaching staff if he is appointed manager.

Atletico Madrid have stepped up their interest in Barcelona forward Memphis Depay as they look to replace Joao Felix and Matheus Cunha, multiple sources have told ESPN.Memphis, 28, is out of contract in the summer and has made just four appearances in all competitions this season, with Robert Lewandowski, Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres all preferred by Barca coach Xavi Hernandez.

Manchester City duo Aymeric Laporte and Rodri are included in Spain's World Cup squad, but Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara and Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea miss out.De Gea, who has 45 caps, has not made an international appearance for two years, while Thiago earned the last of his 46 caps at Euro 2020 last year.

Barcelona will shut down the television channel Barca TV at the end of the season, the club said in a statement on Thursday.Sources told ESPN the cost-cutting act was related to making savings across the board to free up money to invest in the playing squad, although Barca did not give any official reasons for the closure.

Barcelona re-established their eight-point lead at the top of La Liga thanks to a routine win over struggling Cadiz.Sergi Roberto gave Barca the lead late in the first half from a rebound after Robert Lewandowski had a header cleared off the line.Three minutes later Lewandowski drilled in a fine drive from the edge of the box after being picked out by Roberto.

Xavi Hernandez bemoaned Barcelona's inability to kill of games as they returned to winning ways in LaLiga by beating Valencia 1-0 on Sunday.Raphinha's first-half header opened the scoring at Camp Nou, but Barca were forced to hold on at the end after Ferran Torres missed a penalty and Ronald Araujo was sent off.

Barca have been charged with corruption by Spanish prosecutors for payments between 2001 and 2018 to the company of former refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, totalling around 7.3 million ($7.8 million).The club say they were paying for reports and advice on refereeing but prosecutors have accused the club of seeking to gain favourable decision-making from officials.

Barca have been charged with corruption by Spanish prosecutors for payments between 2001 and 2018 to the company of former refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, totalling around 7.3 million ($7.8 million).The club say they were paying for reports and advice on refereeing but prosecutors have accused the club of seeking to gain favourable decision-making from officials.

Barcelona winger Raphinha secured a 1-0 win in LaLiga for the second straight week this time at Athletic Bilbao as his side tightened their grip on top spot ahead of a potentially season-defining week in which they host second-placed Real Madrid.Repeating the combination of provider and scorer from last week's 1-0 win at Valencia, Raphinha netted a thunderous strike right on halftime after a brilliant pass by midfielder Sergio Busquets who spotted the Brazilian ghosting behind the defence.

Barcelona's Joan Laporta says he will not give La Liga chief executive Javier Tebas "what he'd like by stepping down" as president of the club.On Monday, Tebas said Laporta should resign if he was unable to explain payments Barcelona made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain's referees' committee.

Ranking the best football kits of all time was always going to be an enviable task.Where do you even start?In the modern world, there are three new shirts every year nowadays, plus special tops that get worn on one-offs, international shirts  for men's teams and women's, now  not to mention keeper kits and pre-match tops.

Shakhtar Donetsk sporting director Carlo Nicolini says Arsenal and Manchester City are among a number of club interested in 21-year-old Ukraine forward Mykhaylo Mudryk, who would cost more than the 100m euros Manchester United paid Ajax for Brazil forward Antony.Newcastle United are set to offer Paraguay international Miguel Almiron, 28, a new contract following his improvement under manager Eddie Howe.

Manchester United are reportedly interested in signing Unai Simon from Athletic Bilbao.According to a report from Fichajes, the Red Devils are looking to bring in a quality goalkeeper at the end of the season, and they have identified the 25-year-old Spanish international as a potential target.The Premier League giants will face competition from Aston Villa, who are keen on signing a goalkeeper as well.