Cristiano Ronaldo is still on vacation, but he never forgets his fans as he was keen to leave a Christmas and New Year message to all the “Madridistas”. The Portugueseplayer sent a message through Real Madrid’s official website and his own Facebookpage, wishing everyone a merry Christmas, as well as 2012 year with big achievements and full of success. The Merengues will return to action in the 3rd of January 2012, in a scheduled match against Malaga, for the Copa del Rey 1st leg counting for the last-16 round.

His four goals on Saturday against Sevilla took his season total to 33 in 31 La Liga matches

Realmadrid.com

Don’t get me wrong, she is one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen, but no one really knew who she was last year.

Technically, he did us all a favor by making her famous. Now we all get to feel really bad about ourselves because she’s that close to perfection.

The 25-year old Russian is this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition cover girl. Irina learned that she had been chosen to be the cover girl during the taping of David Letterman.

“There were 10 models there to do the Top 10 List, and nobody knows until the last minute who the cover will be,” Shayk said. “And then I saw it, and I couldn’t believe it.”

link: http://www.hollyscoop.com/cristiano-ronaldo

WE can win without cristiano ronaldo.

Real Madrid will look to build on last weekend’s morale-boosting victory over Deportivo La Coruna with an 11th successive home win on Saturday when they welcome Espanyol to the Bernabeu.

Madrid had not won at the Riazor in almost two decades and with an absentee list that included seven senior players and led to four youngsters from the reserves being named on the bench, they had it all to do not to fall eight points adrift of leaders Barcelona.

However, Madrid produced one of their best performances of the season to down Depor 3-1 and keep within touching distance of their arch rivals.

More good news for Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini comes with the potential return to action of midfielders Lassana Diarra and Rafael van der Vaart after injury for the visit of Espanyol, although Cristiano Ronaldo is again set to be missing as, unless the Spanish giants win their appeal, he will serve the second match of his two-game ban.

Madrid badly felt Ronaldo’s loss when the £80million man missed two months earlier this season through injury, but they proved against Depor that they are not reliant on the former Manchester United winger.

Defender Raul Albiol said: “You cannot depend on one player. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best in the world, but we are a team.

“We have a lot of players in this squad and, despite the absences, we’ve shown that whoever plays we will be at the same level. The team is capable of winning with or without Ronaldo.”

Whilst Madrid will be looking to put one over Barcelona’s city rivals this weekend, Pellegrini’s men will also be hoping their neighbours Getafe can do them a favour when they take on Pep Guardiola’s side.

Getafe suffered a setback last night when they went down 2-0 to Sevilla in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final, but they have not lost on their last two trips to the Nou Camp.

Barca, for whom midfielder Andres Iniesta is set to make his 200th league appearance for the club, are still unbeaten in La Liga this season, though, and have won their last five league and cup games without conceding a goal.

Elsewhere this weekend, two clubs will be under the leadership of new coaches with ninth-placed Villarreal and 17th-placed Real Valladolid both having made changes following last weekend’s matches.

Villarreal replaced Ernesto Valverde with Juan Carlos Garrido and the former reserve team coach faces a daunting first game in the hotseat as the Yellow Submarine go to a Real Mallorca side who have won all nine of their home matches to date.

New Valladolid boss Onesimo Sanchez, who took over from Jose Luis Mendilibar, also faces a baptism of fire as his struggling team are away to third-placed Valencia.

Bottom club Xerez go to Athletic Bilbao with renewed hope following their 2-1 win over Mallorca, although they are still six points adrift at the foot of the standings.

The two other teams in the relegation zone, Tenerife and Real Zaragoza, face Osasuna and Sevilla, respectively.

At El Sardinero, stuttering Atletico Madrid face in-form Racing Santander for the second of three meetings with the Cantabrian side in a week. The two sides also face each other in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, with the first leg being played tonight.

Also, Sporting Gijon go to Almeria and Malaga host Deportivo La Coruna.

The Spanish football federation’s appeals committee has upheld the two-match ban given to Cristiano Ronaldo for his sending-off in last weekend’s La Liga match against Málaga.

The Real Madrid player, who scored both goals in a 2-0 win at the Bernabéu, was shown a straight red card in the 70th minute after his swinging elbow caught Patrick Mtiliga in the face, leaving the Denmark defender with a broken nose.

Ronaldo was subsequently handed a two-match ban by the RFEF and, although Madrid appealed, the initial ruling was today upheld. He is now set to miss the matches against Deportivo de la Coruña and Espanyol, although Real could take their case to Spain’s sporting disciplinary committee.

Cristiano Ronaldo believes Wayne Rooney’s comments about Portugal not qualifying for the World Cup were in jest.

Rooney had said “it would be nice” if Portugal did not qualify for the competition in South Africa next year, as England have been knocked out of their last two major tournaments by Ronaldo’s side.

But Rooney’s former Manchester United team-mate thinks the comments were not meant to be taken seriously.

“I am sure he was joking,” said the Portuguese forward.

“He is a good friend of mine and he knows Portugal are a top team. He played a few times against us and never won, but I am sure he was joking as he has friends here (in the squad).”

Portugal are struggling in third position in Group One, and they must win their remaining games against Hungary and Malta and hope Sweden drop points to have a chance of making the play-offs.

Under-pressure coach Carlos Queiroz, who worked with both players at United, believes Rooney’s comments show respect to Portugal.

“Knowing him, I know why he said that – it’s because it shows his respect for Portuguese football and Ronaldo particularly.”

Ronaldo has shaken off an ankle injury in time for the game against Hungary on Saturday, while Jose Bosingwa is also fit after recovering from a muscle problem.

Malaga defender Duda and Guimaraes midfielder Nuno Assis are also available, but Juventus’s Tiago is set to miss out.