Happy Birthday CRISTINO 25years ♣

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.

ronaldo enjoys madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo admits he is already feeling at home in his new surroundings at Real Madrid.

Ronaldo reaction: Manchester United should not panic

Stapleton pointed out that United had sold star players in the past and had not suffered when David Beckham and Jaap Stam left the club, or when Eric Cantona retired.

Stapleton told Sky Sports News: “I feel that money will be used very, very quickly.

BARCELONA STUNNED BY REAL DEALS

Barcelona finance director Xavier Sala i Martin is bewildered as to how Real Madrid are funding their summer spending spree.

With a reported transfer budget of 300million euros at their disposal, Madrid president Florentino Perez has this week set about creating a second ‘galacticos’ era.

The Spanish giants had a world-record bid of £80million for Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo accepted by Manchester United on Thursday, hot on the heels of Monday’s 68million euros acquisition of Brazil playmaker Kaka from AC Milan.

And Sala i Martin, whose team finished nine points clear of Madrid at the Primera Division summit last month, is puzzled by how the purchases are being financed.

He told Radio Station RAC1: “I don’t know where the 300million euros that Florentino Perez expects to invest on signings are coming from.

“He says he will recover that money by selling shirts but, in order to do that, he will have to sell 30million shirts. That is impossible.”

Sala i Martin is stunned Madrid are able to spend so much money in such a difficult economic climate.

He added: “I guess someone will have to give him that money and it would be good for him to explain where it will come from.

“How can it be that a football team is loaned so much money, considering the current financial crisis in the country and the policy of restricting credits that banks are currently following?

“I can assure you that we will not pay 65million euros for a player.

“For that amount we would buy the whole Barcelona team that won the Champions League in Rome.”

Defeat biggest blow for Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo had admitted Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona was one of the biggest disappointments of his career.

RONALDO: TACTICS WERE `NOT GOOD`

Cristiano Ronaldo felt Manchester United’s tactics were ‘not good’ during the club’s 2-0 defeat by Barcelona in the final of the UEFA Champions League.

United set out at the Stadio Olimpico with the same formation which overcame Arsenal in the semi-finals, with Ryan Giggs replacing the suspended Darren Fletcher.

However, after a positive start, the Premier League champions failed to recover from conceding a 10th minute Samuel Eto’o goal and were outplayed for the remainder of the game.

Sir Alex Ferguson altered his tactics at half-time by bringing on Carlos Tevez for Anderson, but the change failed to improve United’s performance.

Ronaldo started the match up front before moving out to the wing and the Portuguese ace felt ‘everything went wrong’.

“I cannot explain,” he told RTP. “We, the players, were not well, the tactics were not good… everything went wrong.

“We have to give credit to Barcelona, but they were a bit lucky to be here because Chelsea did not deserve to lose and no-one has mentioned that.

“I have to congratulate Barcelona, they were better, but football is just like this: only the winners get talked about.”

The former Sporting Lisbon man also refused to comment on his future amid fresh reports linking Real Madrid with a renewed interest in his services.

He added: “My future now is the national squad, so that we can win, so that we can be in a good position in our qualifying group.

“About clubs, I do not want to talk about that, I want to rest, go on holiday, I am very tired, I have played a lot of games, a lot of pressure.

“The future, we will see.”

MANU champions of Premiere league 09! congrats

Gettyimages

Bolt offers tips to Ronaldo at Manchester United training

The world’s fastest man offered running tips to football’s world player of the year today as Usain Bolt dropped in on a Manchester United training session.

Bolt, the Olympic triple gold medalist and United fan, took the opportunity to advise speedy winger Cristiano Ronaldo how to adjust the running technique that torments defences but often sees him tumble to the ground too easily.

Arsenal – Manu 1-3 report

Manchester United FC are just one step away from becoming the first club to retain the trophy in the UEFA Champions League era after inflicting a crushing 3-1 defeat on Arsenal FC to book their passage to the final.

Cristiano free kick(arsenal & goal porto) UCL