The word crisis, whispered in the last few weeks, has now reached a crescendo at the Bernabéu, as Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side. A repeat of the 4-3 weekend scoreline was not enough to subdue a Real Unión de Irún squad that ran rampant for large stretches of the game, as if the venue or their opponents were of no consequence. Click to continue reading...

Real Madrid put paid to a lacklustre last few games with a draw at Primera División newcomers Almería. This leaves them still lying in third place in the league standings, two points behind leaders Barcelona, who have had a particularly impressive run of form recently, scoring fifteen goals (including five against Almería) in their last four encounters. Click to continue reading...

Espanyol put paid to Real Madrid's run of six consecutive victories in September and steals a point from the Bernabéu. The Barcelona club won the battle in midfield and frustrated most Real Madrid attacks with solid defensive work.

For their part, the Real Madrid back four did not have their best night. Click to continue reading...

Poor Sporting de Gijón. Ten years out of the top division and on your return you have to face Sevilla, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Villareal one after the other in your first five weeks. On Sunday, Barcelona put 6 past them and on Wednesday night Real Madrid went one better, making them the worst defensive side in La Liga in over 50 years. Click to continue reading...

Few, if any, players in Spain excite as many contradictory opinions as the Real Madrid (and formerly Spain) captain, Raúl González Blanco. Many idolise him as one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, publicly berating Luis Aragonés (then national coach) for not including him in the Euro 2008 squad. Click to continue reading...

You have to feel some sympathy for Bernd Schuster. That's a strange statement to make about a man in charge of one of the most prestigious football clubs, and the current Spanish championship title holders. However, he faces a long a difficult season with a squad clearly split in half.

The defence, now back to full strength following the return of Ramos and Cannavaro, shows signs of being as confident and solid as in the latter part of last season and has just notched up its second clean sheet in a row. Click to continue reading...

The 60,000 fans at the Santiago Bernabéu, expecting a sackful of goals last night, went home disappointed after Real Madrid only managed to put two goals past their opponents. BATE Borisov, making their debut in the Champions League, are Real's first Belarussian opposition and showed why they're likely to be the whipping boys of Group H. Click to continue reading...

The readers of All In White have voted, and their verdict is that Robinho has been this season's most valuable Real Madrid player. The results, based on the total votes collected throughout the season on a month by month basis, show that Robinho received 65 out of a total of 394 votes cast, or about 1 in 6. Click to continue reading...

No Maniche for Portugal, and no Raúl for Spain. Earlier this week, La Furia Roja manager Luis Aragonés released his final List of 23 who will be travelling to SwissAustria in June and as expected, Real Madrid's captain was not selected. The feud between Aragonés and Raúl has been going on for quite some time now, and not [. Click to continue reading...

What some madridistas feared did not come to pass: Real Madrid came out to meet Barcelona with their minds fully on the task at hand and there was no indication that there was any residual hangover from the league celebrations on Sunday night. In fact, if anything, it was their rivals who looked a little lost at sea, though they had, in theory, more to play for. Click to continue reading...

The best Racing side in living memory went into their clash with Real Madrid on Sunday knowing that a win would lift them up to fourth in the table and into Champions League territory. Atlético's surprise defeat at home to Betis on Saturday motivated the Cantabrian side to come out all guns blazing, much like one of those Atlantic gales that regularly hit Santander. Click to continue reading...

Former Spain coach Javier Clemente made his intentions clear prior to Murcia's visit to the Bernabéu on Sunday: they were going to "park the bus" in front of their goal and hope this was enough to keep Real out. While few would argue that second from bottom Murcia did not truly expect to win in Madrid, it is perhaps not the best strategy for a team facing relegation. Click to continue reading...

The Madrid press was all abuzz with excitement following yesterday's 3-1 defeat of Sevilla. What with Barcelona throwing away a 2-0 lead at Betis the day before, they are now touting second-placed Villareal as the ones to watch in the run-in to the title. Without taking away from what was a much improved performance, it is still far too early to clay claim to the title, especially given how irregular Real has been in 2008 (won 9, lost 9). Click to continue reading...

Is it lack of confidence? Is it bad luck? Is it Mijatovic wasting over a hundred million on signings that are not pulling their weight in the squad? Is it fair to call this a crisis when Real Madrid are still four points ahead in the league while in England, Manchester United are five ahead and Alex Ferguson is trying to dampen the euphoria? Click to continue reading...

After a two-week hiatus (don't ask) I come back to this blog with the distinct feeling that I'm not going to enjoy what remains of the season. It may seem strange, with the team top of the League and with a seven-point cushion, but the feeling remains nevertheless. Some of this ennui may be attributed to Real's ignominious, though deserved elimination from the Champions League by Roma a couple of weeks ago. Click to continue reading...

Robinho returned to the Real Madrid side in triumphant fashion as he rescued his team from a tricky situation in Huelva by scoring two goals in his 18 minutes on the pitch. The trip to the Colombino was no picnic, and Recreativo had the better of the play at times, belying their 18th place in the standings. Click to continue reading...

The numbers for the month of February speak for themselves: Played 5, Won 1, Lost 4. The situation has deteriorated so much that even the previously impregnable Santiago Bernabéu stadium no longer guarantees victory. Jarek Berga, over at American Madridistas, argues that this is a case of luck evening out over the course of a season. Click to continue reading...

A familiar pattern: early lead from Real, who had the best of the possession, squandered as the home team soak up the pressure and make the most of their few chances to edge the game 2-1. Like the Betis game, Bernd Schuster failed to take any of the blame for the result, focusing only on how his team "deserved more" for their efforts. Click to continue reading...

Raúl and Casillas received a St. Valentine's day present from Real Madrid when they linked what is likely to be the remainder of their playing careers to the club by agreeing contract extensions at lunchtime today. Under the terms of the agreement, Raúl's contract was extended until 2011 (when he will be 35) and Casillas until 2017 (when he will be 36). Click to continue reading...

The league championship, while not quite sown up yet, is inching increasingly closer to the trophy cabinet in the Bernabéu museum. Real Madrid took full advantage of Barcelona's late draw in Sevilla on Saturday night, to stretch their lead to an impressive eight points. Seven goals and seven keys to last night's "festivities":

• Valladolid's defence: brave?

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The press had been building up this game as the most exciting Madrid derby in years. Atlético finally were playing like a team that deserves to be in the Champions League spots and Real, though in front by a considerable margin, had just been knocked out of the Copa del Rey and their win at Levante the previous week had been rather a lacklustre affair. Click to continue reading...

In a report in Spanish daily ABC earlier this week, it was revealed that Real Madrid captain Raúl has been making use of a hypoxic chamber to simulate atmospheric conditions at altitude to improve his stamina. Scientific studies show that reducing the concentration of oxygen in the air breathed stimulates the number of red blood cells produced by the body, which in turn improve athletic performance after returning to normal oxygen levels, as more of the oxygen is made available to working muscles. Click to continue reading...

It's been many years since Valencia lost by such a margin of goals at home (1933, in fact), but then, it's been many years since Valencia played with a diamond formation in midfield and the defensive line pushed forward to contribute to attacking duties. They didn't play like that under Cúper, or Ranieri, or Benítez, or Quique. For years the Valencia side has been a byword for solidity in defence. Click to continue reading...

With Real Madrid facing a very busy couple of weeks (Valencia on Wednesday, Sevilla on Saturday and Olympiakos the following Tuesday), Bernd Schuster decided to leave Raúl on the bench for the a priori easier task of dealing with Deportivo at home. This is the first time this season that Raúl has been included in Schuster's rotation policy, and so far, only Iker Casillas seems to be immune. Click to continue reading...

It was not a classic performance by any means, but there were some positives to take away from Sunday's 2-0 win over Recreativo de Huelva. Real started the game at a much higher tempo than we have been used to and Raúl had a header for the opener within 13 seconds of the start. Robben seems to have reached full match fitness and his speed is causing problems for defenders on the wings. Click to continue reading...

Fabio Capello, who, since leaving Real Madrid, has taken up a post commentating for Italian state TV channel RAI, did not mince his words last night, as he analysed the Lazio-Real game. Interestingly, this has been picked up by the Spanish press from different perspectives, depending on who you read. Most highlight the fact that Capello thinks Real Madrid are still a team which "lacks identity". Click to continue reading...