Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has branded Real Madrid as the best team in the world ahead of the Champions League showdown between the two teams at the Santiago Bernabeu.

This is the second meeting between the two teams in the group stages and one that will go a long way into deciding the progress Liverpool have made. The Premier League outfit come to Spain in search of a victory in order to preserve their objective of reaching the next stage of the Champions League. The defeats against FC Basel and Madrid in the previous rounds have put them on the bank of exit.

Madrid are one of the inform teams in Europe after having managed 10 games on the bounce. They have also scored an astonishing 41 goals during this period.

In contrast, Liverpool have managed just three victories and have scored 10 goals, and the players will be coming straight from a Wedding in Derbyshire, with one of their coaches getting married.

A win over Madrid will not only help Liverpool put behind the poor form in the league but will also give them a major conference ahead of the match with Chelsea on Saturday. Rodgers, who witnessed his team suffer a 3-0 defeat in the previous meeting between the two teams, says that Liverpool will be looking for a victory in this away match.

“It is nowhere near as bad as people make out. What has been the frustration has been the mistakes and sloppy goals. I think we showed in the previous game, although the score was 3-0, we can still have moments when we can hurt Real Madrid and that will be the idea. We are certainly not coming here as a team expected to lose and then look at the other games as games to qualify. For us, we see it as an opportunity. We still very much have qualification in our hands,” said Rodgers.

After several other Manchester United stars, now, Rio Ferdinand has also slammed David Moyes for his 1-year work as manager at Old Trafford.
According to the veteran centre back, Moyes’ mentality was not right. He did not realize how big a club he was in charge of.
In his autobiography which will be out for the public soon, Ferdinand has put a bit of light on that unsuccessful season of United under David Moyes.
A couple of paragraphs of the book were published in one of the English dailies yesterday.
In Ferdinand’s words, “David’s tactics confused the players. He wanted us to play weirdly at times. In a match at Old Trafford, I think it was against Fulham, we were just giving each other long crosses. We did that more than 80 times that day. I never understood the point of doing that. It was a mindboggling strategy.”
“On other days, he would tell us to make as many passes as we could. He used to tell us to make 600 passes. I mean it was ridiculous. You’ve got to think about scoring goals, not just about making passes. If you are finding the back of the net 2 or 3 times from 15 passes, it’s far better than making 100 passes and scoring no goal.”
The Manchester United hierarchy axed Moyes towards the end of the last season and gave the job to Ryan Giggs temporarily before bringing in Louis Van Gaal as the permanent man-in-charge.
United is struggling a little bit under Van Gaal as well, but, at least under him, they are trying to play attacking football.
The Red Devils have 1 win and a couple of draws to their name in the 4 Premier League games this season.

Despite spending more than £ 100 million in new players in the summer, Real Madrid’s poor form continued after the team suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Real Sociedad. This was the second league match of the season and Real Madrid already find themselves trailing rivals Barcelona by three points. Madrid made extensive changes to the Champions League winning team by bringing in the likes of James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos.

The arrival of these players for vast sums of money meant that the club had to sell the likes of Angel di Maria and Xabi Alonso, two players who were crucial in the club’s successes last season. The decision to sell di Maria and Alonso has been criticised on several fronts, but manager Carlo Ancelotti continued to be defiant even after this defeat. This poor result means that Madrid have won only one out of the last four matches in all competitions. They have also lost the Super Cup to archrivals Atletico Madrid. The 2-0 win over la Liga strugglers Córdoba is the only three points and victory secured by Ancelotti’s new look Madrid team.

Despite having a two-goal advantage, Madrid through the match and lost it 4-2. Ancelotti blamed the attitude of his players after the match, which saw Madrid play without their star asset Cristiano Ronaldo.

“This is a loss that I do not like at all because I think occasionally you can play badly but when you lead 2-0 you have to show the required attitude to see out the game. It is my responsibility. Something has to change and it will… I am sorry because I do not like it that the team have played in this way. You have to quickly change the things that have not gone well. It is not easy to assess this match because there were two parts to it,” said Ancelotti.

The manager of Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, has admitted that he has his eyes on the Liverpool forward Luis Suarez, but, he says that he is not going to take any transfer decisions in a hurry as he has got a lot of time.

Talking to a Spanish newspaper the other day, Ancelotti said, “We are not likely to make any signing in the next couple of weeks. It’s only at the end of the World Cup that we would start some sort of activity. There is no need to rush at this point of time.”

Suarez had performed wonderfully for his club Liverpool in the 2013-14 Premier League. He had missed the initial few games due to suspension, but, once he came back, he just took the tournament by storm. There was hardly any game in which he didn’t manage to make an impact.

He ended up as the highest goal scorer of the tournament with 31 goals in 33 matches.

The Uruguayan international had almost guided the Reds to the title. Had it not been for a defeat against Chelsea towards the end of the tournament, Liverpool would easily have become the Champions.

However, despite being very good performance wise, there has been big questions over Suarez’s attitude. He has emerged out as the bad boy of World Football in the recent past. So, Real Madrid needs to take that into account as well. They will have to decide if they can handle somebody like Suarez who is never too far away from controversies.

However, apart from Suarez, Real Madrid is understood to be interested in some other guys as well and one of them is the Bosnia international Asmir Begovic who currently is a part of the Stoke City squad.

Speculation linking Luis Suarez with a move to Real Madrid have increased after Italian Carlo Ancelotti admitted that he is a fan of the Liverpool striker. Ancelotti led Madrid to the 10th European title, thus becoming one of the few managers to have won the Champions League three times. Even more important is that he led Madrid to the 10th European title, which they have been chasing for such a long period. As a result, Ancelotti said to enjoy a high status within the club. This is set to work in the transfer market as well.

It is widely expected that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez will sanction a bid for any player Ancelotti wants in his team. It is thought that Suarez is high on the list. The Spanish outfit wanted to sign the Uruguay striker last summer, but an official offer was never made. Even though the 27-year-old signed a new contract only a few months ago, it is believed that Madrid have been contacting Suarez on a number of occasions recently. Ancelotti recently confirmed that the club are not planning to make any signings before the World Cup.

It is expected that Real will begin negotiations after the World Cup. Suarez scored more than 30 goals in the league last season. “Luis Suarez is a fantastic player, high quality and very good, but to speak about other things [transfers] is to show a lack of respect. It is impossible to improve Real Madrid’s attack because it has Cristiano, Benzema, Bale, Jese. The squad is very good and we are very competitive. If we can improve, which won’t be easy, we will, but if we keep those we have I would be happy. This group has won two cups and will be very competitive next year,” said Ancelotti.

Last season’s La Liga was one of the most exciting in years. It was a genuine three hose race for much of the season which left many fans biting their nails right until the final whistle.

Eventually Atlético Madrid came out on top, finishing three points clear of Real Madrid and Barcelona, and taking the title away from the big two for the first time since 2003-04. Next season, however, promises to be a return to form in La Liga, with Atlético struggling to contain the might of their challengers.

Whils there is no denying from fans who enjoy a punt that Atlético Madrid deserved to win La Liga last season but there is a feeling that Real and Barca underestimated them somewhat; after years of dominance they had grown used to worrying only about each other’s results- Atlético took them by surprise. This will not happen next season and, as champions, every team will be gunning for Diego Simeone’s men, not least their defeated title rivals.

Much of Atlético’s success has been built on the tactical wizardry of Diego Simeone, a man who was able to turn a team with few resources into La Liga Champions and Champions League finalists.

As Betfair fans will know, success brings unwanted attention and Simeone is likely to be linked with a number of big jobs across Europe this summer. Rumours have already circulated that Inter Milan are interested in the Argentinian for the 2015/16 season- they are certain not to be his only suitors and Atlético may be lucky to keep him until then. If Simeone does leave then he could prove impossible to replace.

With success comes demands from existing players for more money. It has been reported that Atlético’s wage bill last season was less than half that of Barcelona and Real Madrid but their players will surely now expect parity with the bigger clubs. Given Atlético’s reported level of debt there is no way that they could possibly afford to meet wage demands and it seems likely that their stars may look to leave in order to maximise their incomes. Their leading striker Diego Costa has, for instance, already been linked with the exit.

One of the backbones of Atlético’s success in recent seasons has been the outstanding Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois who has been on loan at the club from Chelsea since 2011. Now, having proved his ability, the young keeper looks set to be recalled by his parent club, this will leave Simeone with a real problem in trying to replace him and there seems little chance that he could afford to buy someone of the 22 year old’s calibre.

Similarly, Atlético’s stars who have proven themselves on the European stage will become more attractive to other clubs and where Simeone may not previously have had to worry about warding off attention from the world’s biggest teams for his players he may now receive offers that he cannot refuse. With such a small squad, if Atlético lose many of their established players to rival clubs (or to injury) then they will simply not having the playing resources to compete with Real Madrid and Barcelona next season.

Whilst many neutrals would love to see Atlético Madrid challenging for the title again next season it is very difficult to see that happening and the smart money is on next season’s La Liga being a two horse race again.

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has suggested that defender Pepe could miss the Champions League final against Atletico Madrid on May 24. The defender has been struggling with a series of injuries the last few weeks. He was taken off in the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich at the Allianz arena. Back then, it was suggested that he would be back in time to play in the final. Now, it has been put in serious doubt, as Madrid are likely to be without him and Karim Benzema according to Ancelotti.

The Italian, though, had positive news for the Real Madrid fans by suggesting that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale will be fit for the final. Once again, these two players have not been feeling well in the last few weeks. Ronaldo was named in the starting line-up against Espanyol on the final day of the season, but he was taken off in the warmup after feeling muscle strain. The injury to Pepe is likely to force Ancelotti into fielding youngster Rafael Varane. The defender has seen little action throughout the season, but he has been praised by former manager José Mourinho as the best young defender in the world.

Real Madrid’s opposition, Atletico Madrid also come into the match with several injury problems.

“They’re the two players we have doubts about. I’m a realist and as of today they can’t play. There are four days left and we’ll make our final decision. If Pepe can’t play, Varane can take his place. As for Benzema, we can understand that the player isn’t at 100%, but if he has injury problems, it’s better if he doesn’t play. If we don’t think he’s risking an injury he’ll play. Bale had a minor problem in the pre-season, but he has shown his quality and he’s in good shape,” said Ancelotti.

England could be without Tottenham defender Kyle Walker for the upcoming World Cup 2014 according to national team manager Roy Hodgson. The defender is currently injured on the sidelines, and is only expected to come back just before the end of the season.

This would allow him little time to get his fitness back up to 100%. As a result, Hodgson is expected to look at various alternatives to be the backup for Liverpool defender Glen Johnson, who will be the first choice at the World Cup. Johnson was struggling with injuries during the first half of the season.

Back then, Walker was a regular part of the flying Tottenham team that were chasing a top four finish. Things have changed dramatically in the second half of the season, as Tottenham have been struggling for any sort of consistency. They are out of contention for the top four with three matches left and the absence of Walker has been a major reason. His attacking threat coupled with the speed that he provides has been absent. Meanwhile, Johnson has been able to establish himself firmly in the Liverpool team that is challenging for the title.

Due to this current situation, Hodgson says that it is looking unlikely that Walker would be part of the World Cup 2014, though belgie zuidkorea odds makes Walker evens to make the squad.

“We haven’t been told for certain that he will be out for the next six to 10 weeks but we are concerned that it has been a long time he has been out. During that time he has not been able to do any training with the rest of the team as far as I know. I know he has had another injection. We are waiting to find out whether that helps. He has not been fit for a long time,” said Hodgson ahead of his team selection.

Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa has hinted that he could be heading to Chelsea in the summer after helping to knock Jose Mourinho’s side out of the Champions League.

The Blues appeared to hold the advantage after drawing 0-0 in the Spanish capital in last week’s semi-final first leg but Atletico produced a superb display at Stamford Bridge as they came from behind to win the second clash 3-1.

After Fernando Torres’ deflected shot had given the Premier League side the lead, Atletico equalised and grabbed the crucial away goal just before the interval when defensive frailties in the home defence allowed Adrian to net despite mis-hitting his shot.

The La Liga leaders dominated the second half and deserved their place in the final which came courtesy of Costa’s spot-kick, after he had been upended inside the penalty area by Chelsea substitute Samuel Eto’o, and Arda Turan’s 72nd-minute effort.

Koke also hit the woodwork in the opening minutes as Atletico set up an all-Madrid final on 24th May in Lisbon following Real’s demolition of last season’s winners Bayern Munich in the other semi-final.

Costa, who is one of the favourites with bet365 to score the opening goal in the Champions League final, said after the win in London: “Chelsea in my future? We’ll see, I know there are offers for me. I feel well here at Atletico. Let’s see.”

The 25-year-old, who was born in Brazil but represented Spain in a friendly international victory against Italy in March, has been in scintillating form for Atletico this season.

Costa has scored 35 times in 41 Champions League and La Liga appearances for Diego Simeone’s side so far this season and is one of the most sought-after players in the world.

Chelsea manager Mourinho has bemoaned his attacking options throughout this season and is widely expected to bring in at least two new forwards in the summer having lost patience with Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba.

He allowed Romelu Lukaku to spend this season on loan with Everton and the 20-year-old Belgian has impressed for Roberto Martinez’s side, scoring 13 Premier League goals in 29 appearances.

Last season, while on loan with West Brom, he found the net 17 times in 35 league matches and is expected to be given his chance by Mourinho next season.

Meanwhile, Simeone accepted that Adrian’s goal just before half time on Wednesday proved to be the turning point in the two-legged semi-final.

The first 135 minutes of the semi-final had been extremely tight, but the Spanish side went on to dominate the second half at Stamford Bridge on their way to recording a well-merited victory.

Former Argentina international defender Simeone said: “I’m happy. Our first goal was important and the start of the second half was very good.

“We understood that we had to move the ball quickly between Tiago and Mario Suarez and then to the sides so we could break their defence. At 2-1 we meant business.”

Dortmund went close to pulling off one of the great Champions League comebacks last night when they beat Real Madrid 2-0 in Germany.

Unfortunately for last year’s runners-up they fell short on aggregate as they went down 3-2 over the two legs.

Marco Reus scored both goals in the evening for Dortmund as they beat the Spanish giants at home for the second successive season to reward Betfair backers.

Real had the opportunity to score an important away goal early into the tie in the second leg. Fabio Coentrao’s cross was handled by Lukask Piszczek inside the box resulting in a penalty for the visitors. However, Angel Di Maria’s effort was saved by Roman Weidenfellar to keep his side alive.

Reus reduced the deficit to two goals when he took advantage of some poor defending from the nine-time winners of the European competition to delight first goalscorer punters with Betfair.

13 minutes later, Reus doubled his tally to give a Dortmund a good opportunity to become only the second side in the history of the Champions League to overcome a three goal defeat in the first leg of a tie.

Real improved in the second half and had chances of their own through Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, however, Weidenfellar was in good form to keep them out.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan came closest to levelling the two-legged tie on the night which would have forced extra-time, but the Japanese international was kept out by the post.

Real are second favourites in the outright market to win the trophy in Lisbon and will learn their opponents for the semi-final in Friday’s draw.

The Madrid club are still in contention in La Liga too where they are third but only three points off the top of the table. Rivals Barcelona are the favourites to land the domestic crown once again.