The Catalan club took advantage of weekend slip-ups by Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid  Leer

Ante Budimir’s career has taken him on a long and winding road. But now he is in the record books at Osasuna Mari Carmen was 78 and late. It was a January morning in Pamplona, cold and wet, and the taxi that was supposed to take her to hospital hadn’t turned up. Standing in the street watching time and traffic pass but no cabs, she was getting a bit worried when she saw a young man she thought she recognised. She, after all, is an Osasuna supporter and he is their striker. Although, like her, he wasn’t having the best of times back then; he was halfway through the season, well into the winter, and had scored just once, when she approached. “Excuse me,” Mari Carmen said. “Are you Ante Budimir? Could you do me a favour? Could you take me to the hospital?” So he did, and there was the selfie to prove it. Mari Carmen knew her family would never believe her but, originally from tiny Carcastillo 50 miles south, recently widowed and having moved to the capital for health reasons, a tumour returning, that was definitely her in the front seat and that was definitely him alongside her. The picture eventually appeared weeks later when her daughter Myriam posted a cartoon strip to thank the many people who had helped her mum over a couple of difficult, lonely months, in which it felt like everything was going wrong at once. “Good on Osasuna for signing people before stars,” she wrote. Continue reading...

Inter lose 1-0 at Juventus to a Francisco Conceição goalReferee stops match at Espanyol after player complaints Inter missed the chance to go top of Serie A as they fell to a 1-0 loss at Juventus on Sunday with Francisco Conceição scoring the decisive late goal in an action packed match. The Portuguese winger sparked jubilation in the stadium after 74 minutes following some clever footwork in the box by Randal Kolo Muani before he found Conceição, who fired home. Continue reading...

Jude Bellingham was shown a red card for dissent as Real Madrid drew 1-1 with Osasuna on Saturday and Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has weighed in on the situation

Trent Alexander-Arnold continues to be linked with a move away from Liverpool with his contract expiring this summer and Real Madrid look like favourites to snap up the England right-back on a free transfer

Paulo Gazzaniga’s hat-trick of penalty saves was fresh in the mind but Bilbao ran out comfortable victors at San Mamés Paulo Gazzaniga rapped his studs against a post, tapped his fingertips against the crossbar and flashed the smile that broke so many hearts. In the final minutes before Athletic Club faced Girona on Saturday afternoon, Ernesto Valverde was asked who would take the penalties and gave an answer almost as loaded as the question: “Only one thing’s certain,” the coach said, “it won’t be me.” Less than an hour later, it had actually happened, which maybe it had to, another man standing before a screen inviting that guy back into their lives. So now here they were again, Iñaki Williams on the spot with the ball under his arm, Girona’s goalkeeper a few yards away wearing a look so knowing, it had a PhD. Oh, he knew. They all did: the 48,261 people in San Mamés stands, the 22 on the pitch, everyone on the bench. Williams, especially. The last time he had faced Gazzaniga, four months earlier, had hit him hard, the striker insisting he felt responsible for a 2-1 defeat. “This can’t happen,” he said, but it had. At 1-1, Gazzaniga had saved his penalty and that wasn’t the half of it: he had already stopped Alex Berenguer’s penalty and when he was spotted off the line this time, Athletic allowed to try for a third time, Williams asked Ander Herrera to take it instead – so Gazzaniga saved that too, a unique hat-trick completed before Cristhian Stuani scored Girona’s 99th-minute winner. Continue reading...

William Saliba has been a target for Real Madrid for some time, but Arsenal's stance on the French international defender has become clear amid interest from Spain

La Liga updates, 8pm GMT kick-off at the BernabéuLive scoreboard | And you can send Dom an email Real Madrid might have their fair share of defensive injuries – Antonio Rudiger, Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal remain out while David Alaba is still working his way back – but that’s a heck of a squad in terms of depth elsewhere. Camavinga is only deemed ready enough for the bench, with the Tchouaméni-Asencio partnership in central defence the only obvious flaw. Conor Gallagher doesn’t make the start for Atletico, who will be looking to the in-form Giuliano Simeone – son of head coach Diego, of course – to make an impact from the start. And there’s always super sub Alexander Sørloth to come off the bench and score a goal. Continue reading...

Vinicius Jr has been linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League and the Real Madrid star has rejected the offer of a new deal, with the winger holding out for a bumper pay rise

Jude Bellingham has yet to score against Atletico Madrid for rivals Real Madrid but can set the record straight when he faces off against compatriot Conor Gallagher

William Saliba continues to be linked with a transfer to Real Madrid and the Arsenal defender is now said to be the side's top target for the summer with Trent Alexander-Arnold also linked

Son of Atlético manager is enjoying breakthrough season and prepares to face leaders Real Madrid for the first time When Atlético Madrid scored against Real Madrid in the city derby at the Vicente Calderón in January 2015 and the old place erupted, a tiny ballboy in a white bib came running along the touchline from his position near the bench and leapt into the arms of the coach, Diego Simeone. On Saturday night, 10 years on, the pair of them will be as close but if Atlético score at the Santiago Bernabéu don’t expect the same embrace. Not even if the kid scores it, and he might. If he does, it would mean everything: “Atlético,” he says, “is the team of my life.” His name is Giuliano and he was 12 then. He is 22 now and these days he plays for Atlético, still flying up the wing, looking like his lungs might explode. He has become the embodiment of Atlético’s identity during a season in which they are fighting for everything. He is also an academy product and Simeone’s son, however much the manager tries to avoid that fact. Continue reading...

Arsenal are facing competition from Real Madrid in their pursuit of Martin Zubimendi, who rejected the chance to join Liverpool last summer in order to stay at Real Sociedad

A chaotic and dramatic end to Friday’s 1-0 win at Leganés extended Rayo Vallecano’s unbeaten run to eight matches The ball was in play for just four seconds during the last 11 minutes of another Madrid derby but that was enough, every emotion packed into eight touches and 100 freeze-frames on a cold Friday night across the motorways to the south of the city. The difference between triumph and disaster was a fine line painted white and a goalkeeper in green. Leganés were suddenly, unexpectedly lifted up and handed a lifeline, only to be knocked down, lifted up, knocked down, lifted up and knocked down again. Rayo Vallecano, meanwhile, were taken on the same journey in the other direction, eventually left standing, celebrating something they couldn’t imagine before and wouldn’t imagine now. “Very mad,” the Rayo striker Sergio Camello called it. All of it: the fact they, the club who have only played European football once and thanks to fair play, had just won 1-0 and were sixth and the way they got there, how close they had been to having it taken away again, everything unfolding so fast feelings couldn’t catch up. “I can still feel the fright,” the manager Iñigo Pérez said. “You play football for years, watch it, even start coaching, and think you’ve seen it all. But this is something that’s never happened to me.” What had happened shouldn’t have, he said, an epic end his team could have avoided, but it was better this way, Augusto Batalla performing a miraculous rescue by saving a last-second penalty. Continue reading...