“It will be fantastic … I don’t like the word revenge – it will be interesting not just for us players but for the supporters and everyone who loves football. It will be interesting because at the moment we are the two best teams.

“The games will be very, very difficult. We are going to play against one of the best teams in the world, which is Barcelona.” But the Portuguese star also acknowledges that he does not consider the Liga leaders invincible: “We have to think it is possible because they are not from another world – they play football like the very best teams, but we are also strong.”

The article also mentions that one factor that could play in Madrid’s favour against Barcelona is their defensive resilience on the European stage this season. José Mourinho’s charges have now kept eight clean sheets in ten outings, and they succeeded in frustrating Tottenham on Wednesday night. Will this have an impact on the meetings between Spain’s two biggest clubs, especially in the two Champions League ties? Have your say in the comments.

Today FC Barcelona announced it will take legal action against the radio station COPE over allegations that the Catalan club may have been involved in doping. At totalBarça we first reported about this case last month, you can read that full piece here.


As the club informed readers on its official website:

FC Barcelona has today presented to the civil courts in Barcelona a lawsuit against Radio Popular S.A. (COPE) for an attack on its honour deriving from the comments made by the journalist Juan Antonio Alcalá in the programme ‘El Partido de las 12’, on March 13th this year, which linked sportsmen and medical staff from the Club with doping practices.

FC Barcelona considers these comments to have damaged its image, prestige and reputation and that they constitute a clear attack on a constitutional right which this lawsuit will attempt to redress.

In line with the technical valuations used to quantify this type of injury, the Club is claiming 6,190,090 Euros in damages.