Legendary Italian manager Fabio Capello believes Real Madrid will be the team to beat under Jose Mourinho in this season’s Champions League.
Los Merengues will face two Italian giants, Inter Milan and AS Roma, during the league phase of the competition.
Source: tribuna.com
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Endrick and Aurelien Tchouameni have not fully recovered from their injuries and will miss tomorrow’s La Liga match against Malaga.
“Endrick’s close to returning, the closest.
Source: tribuna.com
The 2026 World Cup is now in the past, and attention has shifted back to club football as the Champions League begins to take shape. The draw in Monaco on Thursday confirmed the eight league-phase opponents for Real Madrid and Barcelona in the 2026/27 competition.
Although it is too early to identify the favorites, the two Spanish giants appear to have received contrasting schedules. Real Madrid will host Inter and travel to Arsenal, while Barcelona face major tests against Manchester City, PSG and Galatasaray.
Real Madrid, led by José Mourinho, will play four home matches and four away games during the league phase.
The Spanish side will welcome Inter, PSV, RB Leipzig and LASK. The meeting with Inter appears to be the most difficult of their home fixtures, although playing at the Santiago Bernabéu could give Real Madrid an early advantage as they look to collect valuable points.
On the road, Real Madrid will face Arsenal, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk and AEK Athens. Their trip to England to meet Arsenal is likely to be one of the most closely watched matches on their schedule.
Barcelona’s league-phase campaign includes several opponents capable of making the opening stage particularly challenging.
At home, they will play Manchester City, Aston Villa, Feyenoord and Como. The visit from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City stands out as the headline fixture among their home matches.
Hansi Flick’s team will travel to face PSG, Sporting CP, Galatasaray and Sabah. Their trip to Paris to meet the reigning European champions is clearly the toughest assignment in that group of away fixtures.
The match will carry additional intrigue because the two teams will meet again after their encounter last season.
Based on the names drawn, Real Madrid appear to have a slightly easier route through the 2026/27 Champions League league phase than Barcelona.
Still, the draw is only the beginning. The true difficulty of each schedule will become clear once the matches begin and every opponent becomes a genuine test capable of influencing the course of the season.
Source: www.marca.com
Despite a surge of reports and speculation over the past 24 hours, Real Madrid and Endrick have not changed their positions: the young forward will remain at the club.
Several interested clubs have submitted inquiries and requests regarding the Brazilian striker, but Endrick will not leave Real Madrid during the current transfer window.
Real Madrid now know the eight clubs they will face in the league phase of the 2026/27 UEFA Champions League. The draw, held in Monaco, handed the record 15-time winners a balanced schedule of four home fixtures at the Santiago Bernabéu and four away trips.
The 36 participating teams were split into four pots based on UEFA coefficients. As a Pot 1 side, Madrid were protected from drawing other Spanish clubs and could not face more than two teams from the same association. UEFA will confirm matchdates and kick-off times over the coming weekend.
The draw carries significant subtext for head coach José Mourinho. This Champions League campaign marks his first in a second spell at the club, and he arrives with a specific historical grievance: the “Big Eared” trophy eluded him during his first tenure (2010–2013), when Madrid reached three consecutive semi-finals but never advanced to the final. Having won the competition with Porto and Inter, the Portuguese manager is explicitly targeting a first European crown with Los Blancos to settle that debt.
The most high-profile fixture pits Madrid against Inter. The clubs have met 19 times previously, with Madrid holding a 10-win advantage. However, Inter inflicted one of the few final defeats in Madrid’s history, winning the 1964 European Cup final. The rivalry carries personal resonance for Mourinho, who secured his second Champions League title with Inter in 2010 — at the Bernabéu. Recent encounters have favored Madrid, who won both group-stage meetings in 2021/22.
The away trip to Arsenal carries a strong revenge narrative. The Gunners eliminated Madrid in the 2024/25 quarter-finals with a commanding 5-1 aggregate scoreline (3-0 at Emirates Stadium, featuring a Declan Rice brace; 2-1 at the Bernabéu). That defeat ranks among the most bitter European nights of the past two seasons, and Mourinho’s side will view the return fixture as a prime opportunity for recompense.
Roma represent another well-known adversary. The clubs have clashed repeatedly this century, exclusively in the Champions League, most recently in the 2015/16 round of 16, which Madrid won. PSV Eindhoven and Shakhtar Donetsk are also recurring group-stage opponents. Madrid generally hold the upper hand, though Shakhtar — who will play their designated home matches at Stamford Bridge — sprang a surprise with a 3-2 win at Valdebebas in 2020/21.
RB Leipzig return after a group-stage meeting in 2022/23. The fixture gains added intrigue because Leipzig developed Yan Diomande, who subsequently became the most expensive signing in Real Madrid’s history.
The schedule concludes with two infrequent opponents. AEK Athens represent a very rare matchup, while Austria’s LASK Linz will face Madrid for the first time in the club’s European history.
The league phase retains the structure introduced in recent editions. All 36 teams compete in a single table: the top eight advance directly to the round of 16; teams placed 9th–24th enter a two-legged knockout play-off round; the bottom 12 are eliminated with no Europa League fallback. From the round of 16 onward, the tournament reverts to a traditional knockout format culminating in the final on June 5, 2027, at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid.
With the opponents confirmed and the schedule imminent, Madrid — perennial favorites in their self-declared natural habitat — begin the pursuit of a sixteenth European crown.
Brazilian influencer, entrepreneur, and television presenter Virginia Fonseca has become the center of online controversy after a video posted by her personal trainer sparked intense debate across social media platforms. The footage, which appears to have been filmed inside the Madrid residence of Real Madrid star Vinícius Júnior, shows an interaction between Fonseca and her trainer that many viewers interpreted as inappropriate.
The clip captures a moment where the two appear to lean in close, leading numerous commenters to speculate they were about to kiss. The situation escalated when Fonseca visibly pushes the trainer away, a gesture that has been analyzed from multiple angles by fans and critics alike. While some online discussions veered toward the trainer’s sexuality, the predominant focus remained on the nature of the interaction itself and the perceived breach of professional boundaries.
Compounding the scrutiny is the setting of the video. Fans have identified the background as Vinícius Júnior’s private home gym, raising questions about Fonseca’s frequent presence at the footballer’s property. Critics have accused the influencer of treating the Real Madrid forward’s residence as a regular social hub, particularly around his fitness facilities. The apparent familiarity of the location intensified the backlash, with many expressing frustration that the interaction occurred inside what appears to be the athlete’s personal space.
Online commentary has split between those condemning the behavior as disrespectful to both the trainer and the homeowner, and others defending the interaction as a harmless moment taken out of context. The discourse highlights the intense public scrutiny faced by high-profile influencers and athletes regarding their private lives and social circles. As of now, neither Fonseca nor Vinícius Júnior has issued a public statement addressing the viral video or the surrounding allegations.