It's finally here - .
Well, the countdown has begun to El Clasico on Sunday - although it actually began in late July when the Spanish fixtures computer spewed out the date of the clash.
Spanish league leaders travel to bitter rivals for perhaps the most emotional derby game in the world.
Neither side ever needs any extra motivation for this match but, as often in the past, the first encounter between the pair this season appropriately brings together the top two teams in .
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To read some British newspapers at the weekend, it looks almost a done deal that the former France and Manchester United defender .
Sorry, United fans, but others are in the queue to sign up Blanc before your club's owner Malcolm Glazer or chief executive David Gill get the green light from Sir Alex to lure him to Old Trafford as manager.
For a start, the almost certainly has got designs on arguably the best European coach under the age of 45, with the possible exception of .
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Is history about to repeat itself? Is Miroslav the Magician about to wave his wand again and guide another unheralded team, this time Bosnia-Hercegovina, through to the World Cup finals?
The bespectacled septuagenarian coach Miroslav Blazevic - born in Bosnia to a Croatian family in 1935, before what became modern Yugoslavia was even on the map - has taken Bosnia to unprecedented heights in the past 16 months, and they are just one step away from booking their place in .
When the mildly eccentric Blazevic - widely known as Ciro - who went through most of the 1998 World Cup when he was in charge of Croatia wearing his lucky charm of a French policeman's hat, signed up for the job in July last year, it looked like being a poisoned chalice.
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Real Madrid won their first game in four on Saturday - -to put them just one point behind league leaders Barcelona, but it would be naive to think that The Sword of Damocles no longer hangs over the head of coach Manuel Pellegrini.
The Chilean got the dreaded vote of confidence from Real president Florentino Perez on Sunday and while it doesn't have the same connotations in Spain that it does in Britain, Pellegrini will be hoping and praying that his men produce a good performance in Milan on Tuesday
Speculation about Pellegrini's future was doing the rounds even before the Champions League loss to Milan.
Unappealing football, uncharacteristic mistakes by the top players, people asking just how could be so boring, all contributed to the cultured but uncharismatic Pellegrini being under the cosh from the Spanish public and the media.
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Hi, I'm Phil Minshull. I've lived in Spain since 1997 and covered Spanish football since the first day I got here. My blog aims to provide some insight into what's happening in La Liga, and there is much more to it than only Real and Barcelona, as well as elsewhere around Europe.
