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We will shortly be off to stick the turkey in the oven, but before we go, we would like to wish all of our members, visitors and regular readers a very happy Christmas and a great start into the New Year!

After the injury Christoph Metzelder picked up in the final minutes of the match against Valencia last Saturday turned out to be a broken nose, the Real Madrid defender underwent surgery on Monday. He is expected to start training with the rest of the team on 29 December and will have to play with a protective mask for about a month.

In the first knock-out round of the Champions League, nine-time winners Real Madrid will meet five-time champions Liverpool FC. The 1st leg match will be played in Madrid on 25 February 2009, while the Whites will visit the Reds at their Anfield Road home on 10 March 2009.

Spanish champions Real Madrid have chucked out coach Bernd Schuster today at midday and presented former Tottenham manager Juande Ramos merely ninety minutes later.

Juande has already conducted his first training session and presser this afternoon. His first match as Madrid head coach will be tomorrow's Champions League game against Zenit St. Petersburg, and he will start la liga with the clásico in Barcelona this coming Saturday.

In an eventful La Liga match Real Madrid lost to Sevilla on Sunday night. The guest side scored as early as minute 3, but Los Blancos' captain Raúl equalised a quarter of an hour later. Further three minutes into the match Romaric put Sevilla ahead again and Kanouté hammered the 3-1 lead before half-time.

Madrid came back onto the pitch with Drenthe in place of Van der Vaart and started to seriously up the ante, with Higuaín (66th) and Gago (68th) levelling. The already booked Robben was shown his second yellow (for protesting) in minute 77, and with one player short, Madrid did not manage to prevent Sevilla's Renato from scoring the 4-3.

Before Madrid face archrivals Barcelona next weekend in el clásico, the white shirts have one more Champions League group match to play on Wednesday when Zenit St. Petersburg visits the Bernabéu.