River Plate’s Maidana wants to face Real Madrid after Copa Libertadores win

River Plate defender Jonatan Maidana reacted to his club’s win over Boca Juniors in the Copa Libertadores Final by hoping for a potential matchup with Real Madrid in the Club World Cup.

“Now we go for Real Madrid, our next goal.”

“We won a fair final, now to celebrate the achievement.”

Real Madrid feature in the semi-final of the Club World Cup on December 19, their opponent is still to be decided. River Plate will also play in the semi-final against a different team yet to be decided.

Both Real and River Plate are the favorites to win this year’s competition, a matchup between the two in the final has good potential to happen. Maidana may just get his wish and face Real on the 22nd.

Solari reacts to Real Madrid’s win over Huesca

Real manager Santiago Solari had some thoughts on Real Madrid’s win over Huesca on Sunday. He proceeded to praise the character the team showed in their 1-0 win, but did deem the conditions as “ugly”.

“The conditions are the same for both, but the wind has made the game ugly and it was very difficult to control and pass in. If you ask the players, it was less precise because of that.”

“I emphasize our character, because these games you have to know how to suffer and win them, we didn’t know where the ball was going to fall and we are less adapted to this type of game.”

“There are times when there is no way to get out of an area. Sometimes you do not choose the area where you need to play. There are parts where the wind blows a lot.”

“That was not the only condition, because they pushed us very far.”

“We were able to increase the lead, but we did not do it and we suffered because the other team pressured us, that’s the way it is.”

“There are games that take place like this and to overcome them is a test of character, the team has had a lot of character.”

Real’s passing was definitely off on Sunday against Huesca. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but they got the job done and were able to capture all three points to bring them back into the top four of LaLiga. In addition to that, Bale was able to finally break his goalless streak in the league.

With the club back in the top four, the poor start to the season is finally starting to mend itself back together for Real Madrid. They’re now only two in back of both Sevilla and Atletico, and five in back of league leaders Barcelona.

Bayern reportedly targeting Isco

A new report from SportBild has now come out rumoring Bayern Munich as an interested suitor for Isco, adding Bayern to the mix of other rumored teams Manchester City and Juventus.

The report also claims that Bayern have already contacted for a summer move. Of course, they are still riding the idea that Isco is not in Real’s future plans. He has played more since the Tuttosport rumors came out a couple weeks ago, this is just adding more rumors to the fire.

There’s still no reason to believe these rumors, until there’s actually some evidence that a move is already happening. The Italian outlets are sure that Juventus is going to move for him, while now SportBild is riding Bayern as the favorites for him. It is still much too early to worry about rumors of a summer move already in the works.