The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of your beloved mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix and yours truly.

Preparations for Elche are under way!

The squad came together for the first training session of the week, as they prepare for this weekend’s home game against Elche.

The Gareth Bale & Tottenham saga

Gareth Bale is on a good-no, great run of form as of late. So much so that Hotspur fans ought to be crossing their fingers that he doesn’t have another one of his usual injuries interrupt said run. Gareth Bale himself said that he chose to go to Spurs to play, while the club apparently (and understandably so) haven’t decided what to do with him just yet. The Welsh winger has 10 goals in all competitions for Spurs at the time of writing.

Champions League R-16 second leg : DAY 2

The Round of 16 games of our much-loved competition continue on Wednesday. More specifically, we’ve got:

• Liverpool vs RB Leipzig (current agg. 2-0), and of course
• Paris Saint Germain VS Barcelona (current agg. 4-1)

There’s probably little point in asking which one most of us are more interested in. It will be quite interesting to see whether Barcelona can pile the pressure on PSG and pull a comeback like that comeback, though this Paris Saint Germain team have a point to prove and won’t easily let qualification slip through their fingers. As for the other game, it may be unwise to consider the job done already, as Liverpool have been anything but commendable at home lately and Leipzig are a very decent team. All in all, this ought to be an interesting night of football (or day, depending on where you live).

So what’s your take? What do you think will happen in these games?

Have a very nice day and may the madridismo be with you.