Real Madrid

In the Champions League quarterfinals, Real Madrid were in a dire situation, having lost the first leg at Wolfsburg. A Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick later, they were in the semifinals.

It's not quite so dire this time for Madrid, having drawn the semi-final first leg 0-0 in Manchester, but they basically need to win to advance. 

Good news for Real Madrid fans: Cristiano Ronaldo is back in training. The club announced their superstar Portuguese winger completed a training session Monday, leaving the door open for the Ballon d'Or runner-up to take the pitch in the Champions League later this week.

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo injury setback means the Portuguese forward faces a race against time in his battle for fitness. The AS is reporting that Cristiano Ronaldo will undergo a round of stem cell treatments in order to try and return for the second leg of Real Madrid's Champions League clash with Manchester City next Wednesday.

They say that people die three years after they retire, that the loss of something meaningful to do ruins their desire to live. This idea of life as a conscious decision might seem a little too dramatic to be real, but Cristiano Ronaldo’s rejuvenation over the past month leads to the contrary. The possibility of success this year has given Ronaldo a new lease on life.

Zinedine Zidane'sReal Madrid squad just advanced in the Champions League after it looked like all was lost, so he can maybe be forgiven if he said some outlandish sh** following the game.

From ESPNFC:

Zinedine Zidane said he was keeping a level head after Real Madrid rallied to defeat Wolfsburg in the Champions League, something he also claimed -- a little disingenuously -- to have done as a player.

A crunch meeting between French national team manager Didier Deschamps and the president of the French Federation, Noel Le Graet, has yielded the decision to omit striker Karim Benzema from selection for the French squad at Euro 2016.

Everyone thought Tuesday's Champions League match between Wolfsburg and Real Madrid was exciting: fans, journalists, players, etc. One man, though, stood above the rest in freaking out about the sheer excitement of Madrid's 3-0 victory that erased a 2-0 aggregate deficit and earned them a place in the semifinals: Zinedine Zidane.

Yes, that Zidane. The same Zidane that won everything there is to win in soccer. The same Zidane who could do things with a soccer ball we hadn't seen before and haven't seen since.

Sometimes we forget just how good Cristiano Ronaldo is. For example, after Wolfsburg's 2-0 win against Real Madrid last week in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, we forgot how good Cristiano is. 

Just how good is he?