Real Madrid

Real Madrid won its third straight Champions League in 2018. For once, Los Blancos also topped the charts in Champions League revenue.

UEFA released the 2017-18 Champions League revenue (and Europa League, if anyone cares) on Thursday. For the first time during Real Madrid’s impressive back-to-back-to-back UCL championships, the club also won the most prize money. 

UEFA doled out $1.605 billion in Champions League revenue, an increase over the $1.5 billion it gave out in 2016-17. Real Madrid took home $100.8 million of it.

El Clasico 2018 Time, Preview, Team News And Prediction 

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid | Camp Nou

Sunday, October 28, 2018 | 11:15 a.m. ET

TV: beIN SPORTS USA or beIN SPORTS en Español

Stream: Fubo TV, Sling TV or beIN SPORTS CONNECT U.S.A 

With El Clásico looming on Sunday, the only good news for Real Madrid at the present is the absence of Lionel Messi. Yes, Real climbed to the top of Champions League Group G on Tuesday after narrowly defeating Czech First League side Plzeň 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu, but you could easily argue that Los Blancos looked better during last weekend’s shock 2-1 defeat to Levante.

With Real Madrid mired in a five-match winless streak and displaying historic levels of ineptitude at the attacking end, manager Julen Lopetegui is being framed as a dead man walking.

Real Madrid Castilla (the club’s reserve team) kept up its fine start to Segunda División B Group 1 play with a 1-1 away draw to Celta Vigo B on Sunday. 18-year-old Brazilian phenom Vinícius Júnior scored his fourth goal in five appearances for the team, but any hopes of being involved in next Sunday’s El Clásico at the Camp Nou were dashed when he was sent off for diving shortly after.

FC Barcelona has updated the world on the severity of the arm injury which forced Lionel Messi off in the 26th minute of the club’s 4-2 victory over Sevilla on Saturday, and it’s terrible news for fans of the beautiful game: Messi has fractured the radial bone in his right arm and will be out for three weeks. 

Accordingly, Barca’s captain will miss Wednesday’s Champions League match against Inter Milan and, most notably, next Sunday’s El Clásico at the Camp Nou. 

Before the international break, the Real Madrid scoreless streak reached near unprecedented levels. Los Blancos finally scored on Saturday on their return to the Bernabeu, but it wasn’t nearly enough as Levante defeated the Madristas 2-1 in LaLiga action.

On Tuesday, Oct. 23, Cristiano Ronaldo will return to Old Trafford for only the second time since making his 2009 then-world-record-transfer of nearly $110 million to the Santiago Bernabéu.

Ronaldo has played against Manchester United in three competitive matches over the following period — the 2012-13 Champions League Round of 16 and a brief, seven-minute cameo during the 2017 UEFA Super Cup in Macedonia. 

We got our first real glimpse of 18-year-old Real Madrid phenom Vinícius Júnior during Real Madrid’s shock 1-0 defeat to Alaves on Oct. 6, but that appearance (his second for the senior side) was still just a 10-minute cameo.