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FC Barcelona, Juventus and Sporting Clube de Portugal are already there, but the goal for several clubs on Matchday 5 is to reach the UEFA Champions League first knockout round with a game to spare.

"How could I not want to go to Madrid? The only thing that I have said is that I want to leave Zenit in the New Year. But I have not come out and said I prefer any particular team. Now the most important thing is not if Madrid want me, but whether Zenit will let me leave" the 27-year-old Russian international told AS.

Real Madrid have confirmed that Ruud van Nistelrooy will miss the rest of the season after undergoing knee surgery. It is believed that Real Madrid will be looking at bringing in striking reinforcements in January.

Following embarrassing exit from the King's Cup, board members of Real Madrid have reportedly given coach, Bernd Schuster an ultimatum to drag the team out of crisis immediately, or risk facing the sack. The Spanish press are claiming the defeat is the most shameful in Real's history, and a poll on Marca's website shows that over 75 per cent of fans believe it is the biggest embarrassment the team has ever faced.

Cristiano Ronaldo's agents have confirmed that the Portugese striker is set to have talks over a new contract deal at Manchester United.

Liverpool have 350m GBP (which includes 185m borrowed by the club's owners to buy Liverpool) to repay in January to Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia with an option to extend it a further six months. The two banks came close to going bankrupt in the banking crisis, whould want to keep lending Liverpool the money rather than call the loan is. So the Premier League side could struggle in the current economic climate.

French forward Thierry Henry has dismissed news linking him with a return to England. The player has been linked with a move to Manchester City and Chelsea in January, but he rubbished the stories and revealed that he wants to stay at Barcelona and win the league and cup double.

Real Madrid failed to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United this summer but now the Spaniard club got a player who is said to be his successor. The Rio Ave's 16-year-old striker Alpio Duarte Brandao is close to joining Real Madrid, the club set to pay 550,000 EUR for his services. The young soccer jewel (who was born in Brasilia in 1992, heights 178 cm, weights 68 kg) might join Real quite soon.

Before the end of his career Liverpool striker Fernando Torres would like to return to his hometown club Atletico Madrid. The 24-year-old Spanish international moved to Liverpool from Atletico in July 2007. "I don't know if I will retire there, but I would like to go back" said the player.

Despite their place at the top of the Serie A table (and first in their Champions League Group B), Internazionale coach Jose Mourinho has warned his players must improve if they want to keep these outstanding positions. Mourinho said that he was not satisfied with his team's play in attack and did not want to rely on late goals. "In the last minute you can win or lose a game and in our last three encounters, we have won twice and drawn once. But it could be that in the future it will be our rivals who score in the last minute." said the Portugese manager.

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon told Sky Sports News they have considered moving to a new location, but now they would increase Stamford Bridge's capacity. Reports over the weekend linked the club with a move away from Stamford Bridge. Kenyon dismissed scandals about leaving their home.

Filippo Inzaghi put pen to paper and extended his contract with AC Milan. The 35-year-old Italian striker signed for AC Milan from Juventus in 2001 and scored both goals in Champions League Final against Liverpool in 2001. The new deal expires in June 2010.

Fiorentina's Adrian Mutu suffered an adductory injury during Wednesday's match against Bayern München. The 29-year-old Romanian striker will be sidelined for a couple of weeks and won't play next UEFA Champions League fixture against Olympique Lyon on 25 November. It would be a big loss for the Italian side as Mutu scored on the latest match as well.

Speculation that he was thinking of quitting after a miserable week for his side was dismissed by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger himself: "No, I love it here. In my decisions always what is first is the interest of the club, not what the media will think. I cannot influence what people say but I can influence the future of the club."

Andrei Arshavin doesn't want to play at Zenit St Petersburg next year. The Russian playmaker looked set for a move to Barcelona or Tottenham during summer but both moves collapsed over his team's asking price, thought to be more than L20 million.

Juventus made their first win at Santiago Bernabeu since 1962. The Italian side beat Real Madrid with two amazing goals from Alessandro Del Piero to give Juventus 10 points from four Champions League group matches. The 33-year-old Del Piero received a standing ovation from the Spanish crowd when he was substituted. "I am proud of the applause I received at the Bernabeu, an incredible stadium and an extremely important one. You live for these kinds of emotions," said Del Piero. Real coach Bernd Schuster also paid tribute to the veteran Italian striker: "I enjoyed the ovation given to Alessandro Del Piero because he is a great player, he has proved his class and the Bernabeu recognised this fact."

Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has talked about his concern after the performance of his side. (3-1 loss in Rome.) "We gave too many opportunities to Roma. We made too many mistakes, made wrong passes and had bad positions. When you give away three goals you do worry," Scolari said.

After deciding to leave Lyon Karim Benzema would like to join Barcelona or Real Madrid next summer. The progress of the French forward is monitored by top European clubs like Manchester United, but the 20-year-old player wants to play in Spain next season. "I like Spain. Next year I will play for Barca or Madrid. I am only 20 and am working hard to improve all the time," he told France's Stade 2 programme.

Zenit St Petersburg manager Dick Advocaat has confirmet that he agrees new deal with the Russian club for another year. The Dutchman took charge of Zenit in June 2006 after stepping down as South Korea manager when the Asian team were eliminated at the group stage of the World Cup in Germany.

A negotiation has been opened with Carlos Tevez in a bid to keep the striker at Manchester. The Argentinan player has found first team opportunities limited this season as the partnership between Rooney and Berbatov has begun to flourish. "I sat down with him only last week to stress that our faith in him is absolute and he remains a top player in the eyes of myself, the supporters and the players. It's just that three players won't fit into two positions and my job is to balance the team. Carlos understands this and I have explained that when the season really hots up we will need everyone," Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told The Guardian.

Lubos Michel has joined Shakhtar Donetsk as head of international competitions department. The 40-year-old Slovakian referee, who retired last week because of injury, refereed the 2008 UEFA Champions League final. Michel said: "The invitation from Donetsk was quite unexpected, but I accepted the offer as I want to stay in football." Lubos Michel was UEFA Champions League official since 1998.

The winger of Manchester United named FIPro (Fédération Internationale de Footballeurs Professionels) World Player of the Year for the 2007/08 season. Cristiano Ronaldo received his award in Manchester on Monday. The 23-year-old Portugese international said: "To be recognised by my fellow professional players worldwide, coming from over 50,000 players, is amazing. I would like to thank my team-mates and coaches and everyone involved at Man United and the national team, as well as my family and friends for their support. Thank you also to FIFPro for this award and for your work in protecting the interests and welfare of players around the world."

"The player decided to stay in Manchester and we accept it. Manchester decided not to sell Cristiano Ronaldo and we don't want to do anything against a club like Manchester. [...] It is forgotten, not only for January but forever. I have a lot of respect for Manchester United. I have good relationship with David Gill and I want it to be like that for a long time" said Real president Ramon Calderon.

After they outclassed his side 3-0 at Old Trafford on Tuesday Celtic manager Gordon Strachan described Manchester United as the best team he had seen in Europe. "It was one of the best performances I have come accross watching European football. It will take some team to beat them, that's for sure" Strachan told said after the match.

Steaua Bucharest coach Marius Lacatus resigned after his team lost 5-3 to Olympique Lyon in Champions League Group F match. "When a team loses one match after another nobody other than the coach is responsible. It's clear that I lost the support of everybody, officials, supporters and media, so there is no room for me to go on any more" Lacatus told reporters.

Spaniard midfielder Cesc Fabregas reveals approach from an Italian club during this summer. "Yes, it's true. I did have offers from an Italian side" Fabregas told Sport.es. The Arsenal player transfered to London from Barcelona in 2003.

AC Milan has confirmed that David Beckham agreed to move to the Italian club on loan in January. The 33-year-old midfielder plays for Los Angeles Galaxy, but the season ends this weekend. "Beckham wants to train and play with Milan. We want him. He will arrive in January and we will sign him for the rest of the season" Milan vide-president Adriano Galliani told the BBC. "The stadiums will only fill up with superstars like Beckham. With him, Kaka and Ronaldinho, it would be a dream team" he said.

 Spanish Football - Barcelona at the top of La Liga

The Blaugranas of the Spanish League, the FC Barcelona, reached the top of the table of the Spanish Primera Liga this past Saturday, by beating the Malaga team 1-4.

The game was hard for Barcelona as heavy rainstorms were falling at the Malaga home stadium. But that didn't matter to Barca since they did a great job all game long and took advantage of their opportunities in the match.

Xavi Hernández opened the score by accomplishing the first goal at minute 5 in a free kick. Seven minutes later Duda tied the game for Malaga by picking up the ball outside the area and waving a shot. However, just six minutes later, things changed again for Barcelona at the 18", when Messi picked up a clearance from Weligton and scored the second goal for the Culés. On the second part of the match, Xavi appeared again scoring his second goal of the night during the minute 52, putting the game 1-3 in favor of his team Barcelona. Barca kept dominating the rest of the game and its last score was an own goal by Weligton when he turned aside the Dani Alves' free kick at the 80 minute.

This is Barcelona's eleven straight victory since the start of the season. FC Barcelona has won 3 games at the Champions League, and 8 in the Spanish League. Now the Barca next opponent in the Champions League is the Swiss team Basel. The game will be played at the home stadium of Barcelona, the Camp Nou, on November 4th. . On the other hand, in the Spanish League Barcelona will play against the 14th place Valladolid on November 8th. With this two games coming up, Barcelona will try to maintain their undefeated draw to add points to the classification of the Champions League and preserve their top spot in La Liga.

Currently, Barcelona has 22 points, followed by Villareal with 21 and Real Madrid and Valencia with 20 each. Team's manager Pep Guardiola is very pleased with the performance of his players and the attitude they have developed over the pass weeks, but he assure that this doesn't mean that the team is going to carry away and relax.

"The results come from humility and work and I am very satisfied with my players but would like to do this speech at the end of the season, it still 87 points left. Thinking the game is won before we play it is the danger here. We have to play with humility and respect to our opponents because if not we will be given a scare," expressed Guardiola.

Now the Barcelona is considered by the fans and the analysts as one of the strongest and favorites' teams to win La Liga. However, we'll see if the Barcelona players will maintain their shape and their way of playing throughout the rest of the season. We all hope that with the contribution of Xavi, Messi, Iniesta and the rest of the team, Barcelona will keep their winning spirit and the unification that characterizes the club this year.

Ally White is a top senior copy writer on Spanish League Soccer and sports action for the sportsbook www.instantactionsports.com/ Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.