Borussia Dortmund 2 Real Madrid 0 (Real Madrid win 3-2 on aggregate)

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti played down the injury-enforced substitution of Cristiano Ronaldo during yesterday’s 5-0 win over Almeria, insisting it was only “a little problem”.

Barcelona 2 Real Madrid 1

The €100 million man Gareth Bale joined fellow galacticos David Beckham, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo in scoring on his La Liga debut for Real Madrid on Saturday night, but was still upstaged by teammates Diego Lopez and Ronaldo — who looks keen to show he remains Madrid’s top dog.

Bayern Munich have confirmed the signing of Barcelona midfielder Thiago Alcantara, subject to a medical.

This time, there were no easy labels; no slick slogans. The hope at Real Madrid, however, is that it’s all finally a lot less superficial than that.

There was something dispiriting about the last half hour of Barcelona’s 0-3 Champions League semi-final second leg defeat to Bayern Munich on Wednesday.