Real Madrid round-up: new sponsor, Ramos, Sporting Lisbon
Zinedine Zidan's men are coming off their best win of the season but all attention has turned to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night.
New sponsor
Real Madrid have signed a new deal with "Codere Apuestas" as their sponsor for the next four years. The agreement with the new sponsor will be presented on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Good memories for Ramos
Sergio Ramos has good memories of Lisbon and he was reminded of them when he landed in the Portuguese city. The television at the airport showed his goal against Atletico Madrid that came deep into stoppage time in the final of the 2014 Champions League. He joked "it would have been nice if I had of scored a little bit earlier."
Sporting fancy their chances
Sporting's goalkeeper, Rui Patricio, is optimistic heading into his side's game against Real Madrid. "Our objective is to win and our fans will be crucial. We want a better finish than the previous trip." sporting were pipped at the post by a late Alvaro Morata goal to lose 2-1.
High-risk game
The Portuguese police have deemed Sporting and Real Madrid as an "elevated risk" game. This comes in response to the belief that the game will be a sell-out crowd in Estadio José Alvalade, which is just over 50,000 fans.
Team of the year
Real Madrid are well represented on UEFA's Team of the Year poll with no less than eight players on the shortlist. Those players include Keylor Navas, Dani Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The final line-up will be announced on January 5th.
Kovacic improving his numbers
Mateo Kovacic has played 972 minutes this season, which is 58.9% of all Real's games. This is an improvement on his number last season at this stage when he played just 445 minutes (30.9% of all Real Madrid's minutes.)