Chelsea Get A Goal And A Draw, Schalke Embarrassed By Real Madrid, RVP Uncertainty

Ahhh...

Good times in Gelsenkirchen last night. Here's how it went down. We'll begin with Real Madrid's contributions to the proceedings: Karim Benzema 13, Gareth Bale 21, Cristiano Ronaldo 52, Karim Benzema 57, Gareth Bale 69, Cristiano Ronaldo 89. And for Schalke? Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 90 + 0:13 !!

Yes, a 6-1 win on the road pretty much ends that tie. In the other match over in Turkey, Chelsea got the critical away goal thanks to Fernando Torres and the match ended 1-1. Marcus Christensen has Five Talking Points. Ben Littleton looks at both matches. And German expert Raphael Honigstein wasn't terribly surprised with the result.

At this point you've got to have Bayern Munich and Real Madrid as the favorites to win the whole thing, with Barcelona sitting a bit behind those two.

Here are five things we learned from this week's action: Here. Right here.

RVP is back in the headlines a day after saying that some of his teammates were getting in his way. It's all very odd. Today, he claims the season has been "lousy." Well, yes. Yes, it has. On that note, let's take a look at David Moyes, Manchester United, and the spectre of Sir Alex.

There is more European action today as the Europa League makes an effort to reduce its field to 16. Here's a preview.

Michael Bradley lost a bet.

Enough.

Onward!!

-SSN