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Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho will be without Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Carvalho for Saturday’s game against Hercules, and has bizarrely threatened to leave out goalkeeper Iker Casillas next weekend to “make it easy” for Barcelona to win La Liga.

Mourinho used his pre-match press conference on Friday morning to once again hit out at the fixture schedule he believes favours Pep Guardiola’s side, and claimed he could omit Spain captain Casillas against Atletico Madrid a week later to aid Barca’s cause.

“Iker won’t be with us because he won’t be in the squad against Atletico [next weekend],” he said. “If they want to end the league before time, I might as well make it easy for them.”

Ronaldo and Carvalho have been left out of Mourinho’s squad, the former recovering from injury and the latter rested with Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg against Lyon in mind. Lassana Diarra returns after suspension, though, while Alvaro Arbeloa, Sami Khedira and Ezequiel Garay are back from injuries.

Mourinho reiterated his unhappiness with the fixture schedule, which he claims has worked in Barca’s favour.

“We are in a situation where as soon as we drop a point we lose the championship, although not mathematically so,” he said. “I am not stupid and I know this.

“There is a team that played in the Champions League on Tuesday and have no game in the league until the following Sunday [Barca this week], while another one is forced to play in Europe on Wednesday and then Saturday in the league [Madrid next week].

“Not everyone has the same chance to compete. Not everyone plays under the same rules. The competition is not open. I will not comment further.”

Madrid defend the best home record in La Liga against a Hercules side with just one away win this season, but Mourinho’s men will know better than to underestimate the Alicante-based outfit.

Hercules have picked up only six points on their travels – the second-worst tally in La Liga – and netted only three goals, but three of those points and two of those goals came in their shock victory over Barca at the Camp Nou in September.

However, Madrid have won their last 23 successive games at the Bernabeu, and in 13 league fixtures in front of their own fans this campaign they have scored 44 goals and conceded just six, with their last home game resulting in a 7-0 thrashing of Malaga.

That form makes second-placed Madrid overwhelming favourites to defeat third-bottom Hercules. A home win would provisionally cut Barca’s lead at the summit to four points, with the Catalan giants facing a tough trip to Sevilla on Sunday.

While Madrid are still in contention for three titles this season, Hercules are fighting to avoid an immediate return to the Segunda Division.

The top-flight newcomers had looked set to stay up with relative ease earlier in the season as they proved themselves a tough opponent, especially for La Liga’s big guns. Aside from their win over Barca, Hercules also beat Sevilla, drew with Villarreal and thrashed Atletico Madrid 4-1.

However, they have picked up just seven points from a possible 33 in 2011 and now find themselves in the bottom three following last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat to fellow strugglers Almeria.

The promoted club are now a point adrift of safety and are widely expected to suffer more misery at the hands of Madrid tomorrow, although coach Esteban Vigo is not giving up the game for lost.

“Winning at Barcelona also looked difficult,” he said. “The thought that we cannot win at Madrid has not even entered our heads.”

Paraguay forward Nelson Haedo Valdez, scorer of both goals in the 2-0 win at the Camp Nou, is available again after injury, but Royston Drenthe, David Trezeguet, Tote and Francisco Pena are all missing.

Credit: http://soccernet.espn.go.com

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Hannover returned to Earth with a bump as, six days after beating Bayern Munich, they were thrashed by Cologne.

Goals from Petit, Lukas Podolski and a late brace from Milivoje Novakovic ended Hannover’s run of three straight Bundesliga victories and dented their Champions League ambitions.

Victory would have sent the visitors second in the table. Instead they could be just two points ahead of fifth-placed Bayern by the end of the weekend.

Mirko Slomka’s men looked anything but one of the top three sides in the country as they were totally outplayed by a Cologne side who have also enjoyed recent success over the champions.

Hannover, though, carved out the first chance as Jan Schlaudraff’s shot from seven yards was turned away for a corner by goalkeeper Michael Rensing.

The visitors threatened again when Konstantin Rausch raced down the left, cut inside and got in a shot which Rensing again had to push behind.

But that was as good as it got for Hannover as the hosts took control.

Christian Eichner tested keeper Ron-Robert Zieler with a shot following Mato Jajalo’s corner before Petit put Cologne in front in the 35th minute, the former Portugal midfielder firing a free-kick into the bottom corner.

And they ran away with the contest in the second half, Podolski taking a pass from Christian Clemens and rounding replacement keeper Florian Fromlowitz to score.

Fromlowitz had only come on for the injured Zieler in the 52nd minute and was having a miserable night, fumbling Podolski’s ball in to leave Novakovic with a simple tap-in to make it 3-0 in the 79th minute.

And the Slovenian rounded off a thumping win a minute from time by heading home Adil Chihi’s cross at the far post.

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Goals from Loic Remy and Lucho Gonzalez secured a victory which takes Marseille within a point of the Ligue 1 summit, for 48 hours at least.

Remy nodded in Andre Ayew’s cross midway through the first half and Ayew’s younger brother Jordan was the provider as Lucho clinched victory with 10 minutes remaining.

Rennes remain level on 49 points with leaders Lille – who play Valenciennes on Sunday – while Marseille closed the gap to keep themselves firmly in a tensely-poised title race.

Didier Deschamps’ side endured a nervous moment after 20 minutes when Remy gave the ball away and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda had to scramble back into position to save Jerome Leroy’s ambitious 50-yard lob.

They responded immediately as Lucho shot wide after a neat exchange with Andre Ayew, whose next delivery allowed Remy to redeem himself with a neat header at the far post to open the scoring.

Victor Montano failed to hit the target from Razak Boukari’s cross as Rennes remained behind at the interval, and Yann Mvila volleyed Leroy’s free-kick wide early in the second period.

Andre Ayew combined with Andre-Pierre Gignac before setting up Remy, who timed his run perfectly but saw a powerful effort turned behind by goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez.

Douchez made an even better save to gather Stephane M’Bia’s header from a Benoit Cheyrou cross, and then used his feet to deny Gignac and keep his team in the game.

He was left powerless, though, when a poor defensive header fell to the younger Ayew – a substitute for Gignac – and he unselfishly teed up Lucho to finish calmly and make the points safe.

Credit: http://soccernet.espn.go.com