Good week for Benzema & Berlin, bad week for Xavi & Xabi

Jimbo and the continental crew of James Horncastle, Raphael Honigstein, Alvaro Romeo and Julien Laurens cast their eyes over a huge weekend in Europe. Karim Benzema wins the Ballon d’Or and scores in El Clasico as Real Madrid assert their dominance over Barcelona. Questions start to be asked of Xavi as elimination from the Champions League looms for Barca. It’s been a bad seven days for Xabi Alonso at Leverkusen after two thrashings but Union Berlin defeat Dortmund to stay top of the Bundesliga. Can they go all the way? Can Napoli or an Ademola Lookman-inspired Atalanta go all the way in Serie A? And in France, Laurent Blanc returns and Kylian Mbappe U-turns.  Produced by Charlie Jones. RUNNING ORDER:  • PART 1a: Benzema wins the Ballon d’Or (02.00) • PART 1b: Moment of the weekend (06.00) • PART 2: La Liga – a rough week for Barca (10.30)  • PART 3: Ligue 1 – Mbappe u-turn and Blanc is back (25.00) • PART 4: Bundesliga – Union stay strong, Alonso’s Leverkusen crumble (35.00) • PART 5: Serie A – can Atalanta go all the way? (45.00) SIGN UP TO THE ATHLETIC TODAY FOR £1 A MONTH FOR THE FIRST 6 MONTHS • theathletic.com/totally Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices