Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid: Spain’s Champions League hopefuls have an easier time than England’s

A Different League: La Liga teams’ domestic rivals want signed shirts as much as league points

Cristiano Ronaldo can take it easy tonight while 45,000 Real supporters don masks of his face (Getty Images)

If everything goes to plan at the Bernabeu Stadium tonight, Real Madrid supporters will put on 45,000 Cristiano Ronaldo face-masks in support of their player’s Ballon d’Or candidacy.

Real’s injured forward will look down from his private box and see thousands of versions of himself staring back. There will also be a six-metre-high banner draped over one side of the stadium that reads: “We are all Cristiano.”

The club have organised the distribution of the masks at the request of two independent supporter groups and it’s a measure of how comfortable they are in the Champions League that, having all but mathematically assured themselves top spot in their group, they can allow so much attention in their penultimate game against Galatasaray to be concentrated on one player’s pursuit of a personal honour.

Early qualification as group winners might not be the only reason to believe Real could go all the way this season, giving Ronaldo a final back on Portuguese soil next May.

This is a Real Madrid side saving itself for Europe and able to do so because of a relatively weak league. Xabi Alonso, who turned 32 on Monday, has been able to delay his comeback after five months out following surgery on a groin problem and a broken toe. He will be rested before big European games as the season progresses. As he decides between staying at Real and exercising his right to talk to Premier League clubs in January, the lesser physical demands in Spain may be a deciding factor.

Ronaldo could now have three weeks’ rest if what coach Carlo Ancelotti describes as a “very small injury” also rules him out of Saturday’s league game – he misses the following week’s cup game through suspension.

Atletico Madrid have turned the title race into a three-team affair but the intensity required domestically does not compare with what the Premier League’s four Champions League sides face. This season the English teams will need to apply themselves every week just to finish in the top four, never mind win the title. For Real there is no such strain and their 5-0 win over Almeria on Saturday was a case in point.

At the end of the first half Gareth Bale was approached by Almeria full-back Sebastian Dubarbier, who wanted his shirt. Slightly bemused by the request, Bale made his way down the tunnel still wearing his No 11.

In the second half Dubarbier, perhaps with the shirt still on his mind, failed to clear the ball on the edge of his own six-yard box and allowed Bale to score Real Madrid’s third goal. After the game, and despite the heavy defeat, Almeria goalkeeper Esteban appeared in the stadium car park in the hope of getting the former Tottenham forward to pose for photos with his two children. The keeper had stopped very little during the match and Bale got past him again.

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla has recently suggested that the flat track offered up by La Liga hinders Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Champions League. “You watch Barcelona and Madrid win 4-0 and 5-0 and they rarely suffer,” he said. “When Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund came along last season I think perhaps they were a bit surprised.”

But the counter argument is that just as the absence of a midwinter break hinders England’s international tournament chances, the ferocity of this season’s Premier League could give them a problem against La Liga teams whose domestic rivals want signed shirts as much as three points.

The one setback for Real could be that competition favourites Bayern Munich are also working themselves into a situation where the league can be played (and in their case won) at a relative canter.

Madrid will hope Pep Guardiola makes a mountain out of the Munich mole problem enough to disrupt their campaign. That would really clear Ronaldo’s path to Porto.

Do not put your house on Aguero going back to Madrid

In 2011, when Sergio Aguero handed in a transfer request at Atletico Madrid, he did so believing he would be bought by Real Madrid. He spent €5m (£4.2m) on a new property near where Ronaldo lives and expected to stay in the Spanish capital.

The Premier League top scorer still owns that Madrid home and every transfer window the idea resurfaces that the Manchester City striker might finally be moving in, with Karim Benzema named as the makeweight; but anyone who saw Benzema run into the arms of coach Zinedine Zidane after he scored at the weekend realises he will take some shifting.

Real’s BBC forward line of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano has contributed 21 of the side’s last 24 goals. And the Frenchman, as was demonstrated by that goal celebration, has friends in high places.