MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The pressure is mounting on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso ahead of Wednesday's Champions League match with Manchester City.
Madrid has won just two of its last seven in all competitions including a 2-0 loss to Celta Vigo over the weekend.
Ahead of the City match, Alonso had to contend with reports in the Spanish media that he had lost control of the locker room.
“This is a team, and we all stand together,” he said. "In soccer, you can change perspective quickly, and we’re at that point.”
Doubts over Kylian Mbappé's availability added to Alonso's concerns. The France striker trained separately to the rest of the team on Tuesday, having reportedly had issues with is left leg.
City manager Pep Guardiola sympathized with Alonso, who he coached as a player at Bayern Munich.
“Barcelona and Real Madrid are the toughest clubs to be manager of because of the environment,” he said. “It’s a difficult place but he knows it — it’s the reality of being here."
Other games on Wednesday include defending champion Paris Saint-Germain at Athletic Bilbao, Arsenal at Club Brugge and Italian champion Napoli at Benfica.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Real Madrid's head coach Xabi Alonso takes his seat on the bench before the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Celta Vigo in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
OSLO, Norway (AP) — The head of the Nobel Institute said Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will not attend the awards ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday.
Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken told public broadcaster NRK the Venezuelan opposition leader was not in the Norwegian capital on the day of the ceremony and her daughter will accept the prize on Machado’s behalf.
A day earlier, a news conference that Machado was expected to attend was canceled. She last appeared in public 11 months ago.
Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.
The 58-year-old’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10, and she was described as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024 election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent that he intensified.
From left: Colombia's former vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez, Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli and Magalli Meda, who are collaborators with the Nobel Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, are seen at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Tuesday Dec. 9, 2025. (Cornelius Poppe/NTB Scanpix via AP)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado displays vote tally sheets during a protest against the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro one month after the disputed presidential vote which she says the opposition won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
