BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Two wins in eight matches.
That is the record for Real Madrid over the past five weeks and why Xabi Alonso is under immense pressure in a rocky first season in charge of his former club.
Alonso looked to be off to a good start with Kylian Mbappé scoring at will and his team winning its first seven games of the season. Even a loss to Atletico Madrid was partially forgotten after a victory over Barcelona.
Then something went wrong. A loss at Liverpool in the Champions League last month sent the team into a nosedive. Losing at Anfield is acceptable for any club; three consecutive draws to Rayo Vallecano, Elche and Girona in La Liga set off the alarm bells at a Madrid that considers itself the best in the world.
But worse was to come: a humiliating 2-0 defeat to Celta Vigo followed by a 2-1 loss to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday. Both of those losses came in front of some disgruntled fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, who jeered the team.
Now all bets are off on Alonso’s future just months after he left Bayer Leverkusen following his exceptional job at the German club that culminated in the Bundesliga title in 2024.
Next up Madrid faces a trip to Alaves in northern Spain in the Spanish league on Sunday.
On feeling the criticism and doubts, Alonso said he is not surprised.
“You have to live with it, and when you’re the coach of Real Madrid, you have to be prepared to face it bravely, responsibly and self-critically, knowing that things can change,” the former Madrid midfielder said. “Despite the result, I’ve seen positive things individually and collectively. Other things haven’t gone so well, but we’re still in it.”
A game at Alaves would normally be considered a comfortable outing for Madrid. But given its poor form and the pressure on Alonso, it could prove anything but.
Alaves is strong at home with only two losses in eight games in Vitoria this season, including a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad last round.
Leader Barcelona, meanwhile, has surged ahead of Madrid and holds a four-point advantage before it hosts Osasuna on Saturday.
Villarreal is in third just one point behind Madrid. It visits Levante on Sunday. Fourth-placed Atletico Madrid welcomes Valencia on Saturday.
Madrid's fans will be eagerly waiting to see if Mbappé, who leads La Liga with 16 goals, will be available after he missed the loss against City reportedly due to a minor knee issue.
“We’ll go day-by-day,” Alonso said about Mbappé after the match. “Today he wasn’t fit to play, otherwise he would’ve played.”
The next top scorer in the league is Barcelona's Ferran Torres.
With his 11 league goals, Torres has established himself as a real attacking alternative to Robert Lewandowski for Barcelona.
After Lewandowski started in a 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday, Torres could be back in the starting 11 for Osasuna.
Madrid defender Éder Militão is sidelined after tearing a left-leg muscle in the loss to Celta.
Madrid will also be without suspended players Fran García, Dani Carvajal, Álvaro Carreras and Endrick, who all ran afoul of the referee in the Celta debacle.
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Real Madrid's head coach Xabi Alonso enters the pitch before a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Real Madrid and Manchester City, in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
One U.S. service member was rescued and at least one was missing after two U.S. military planes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.
It was the first time U.S. aircraft have been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.
Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.
The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.
It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.
It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”
Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.
Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.
It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.
Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.
The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.
Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
