According to Sky Sport Italia, Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder is in Milan, and a deal to join Inter is on the verge of being reached...

 Wesley Sneijder's move from Real Madrid to Inter is about to be rubber-stamped after the player touched down in Milan to finalise the move, according to the latest reports in Italy.

Sky Sport Italia claims the Dutch international has been summoned by the Italian club and a deal that will see him play there is on the verge of being agreed.

Earlier reports this morning claimed the Beneamata had reached a transfer fee agreement with Real Madrid believed to be around €15million. But the player's wage demands were holding up the deal.

Sneijder is said to be adamant on earning €4m per season, but Inter were only willing to stretch to €3.5m. It now appears a deal over the wage question has been reached, and voices suggest the move could make further ground within the next few hours.

Negotiations have been rumbling on and an official announcement is expected soon.

Despite Sky Italia's report, Real Madrid, Inter or Sneijder have not confirmed the latest developments just yet.

Football returned to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium with an encounter between two classic sides of the Spanish league. The match lived up to expectations and to the achievements of both Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

Bernd Schuster came up with an offensive line-up. Robben returned to the starting eleven and Van der Vaart, Sneijder and Gago took on midfielder duties. Heinze took Fabio Cannavaro's spot as centre back with Pepe and Marcelo played as left back. Míchel Salgado flanked them on the right wing. Higuaín played as a striker with Raúl due to Ruud van Nistelrooy's suspension.

The first minutes indicated that Real Madrid would end up dominating the match. Sneijder came close from scoring with a 50-metre shot. Five minutes later, Higuaín scored from a cross by Robben, but the goal was disallowed due to a non-existent offside. Athletic also tried their best and left back Balenziaga became their strongest man in attack and Salgado cleared a cross of his that was clearly looking for Llorente inside the box.

The match slowed down and Real Madrid failed to find a clear way to reach Iraoz's goal until Heinze found Sneijder between Athletic's lines and served him the ball. The Dutchman didn't falter in the one-on-one against the Basque keeper and scored from a beautiful crossed shot with his left foot before the 15-minute mark. Bilbao didn't loose face and looked for an equaliser with long passes. Llorente came close to netting a header, but Casillas' incredible reflexes saved the day.

Athletic grew impatient and the Madridistas, guided by an all-powerful Gago and an omnipresent Sneijder, began to hurt them in defence. Higuaín penetrated into Athletic's ranks and, after leaving two defenders behind, passed the ball back to Sneijder, whose subsequent hit one of the posts.

The Whites finally found the way to hurt Bilbao and HIguaín tried to score his team's second strike with a beautiful lobbed shot that wasn't on target. Real Madrid played their best football during thoise minutes. Gago's playmaking skill was latent, Sneijder did what he wanted with the ball and Higuaín dominated inside Athletic's area, as proven by the team's second goal. Sneijder served the ball to Van der Vaart, who in turn passed it with his heel to Raúl, who distracted the defenders before assisting Higuaín to score.

The fans started to relax and to enjoy their team's lead, but a fast, confusing and messy play in which Iraola fell on the ground in pain distracted the team, alowing Etxeberria to defeat Casillas. The Whites' beautiful game gave way to Bilbao's imprecission and straightforward football. Eventually, just before half-time, the Basque's scored again thanks to an unfairly awarded penalty on Llorente.

Real Madrid played much better at the start of the second half. Higuaín had a chance with a crossed shot. Heinze tried to score one minute later, but his shot hit the crossbar. In the end, Higuaín scored the victory goal thanks to a brilliant pass from Gago, who saw his run way back in midfield.

Athletic grew powerless against the Madridistas, who wanted to finish them off with another goal. Guti and Diarra came on for Van der Vaart and Raúl -respectively- to freshen up the team's attack. Llorente came close to scoring an equaliser in the final minutes, but in the end Real Madrid won the game. They haven't lost at the Bernabéu in more then one and a half years...

Lineups

Arjen Robben does not think that Real Madrid should worry about losing to Juventus because they can go back to the top of the group by defeating the Italians in two weeks.

Los Merengues were beaten on Tuesday evening and were leap-frogged at the top of Group H by their victors after Alessandro del Piero and Amauri scored for the hosts.

Despite the reverse, Robben is unconcerned and felt that Madrid were always likely to struggle in Turin but is already looking forward to the second meeting between the sides in a fortnight.

"It is always difficult to play against Italian teams away from home, although I think in the second half we played better than we did in the first and could have drawn," the Dutchman said.

"On a personal level I am happy and now want a run without injuries and to recover my confidence."

Robben was pleased to have been given a chance to play again and now hopes that Bernd Schuster gives him a regular run in the team after recovering from his latest setback.

"In two weeks we play Juventus at home and if we win we will go back to the top again, so nothing too serious has happened," he continued.

"It was good for me to play this game, but Schuster did not want me to start. It was important for me to play again and not to suffer any problems. Losing is nothing special."

Ewan Macdonald picks out the best and brightest from the seventh weekend of Liga action...

As always, more players impressed than there were places available in our team of the week, but nonetheless eleven star performers have been hand-picked to line up in Goal.com's best eleven.

A few teams aside, it was not a matchday for goalscorers. Only two sides managed more than two goals while fully eight didn't hit the back of the net at all. Of course that meant that there were no shortage of goalkeepers keeping clean sheets, but only one could make the line-up.

This week our excellent eleven lines up in something of a 4-4-1-1 formation with attacking wingers:

Diego López
Damiá - Pepe - Prieto - Adriano
Simão - Emaná - Aurelio - Iniesta
                Mata
Villa

Goalkeeper

Diego López (Villarreal): Another clean sheet for the current 'Zamora', and one that came complete with a penalty save. All those years on the bench at Real Madrid did him no harm whatsoever.

Defenders

Damiá Abella (Real Betis): Damiá actually played more of a midfield role for the Béticos during their 3-0 thrashing of Mallorca, but he's known as a right-back and he was certainly not shy about dropping back when it mattered. A mature showing.

Pepe (Real Madrid): Amidst difficult circumstances the Portuguese kept Kun Agüero shackled well for most of the heated derbi.

David Prieto (Sevilla): A perfect performance from the local boy made good, who is proving that he is well and truly a late bloomer worth watching.

Adriano (Sevilla): A roving, rushing left-back who wasn't shy about getting among the goals at Almería to preserve his side's great run of form.

Midfielders

Simão Sabrosa (Atlético Madrid): Changed the game for the rojiblancos when he came on and netted the equaliser in the Madrid clásico. An attacking substitution of the best sort.

Achille Emaná (Real Betis): Emaná's best performance in a verdiblanco shirt by far, and one of the best individual showings of the entire matchday. A masterful showing capped off by a late goal.

Mehmet Aurelio (Real Betis): Kept Mallorca's ineffectual midfield at bay and even got among the assists. Like Emaná, that was probably his best performance yet for his new side.

Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona): Started on the right side of attack but drifted around as the game went on, and to good effect, too. Although he didn't manage to provide an assist he was still his usual, effervescent self for the blaugrana.

Juan Mata (Valencia): Along with David Villa he creates a superb attacking double-act. Real Madrid may regret having let him go as he goes from strength to strength.

Striker

David Villa (Valencia): Superlatives are wasted on Villa, who remains, at this moment in time, the best striker in the country. It was 'only' Numancia but he still got among the goals and the action in convincing fashion.

Honourable Mentions

Record-breaking stopper Andrés Palop put in a great showing for Sevilla and only just missed the cut, while Gerard Piqué had one of his better performances for Barcelona at centre-back. Gonzalo and Godín of Villarreal were also a classy pairing.

Further up the pitch Sergio García had a good game for Betis, while Málaga's Eliseu was a key figure in his side's comeback against Getafe. Garmendia was one of the few threats for Athletic versus Barça, while substitute Camuñas' service for Recre deserved more than 1-1 draw against Valladolid (for whom Víctor excelled.) Medhi Lacen played a calm game for Racing, and Bilic was a positive influence for Sporting.

After being out for two weeks with a hamstring injury the Dutch midefielder is in the squad of 18 for the trip to Italy to face Juventus in the Champions League. The Spanish champions, then, have a better time of it than Juve as far as injuries are concerned...

This week see argubly the most anticipated group match of this seasons Champions League as Real Madrid travel to Turin to face Juventus, and Madrid have been boosted by the return of Robben to their injury-hit side.

With Guti and Diarra missing from midfield and Miguel Torres also out, Robben's return will give Schuster another option as he selects his side to take on the old lady of Italian football. The midfielder is notoriously known as the 'The Glass Man' by the Spanish media in relation to his injury-proneness, and has struggled to stay fit for an extended period since joining from Chelsea in 2007. But when he does play he has been vital to the team and the German Coach will be delighted to have him back available for selection.

Christoph Metzelder is also included in the squad after being excluded from Real's 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday evening. Missing from the squad for technical reasons are Michel Sagado and Javier Saviola.

Full Madrid squad to face Juventus:
Casillas, Dudek, Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Metzelder, Heinze, Marcelo, Javi Garcia, Drenthe, De la Red, Gago, Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Higuaín, Robben, Van Nistelrooy, Raul.
 

Dutch midfielder Royston Drenthe came off the bench last night and won his team a last gasp penalty in the last thirty seconds of the game. Speaking to the press today, the midfielder highlighted his contribution, and also looked forward to the next Champions League clash in Turin…

It was Royston Drenthe's turn this weekend to give the post-training player conference, and the winger was full of smiles after last night's thrilling derbi at the Vicente Calderon.  "Winning a penalty is always great," he began, "We were up the entire match and it was a real downer when they equalized."
 
A journalist poked the issue about it being an unfair penalty, but the Dutchman simply chuckled off any doubts, "It was a penalty. Absolutely," he boomed. Drenthe was then asked whether or not he would have liked to convert it, but the midfielder was glad he did not. "I was so thrilled to have provoked it but I wasn't prepared to take it, not under that pressure," he confessed.
 
The talk was then switched over to the highly anticipated fixture against Juventus, but Drenthe did not make any bets. "It will be a difficult match, they are a great team and want to do well in the Champions League after missing out for so long.  But, we have a good team and will do whatever it takes to win out there," he concluded.
 
Despite his powerful performances, it remains highly unlikely that Drenthe will take the field in Turin, particularly due to the return of his compatriot Arjen Robben to the starting lineup.