Arbeloa and Albiol play Playstation in England shirts

As Real Madrid prepare to face Spurs in the Champions League quarterfinals, two members of the Spanish superclub are perhaps more excited than anyone else to be on the same pitch as Peter Crouch. Yes, Peter Crouch.

Real Madrid defenders and Spanish national team compadres Raul Albiol and Alvaro Arbeloa apparently developed an intense love of Crouch during their downtime in South Africa last summer as they passed the hours playing the World Cup 2010 video game on the Playstation.

Said Arbeloa of his role-playing as his former Liverpool teammate to the Guardian's Sid Lowe:

"During the World Cup we were on the PlayStation constantly," Arbeloa smiles. "It was always el Chori [Ral Albiol] and me against Sergio Ramos and Jess Navas. They were Spain, we were England and it got pretty intense. We always put Crouch up front and he scored loads. We bought ourselves England shirts. You'd be there in the Spain hotel and there were two guys in white, "Gerrard" and "Crouch" on the back."

So, Lowe says that Arbeloa will be looking to score two Crouch shirts in the post-match swap at the Bernabeu on Tuesday. Even though he and Albiol could probably both fit in one.

Photo: Getty Images