No time to digest the agonizing victory against Sevilla (2-1) that consolidates the Real Madrid as leader of LaLiga Santander, the team of Carlo Ancelotti faces another tough test before him Athletic Club, in postponed match of the ninth day, launched to the rhythm of the Brazilian Vinícius Junior, the great threat to a Basque team that arrives at the Bernabéu in bad dynamics.
Before it Real Madrid has the chance to sign his best streak of the season, if he achieves his seventh consecutive win, four of them in LaLiga Santander that helped him to assault the leadership and take a four-point advantage that he can expand.
In front, the lowest-scoring team in the championship, an Athletic Club that barely conceded ten goals in fourteen games but that has been installed in the irregularity, aggravated his moment by the poor results against teams from the lower zone.
For Carlo Ancelotti everything rolls and the situation allows give way to rotations in which he has shown he had no faith. However, the fatigue of some players and the risk of injury They will invite the Italian coach to renew several positions of the starting team with the aim of not influencing the proper functioning of the group.
Everything points to rest of David praise, still with discomfort from the slight knee sprain who suffered, and at the entrance of Nacho Fernández. The substitution of any of the sides is not ruled out, as in the case of Dani carvajal, which accumulates many minutes on his legs after recovering from his last muscle injury, nor the rest of some ‘untouchable’ from the center of the field.
housemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos have promoted the regularity of Real Madrid, but the recovery of Fede Valverde and the alternative of Eduardo Camavinga present options to Ancelotti that will give way in an important week for the league championship.
From the pulse for the lead against Sevilla, the Madrid team goes to a classic duel of Spanish football, with up to 180 previous chapters in the League, to close the week with a visit to the Royal Society on Saturday.
It doesn’t seem like you’re going to stop Vinícius, which links 17 consecutive titles and has become the great Madridista benchmark. Even in the days of less prominence, such as against Sevilla, he ends up inventing a decisive action. Installed in its best numbers in Spain. Decisive factor for the good moment of Real Madrid.
At the opposite pole is Eden Hazard, who returns to the scene recovered at the end of a gastroenteritis that has had him limping for up to ten days and has caused him to miss three games.
He needs minutes to regain his form and Ancelotti announced that he will give it to him. It does not seem that at the beginning nor the Brazilian Rodrygo, also recovered from a gastroenteritis that, in his case, only prevented him from training for two days. The leading scorer, Karim Benzema, has Athletic Club on his list of best memories. He has scored 14 goals in 24 matches. Some numbers that only equals against Granada.
Athletic Club arrives at the Santiago Bernabéu downcast due to its latest results, five games without winning in which he has added only four points, but with the intention of surprising and re-feeding their European illusions.
Despite that bad streak, especially painful due to three stumbling blocks in the last few days against teams from the bottom of the table, Cádiz (0-1), Levante (0-0) and Granada (2-2), Marcelino García Toral’s ensemble continues at the gates of Europe. In the absence of recovering the game at the Bernabéu and even with a game less played, he is eighth, two places and four points behind the continental squares.
And he is also undefeated at home, where he won in Vigo (0-1) and tied in the rest of the outings, a total of six, against Elche (0-0), Atlético de Madrid (0-0), Valencia (1-1), Espanyol (1-1), Real Sociedad (1-1) and Levante (0-0). Results that speak both of his defensive strength, only three goals against in seven visits, and of his difficulties in scoring, just four goals, a little more on average per away game.
Marcelino has a low capital. That of the international center Íñigo Martínez, a fundamental piece in the center of the defense and more adding to that of Daniel Vivian, with whom he married so well at the beginning of the course, when the young central youth squad successfully made up for the absence of Yeray Álvarez who will be the one who will form a couple with Unai Nuñez. A duo that did not have their best day last time, against Cádiz in San Mamés. In any case, both are accredited players and Yeray is performing well after his return to eleven, which coincided with the muscular injury that Vivian has on sick leave.
A third absence is Asier Villalibre, also due to a muscle injury. And they are long-term casualties Yuri Berchiche and Peru Nolaskoain. Looking at the eleven that Marcelino is betting on, the return of Iñaki Williams is expected, whom he left on the bench against Granada, and that he remains his brother Nico, one of the most prominent against the Nasrid team enduring the more than 100 minutes that the meeting lasted.
. Probable lineups:
Real Madrid: Courtois; Carvajal or Lucas Vázquez, Militao, Nacho, Mendy; Casemiro, Fede Valverde, Kroos; Marco Asensio, Vinicius and Benzema.
Athletic: Unai Simón; Lekue, Nuñez, Yeray, Balenziaga: Nico Williams, Vencedor, Dani García, Muniain; Raúl García and Iñaki Williams.
Referee: Díaz de Mera (Comité Castellano-Manchego)
Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Time: 21.00.
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Classification: Real Madrid (1st, 33 points); Athletic (8th, 20 points)
The key: the moment of Vinícius and the defensive structure that Marcelino puts together to try to stop the Brazilian’s virtues.
The data: Real Madrid have not lost in the league in their stadium against Athletic since February 19, 2005, 0-2 with goals from Del Horno and Iraola.
The phrase:
– Ancelotti: “We must have offensive clarity and a good balance because Athletic defends very well and is vertical”
– Marcelino: “We have to prepare ourselves to suffer a lot and channel that suffering from the point of view of effort”
The environment: the stadium Santiago Bernabéu will once again present a good entry on another cold night, with the fans encouraged by the moment that their team stars and excited about the football of Vinícius
.
