Barcelona will travel tomorrow to Madrid weighed down by injuries and emotionally affected after the draw against Inter, which left him on the verge of elimination from the Champions League. He will step on the Bernabéu as leader of the League, but aware of the shortcomings that he drags in defense and that were revealed on Wednesday against the Italians. Piqué, portrayed in two of the three goals of the Italian team, charged Xavi with reasons, who this past summer already advised him to leave given the limited role he was going to have in the team. But the break due to the commitments of national teams ruined the culé defense, with the medium-long-term casualties of Christensen, Araujo and Koundé, to which Bellerin’s was added. A hole on the right wing, where the coach has had to juggle to find solutions and alternatives. The classic will be the litmus test for the technician’s patches.
A lagoon that acquires greater dimension if we consider that it is the natural space through which it moves vinicius, which since it hatched has one of its favorite rivals in Barcelona. In fact, it is the team that has faced the most times (9) and the one that has won the most times (5). The Brazilian, who adds an assist, has also scored two goals against the azulgranas, although he was the protagonist of two others that ended up in the nets because of two rebounds. Vinicius arrives at one of his best moments in the Clásico and is one of the protagonists in whom Xavi has placed special emphasis, since he knows that a good part of returning with a good result is based on him stopping the skilled striker . Vini complements Karim perfectly Benzema in Ancelotti’s attack and this season he already has seven goals and four assists in twelve games (8 in the League and 4 in the Champions League).
Xavi has spent several days thinking about how to stop Vinicius and heal the open wound on the right side. Against Mallorca and Celta, he opted to place Bucketwho played in his opposite band, while in the two games against Milan he opted for Sergio Robertthinking perhaps that they were duels of great importance for the young squad player and that the fourth captain could bring more experience.
However, the option that the Catalan coach yearns for is to recover Jules Koundé, who was injured on September 22 during the match that France played against Austria. Not even four weeks will have passed, an insufficient time to heal with all the guarantees biceps femoris tear of the left leg. But the importance of the clash forces us to risk a decision that has been agreed upon by all parties. The Frenchman, who already trained with the group on Thursday, will be in the call to travel to Madrid and the only question is whether he will occupy the right side to be closer to Vinicius or if he will act in the center of the defense together with Eric Garcia. What seems clear is that the great victim will be Pique, who will be on the bench. From Barcelona they have praised the commitment of Koundé, who with the World Cup on the horizon has prioritized the needs of his club and has placed himself under Xavi’s orders to play at the Bernabéu.
The door, who acknowledged on Barça TV that he is “sad and angry”, also assessed the expectations for the Clásico: “It is always very important because the one who wins comes out stronger and the one who loses, touched. If we continue first we will come out very reinforced. It will serve to see Reaction capacity of the team. We got Koundé back. It’s fun to go play at the Bernabéu, I like to go.”
