Real Madrid and Barcelona need each other. Whether they recognize it or not, leaders, players, coaches and fans are aware of everything the great rival does. It is the law of life. In a way they feed off each other. The misfortunes of one mean joy for the other and vice versa. There’s no more. They meet in the Super Cup final a year later. Both arrive through divergent paths, as far apart as the seven points that separate them in the League.but above all transmitting sensations that are more distant from that number of points.
Real Madrid is all happiness. A single defeat in the entire campaign, leadership in the domestic championship, full in the Champions League, Bellingham aiming for success and formalizing something historic with Florentino Perez in the presidency, which is nothing other than renewing the coach in the middle of the season. Carlo Ancelotti has managed to get everyone to agree. So much so, that those who saw him outside the Madrid bench are now hiding from a contract that will end on the very distant June 30, 2026.
Overcoming problems
Not even injuries stop the white team. The coach has managed to have all his players involved in the task. There are no black chickpeas that are not counted and the consequence is beneficial for the group. Everyone contributes and believes in what they do, something that is evident in every game, in every Real Madrid commitment. Against Atlético they were lost, but the less common players appeared to turn the game around and reach the final.
The club is like the locker room. It works like a clock. There is a strategy behind every decision. When it comes to signing, they do not do so at the request of fans or journalists but rather because they believe in a project and in maintaining the economic stability of the club. Decisions do not respond to whims or transitory needs but rather to a firm conviction in what is being done.
In football, favoritism is ephemeral, since a bad decision or a good play by the rival can change everything, but the reality is that This Madrid has achieved solidity beyond any doubt. As Ancelotti said after beating Simeone’s men: “The big titles are won by the teams”, after being asked about the performance of the second line.
A sea of doubts
Barcelona, on the contrary, arrives immersed in a sea of doubts. Sports, social and economic. Last season’s league success was short-lived and the stability that Real Madrid transmits towards Ancelotti, is not transmitted in Barcelona towards Xavi Hernández. The team is not quite starting and this is demonstrated by the fact that De Jong speaks of a good moment for having achieved two consecutive victories, a detail that perfectly reflects Barcelona’s emotional moment, something that was reflected after the defeat in the last Clásico.
The team’s play is not convincing and there are players who are very far from demonstrating a competitive level. It is true that the victory against Osasuna allows him to stay alive, a situation that he still maintains in the League and Championsbut everything feels like it’s hanging by a thread.
Socially, the Negreira case continues to leave daily episodes of a situation that harms Spanish football and calls into question Barcelona itself. Laporta is also looking for seconomic solutions to agreements with companies that have turned their backs and that they have not left the expected money in the Barça coffers.
The good thing about football is that in Sunday’s final, both teams will start in identical conditions. Twelve months ago, Barcelona arrived on a clear upward trajectory and Real Madrid’s victory confirmed it, while the whites started the year leaving the Super Cup and League on the way. Today everything is different, but when Martínez Munuera whistles the start of the match, the fight will begin, equally, as in all the classics.
2024-01-13 11:26:53
#Parallel #universes #Real #Madrid #Barcelona
