Return to the scene of the crime. Andriy Lunin (25 years old) will once again stand between the sticks in Son Moix, exactly where last season he suffered his first defeat of the season as a Madrid player. He then started as a substitute for Courtois, but an injury to the Belgian in the warm-up opened the doors to him starting the job… but with more misfortune than success: in the 13th minute of the match, an unforeseen shot by Muriqi touched Nacho, confusing him, and was the only goal of the match (1-0). It is true that he, Rüdiger and Camavinga were the best white players in that match, but the goal was marked just before the Club World Cup, a competition that the Madridistas would win.
Now, as then, the meta begins a complicated and key week in Mallorca. Both for him and for Real Madrid: in just eight days he will play his chances in the League (today he will face the vermilion team) and next Sunday he will have the Clásico against a Barcelona team that is ready to go (the Ukrainian has already faced the culés in the match played at the Bernabéu in the 2022-23 campaign, where the whites won 3-1), but above all, their key match will be on Wednesday against Manchester City, where they conceded a goal in which they could have made more in Bernardo Silva’s shot, at the Etihad Stadium, where he will have the opportunity to consecrate himself… or to fall from grace, just now that negotiations for his renewal have begun. A contract extension in which he will see his salary and its duration significantly improved (there is talk of a contract of between four and five seasons for the Ukrainian goalkeeper).
Lunin’s statistics from this season.
It has not been an easy season for Lunin. First, Courtois’ injury opened the doors to starting Real Madrid for him. However, the club decided to incorporate another goalkeeper. An old acquaintance, a desire desired by the board, but that Zidane undid at the beginning of 2018: goalkeeper Kepa, who was about to join Bayern Munich, but ended up signing for the Chamartín entity. After landing in Madrid, Ancelotti gave the Basque the title. Lunin returned to his dark routine of training hard during the week to watch the games from the bench on the weekend. However, luck was going to cross his path: at the beginning of November, and in a duel against Sporting de Braga in the Champions League, Kepa was injured during training. Lunin started, saved a penalty and helped the whites beat the modest Portuguese 3-0. Something was beginning to change, but slowly, within Ancelotti’s mind.
The final upset came at the beginning of this year, in the semifinal match of the Super Cup. Since the end of November and the beginning of December, both Kepa and Lunin alternated the position, without Ancelotti giving in. Until that match against Atlético de Madrid came, the whites won 5-3, but the Ondarroa goalkeeper did not have the best of his nights. Lunin already played in the final and since then no one has removed him from the starting position, with stellar performances such as against RB Leipzig in Germany, with nine interventions. Since the 2022 Champions League final in which Courtois also made nine saves, no other goalkeeper had set that record in European competition. Kepa, who seemed like he was going to join the white team permanently at the end of the season, has seen how the ostracism to which he has been subjected will leave him without a place in Madrid. Now Lunin, who has been walking on the wire until he took a decisive step forward, has three litmus tests in a more than intense week… for him and for Real Madrid.
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2024-04-13 09:24:18
#Lunin #walks #wire
