Barcelona (AFP)
Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti hopes that his Spanish team, Real Madrid, will shake off the dust of the Super Cup slap against his arch-rivals Barcelona, u200bu200bwhen he visits Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, in the eighteenth stage of the Spanish Football League.
The defending champions are three points behind leaders Barcelona (41 versus 38), who suffered a humiliating loss in the Super Cup final 3-1 at King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh.
Real got an additional dose of confidence from the womb of his suffering to beat Villarreal in the final price of the Cup on Thursday, after he overturned his delay with the goals of Frenchman Etienne Capo (4) and Nigerian Samuel Chukouzi (42) in the first half to a 3-2 victory thanks to the Brazilians Vinicius Junior (57). Eder Militao (70) and substitute Daniel Ceballos (86).
The Madrid club is playing its next match against Bilbao VIII and has the fourth best offensive line in “La Liga”, and it suffers defensively, as it conceded 8 times in its last four matches.
“We conceded 6 goals (in 3 matches), and 5 of them could have been avoided with more defensive caution,” Ancelotti told reporters on Wednesday before meeting Villarreal.
German international Antonio Rudiger best reflects the suffering of the “Los Blancos” defense, which does not appear to be in its best condition this season, as it has been late in adapting to the requirements of the league since joining the club from Chelsea last summer.
Only Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has set himself free from criticism of the defense line, although he has managed to keep only 3 clean sheets out of 16 in La Liga.
Real was also affected by the absence of Austrian defense duo David Alaba and Frenchman Aurelien Choameni by injury, which necessitated German midfielder Toni Kroos to play in a late position to support the defense.
Ancelotti stressed that January will be difficult for his team, which must come out of it with the least possible losses to compensate in the coming months.
“We have injuries that affected us more than expected,” said the former Milan, Chelsea and Bayern Munich coach.
He continued, “Not being at our best is normal, we have to bear this month.”
Despite Real Madrid’s decline, Ancelotti was positive about the club’s direction, saying it was starting a new era rather than ending an old one, stressing that Real had a “young squad”.
And he added, “We all talk about (Croatian Luka) Modric, Kroos, (French Karim) Benzema, but we should also talk about youth. Vinicius (Junior), (French Eduardo) Camavinga, (Brazilian) Rodrigo, (Uruguayan Fedi) Valverde, Militao, Tchoameni and everyone who will join the team in the future.
He concluded, “I think this is the beginning of a new era. The players who defined an era in this club are nearing the end of their careers, in addition to the arrival of new players.”
On the other hand, former Barcelona and current Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde hopes to provide a great service to his former team by dropping his direct chaser Real at the “San Mames” stadium, to follow the example of Villarreal and his coach Quique Setien earlier this month (won 2-1 in stage 16).
Bilbao is seeking to restore its balance after losing the Basque Country derby to its neighbor Real Sociedad 1-3 in the previous stage.
Despite the decline in its results in the recent period, as “Los Leones” won only one of the last five matches in the league, it ranks eighth with 26 points, two points behind the second pole of the capital, Atletico IV, which hosts Valladolid on Saturday.
Unlike Real, Barcelona is going through a wonderful stage in terms of results, as after winning the Super Cup after a wonderful performance from its young midfielder Jaffe and his new Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, Atletico crushed Ceuta from the third division by five clean in the final price of the cup.
The Catalan club confirmed that it had reached the top of its level in the middle of the season, after adding Thursday’s victory to the two it achieved last week in the local Super Cup, and before them in the home of Atletico Madrid 1-0 in the league.
The task of coach Xavi Hernandez’s men, who won his first title with his team since assuming his technical duties, seems easy on paper on Sunday, when he hosts Getafe XV, which has suffered 8 defeats and conceded 24 times this season.
Barcelona achieved a series of 10 matches in various competitions, during which it did not taste the loss (8 wins against two draws), specifically since its fall to Bayern Munich, Germany, 0-3 in the fifth stage of the group stage of the Champions League competition, which it bid farewell to early.
He also did not lose in “La Liga” in his last seven matches (6 wins against a draw), especially since his “El Clasico” loss against Real 1-3 in the ninth stage.
Rayo Vallecano, on the other hand, owe their successful adventure this season to their in-form winger Essi Palasson, who has scored 3 goals and provided 2 assists in his last seven league matches.
The offensive winger played a decisive role in Vallecano’s ninth place, hoping to shine again when his team receives Real Sociedad III on Saturday.
