Real Madrid will play against Valencia tonight at the Santiago Bernabeu. Lets get some things clear first.
We are 12 points behind Barcelona. Barcelona is 8 points ahead of it’s nearest competitor. Barcelona tomorrow will play against Villareal (who are struggling to find their rhythm and I think have won only 1 of their last 8 matches, that sucks to say the least) away from home, so there is a chance that Barcelona might drop points.
Real Madrid simply need to win this, as I have been saying for the past 4 weeks. We should have won against Sevilla and at least should have drew with Getafe so that Barcelona defeat wouldn’t had hurt us this bad.
Anyway,We got a lot of praise from the media for the performance we gave against Barcelona and many think that that performance is going to pmropel Real Madrid to their best form yet this season. We fought and thats what we should do in every match, not just against Barcelona. It’s ironic that it was Barcelona who won the game but everybody (save for Barcelona fans) was talking about how Real Madrid couped with their current crisis and came out, to put up such a strong show against the best team in the league by far.
But the defeat at the Camp Nou did leave us exactly a dozen points off the pace. While it may appear on paper that the title race is all but over for us, there’s mixed reaction around the Bernabeu camp over whether or not we can pull off the greatest of comebacks – for the second time in three years – and successfully defend their crown. While some players are confident they can, others are more reserved.
There is no doubt in my mind that the appointment of Juande Ramos has breathed new life into this Real Madrid squad who have been looking for something to inspire them to play like the current La Liga Champions. Juande Ramos has been incharge of the club for not more than two weeks and the team is already showing sharp and confident attacking football that we didn’t see this season under Schuster.
Within days Real Madrid are defending like 8 times better than they did in Schuster’s last match and there is a sense of optimism surrounding the club, something which you don’t see at Real Madrid, when the club is in a crisis as huge as this one. We have injured players, we have unbalanced squad and we are 12 points behind our eternal rival Barcelona but still there is a sense of hope amongst all Madridistas. That is awesome to see, normally, you would see only white hankercheifs flying around at the Bernabeu when Real Madrid get these type of Results.
But after losing three successive league games and four of their last five , I think it’s now time for Real Madrid to start making up ground and recover lost points. We have to get the points now, great displays and no results, is not going to count anymore. We just cant afford to slip up anymore. We just cannot.
Real Madrid Team News
Raul has made it into the squad after being forced to sit out some training sessions as he was suffering from a bout of influenza. He did rejoin the group for Friday’s morning training session and now is available.
Gabriel Heinze and Pepe have yet to recover from their respective injuries but Miguel Torres is available again, while Fabio Cannavaro has shaken off the blow to his thigh he picked up against Barcelona. Wesley Sneijder, is unfortunately out as he is struggling with a hamstring injury and we shouldn’t push him, like we did against Barcelona, otherwise, his season might also be over sooner than later.
Marcelo and Arjen Robben are back from suspension (thank God for that) but Sergio Ramos, who has caught the flu, will be banned after reaching his yellow card limit. Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mahamadou Diarra and Ruben de la Red are all out for the remainder of the season.
Goalkeepers
Casillas, Dudek
Defenders
Salgado, Cannavaro, Marcelo, Metzelder, Torres
Midfielders
Gago, Robben, Guti, Drenthe, Van der Vaart, Javi García, Palanca
Forwards
Raúl, Higuaín, Bueno, Saviola
Our main player today is going to be Casillas. I think he still has to prove that his form in the El Clasico wasn’t a one off and that he is actually himself now. Mata, Joaquin, Silva and Villa all have the tendancy to take shots whenever they get the opportunity and they play are a freakish pace too.
If Casillas spills one or two tonight, then it’s La Liga good bye for Real Madrid (if it’s not over already)
PREDICTION
Valencia was the last team who beat Real Madrid at Bernabeu 2-3 last season, BEFORE Sevilla beat us 3-4 two weeks ago. So Valencia will be feeling pretty confident of tonight’s match.
In the past ten meetings, Real Madrid have won 4 times and Valencia have won 3 times, so it’s all even there. I think this is going to be a tough night for Real Madrid if they don’t defend the way they did against Barcelona the other day.
I am saying this because, Last season (and the season before that) Real Madrid defended like seasoned Italian teams against Barcelona, everytime we met them in the League and everybody was thinking that Real Madrid could be invincible at the back now.
But its deceiving, because we only defend well agianst Barcelona because our players have a lot of ego and don’t want to get embarassed by Barcelona, so they put their bodies on the line in El Clasicos.
Usually, after the Clasico, Real Madrid return to their fragile unorganised defense. So it is going to be interesting to see, which Real Madrid defense comes out tonight.
This could be another intriguingly tight affair or an entertainingly open game,, but the re-invigorated spirit that has pervaded the entire squad of Real Madrid should give us the advantage.
Good Prediction
Real Madrid 2-1 Valencia
Bad Prediction
Real Madrid 0-2 Valencia
Expected Prediction (lollz on that)
Real Madrid 2-2 Valencia
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