Ok guys, this is it. This is the moment we all have been waiting for. Less than 24 hours left for Real Madrid to meet their fate. When you come to think of it, this match is one of the major reasons why Jose Mourinho was signed by Real Madrid.
This match is the reason why Ronaldo was bought, why Kaka was bought, why Benzema was bought and why Perez brought in his billions to invest in Real Madrid.
Real Madrid hold a slight advantage in the sense that we have an away goal. One lapse in concentration in the first leg cost us a goal which led to a score line of 1-1. At 0-1, with the home leg remaining, Real Madrid would have been the sure favourties to go through but that is thing with Champions League football, you have to be in the zone for 180 minutes otherwise you end up on the loosing side no matter how good you played in certain patches of the game.
Good news for Real Madrid must be that our center defensive unit is now fully fit with Pepe heading the charge. We do need someone with his physical presence and a hot head. Ronaldo is also fit to play the match but we do not really know if Mourinho is going to play him from the start.
Because quite frankly, a couple of matches with Ronaldo has lead to believe that Real Madrid are not that weak of a side without Ronaldo because the absence of Ronaldo motivates other players to gel with each other more and use team moves rather than individual talent to get the goals.
The presence of Ronaldo alone forces other players to just give the ball to Ronaldo to do some magic. That is not particularly a good thing.
The absence of Ronaldo might also make Lyon a bit complacent as they are likely to think that the lightning pace from Real Madrid’s attack is now gone and that can play into Real Madrid’s hand.
In the end, I think I would rather have Ronaldo in my side rather than a Adebayor or Grenaro, so I am quite confident that Mourinho will not be taking any chances and will start with Ronaldo. Not saying that he will play Ronaldo for the whole of 90 minutes.
I think this game is going to decide if Mourinho stays at Real Madrid or not. Perez and all Real Madrid fans desperately want to get rid of this round of 16 (and to some extent, round of 16 vs Lyon) curse and I think I speak for everyone here, is that Real Madrid signed Jose Mourinho to get Real Madrid out of this mess.
Mourinho was given a huge budget just because of this reason. And I will not mention the consequences of another loss to Lyon in the Round of 16. You know, all the coach changing, the player changing, the president changing drama that hits Real Madrid so badly at the end of every season.
That can all be avoided with this single victory as I think the confidence Real Madrid players will gain from this match (if won) will get them through to at least the semi’s and may be even beyond.
What do you guys think? Is the match against Lyon the moment of truth for Real Madrid or do you still think that it is more important to beat Barcelona for the title and the Copa Del Ray?
Please read our tiny Comment Policy by cliking here
Related posts:
