Madrid big boys battle early season struggles ahead of important derby

MADRID: Accustomed to unrelenting success in recent seasons, both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid enter Saturday’s firstever Spanish capital derby at Atletico’s new Wanda Metropolitano stadium with little room for error.

Early season struggles have left both sides eight points adrift of La Liga leaders Barcelona and four points back on a revitalised Valencia.

Twice finalists in the past four seasons, Atletico also look set for an embarassing group-stage exit in the Champions League, whilst Real also suffered their first group-stage defeat for five years to Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month, although they should still progress to the last 16.

A large part in the downfall of both sides of the Madrid divide has been the poor form of their normally reliant source of goals in Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann.

The two went head-to-head for the Ballon d’Or last year after Real and Ronaldo’s Portugal edged out Atletico and Griezmann’s France in the Champions League and Euro 2016 finals respectively.

However, Ronaldo has scored just once in seven La Liga appearances so far this season despite having 48 shots on goal.

“It’s not my fault if (the ball) does not want to go in,” Ronaldo told French sports newspaper L’Equipe on Thursday.

RESTLESS RONALDO

However, Ronaldo’s restlessness on the field has been mirrored by rising tension off it with more Madrid-based sports daily Marca reporting on his fractuous relationship with Real captain Sergio Ramos this week.

After the 3-1 defeat at Wembley to Spurs, Ronaldo admitted Madrid’s squad that delivered a first La Liga and Champions League double for 59 years last season had been weakened by the departures of Alvaro Morata, Pepe and James Rodriguez among others. Ramos later described those comments as “opportunistic”.