Spotlight on Benitez as Real play Valencia
MADRID: Real Madrid coach Rafael Benitez returns to Valencia, where he won two league titles with Los Che, fighting to hold onto his job on Sunday.
Madrid’s awful 2015 began with defeat at the Mestalla which ended a 22-game winning run and led to the eventual sacking of Carlo Ancelotti after he failed to deliver a major trophy. And his successor could also be set for the chop after just six months in charge should Real suffer a fourth league defeat in eight games.
Yet, despite another unconvincing display in seeing off Real Sociedad 3-1 on Wednesday, thanks in part to two debatable penalty decisions in their favour, Benitez insists his side is improving and can challenge for La Liga and the Champions League in 2016.
“What I want (in 2016) is for the team to keep winning games and the fans to enjoy victories, good football and a title,” he said.
“The review of the year will be made at the end of the season. We continue in good form because the team reacted well and is playing better every game.”
It is the first time that Benitez will return to the Mestalla as the opposition coach after leading a golden age for the club with titles in 2002 and 2004 before joining Liverpool. That success seems a distant memory with Valencia in desperate need of the points themselves with Gary Neville yet to taste victory after his first three games in charge in La Liga.
A 1-0 defeat to Villarreal on Thursday left Neville’s men 11 points off their target of a topfour finish having failed to win any of their last eight games in La Liga or the Champions League.
However, they have only lost three of their last nine meetings with Madrid and haven’t been beaten at home in La Liga since November 2014.
The visitors are expected to be at full strength as captain Sergio Ramos trained on Thursday after missing the win over Real Sociedad. Madrid could find themselves five points adrift of the leaders by the time they kick off at the Mestalla with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in action on Saturday.