A city of two tales
In any inter-city ‘derby’ there’s always likely winners and losers. The wins are sweeter, and the defeats taste evermore bitter. So, with apologies to Mr Dickens for mangling his book title, let’s kick-off this week by looking at what happened as Los Blancos entertained Los Rojiblancos in Matchday 22. For Zidane, it was moving towards ‘the best of times.’ For Simeone, perhaps heralding ‘the worst of times’ in his tenure with Atléti.
On Friday, Marca’s front page featured the headline, ‘A Puerta Cerrada!’ With home ‘keeper Courtois only conceding 10 goals in 18 games in all competitions and, at the other end of the park, Jan Oblak’s record reading 14 conceded in 24 games, ‘The Closed Door’ looked a pretty neat pre-match assessment. Add in that opponents have only found the back of the Real Madrid net 13 times in La Liga games, one less than Atléti, and a tight game was to be expected. Broadly, that’s how it turned out.
Whilst Zidane’s charges always carried the greater threat, very few teams actually give Simeone’s boys a real chasing, and this was a similar sort of outing. The visitors were outplayed, but hardly outfought. The difference in the end was that, in Karim Benzema, Real Madrid have a marksman who finds the net with almost unerring regularity. It’s an asset sorely missing from Simeone’s squad.
When Cristiano Ronaldo packed his bags to move in with the Old Lady of Turin, many of the Ultras Sur were calling for a top striker to be brought in to replace him. Whilst it would be wrong of course to infer that the France striker offers the same package as the absent CR7, his 13 league goals are carrying Los Blancos along at the top of the table nicely, thank you very much. It’s not quite, Cristiano who? But the Santiago Bernabéu seems happy enough.
Getting the goals that earn the points, rather than merely the fourth in a five-goal romp is of massive value and, on Saturday, Benzema delivered again. It was the sort of victory that champions chisel out of difficult games. With Los Blancos three points clear of Barcelona, a home edition of ‘El Clásico’ to come, and no real challenge apparent from anywhere else, that’s precisely what Zidane’s team increasingly look like.
On the other side of the field, despite the traditionally miserly defence deployed by Simeone, the absence of someone to notch with regularity is a major problem. As mentioned previously, Alvaro Morata can be like the boy with the curl right in the middle of his forehead. When he’s good, he’s very, very good, but when he’s bad, he’s horrid. Too many of those ‘horrid’ days have meant a paucity of goals for Simeone’s team and seven league goals by Matchday 22 is hardly the output required by a team with high ambitions. To make matters even worse for El Cholo, Morata limped off injured early in the second period, meaning that eight of his first team squad are now unavailable, equating to more than a third of his squad.
Last week, I raised the prospect of a Simeone departure from the club. Something almost beyond comprehension before the season got under way, but perhaps that’s far less the case now. In the last few minutes of the game, with the result and bragging rights seemingly secured, he was serenaded by the home fans with a chorus of 'Cholo quédate' ('Cholo, stay'). It was the worst of times.
Aside from any angst from Atléti fans, Madrid, at least if we include its environs as well, had a pretty good Matchday. Leganés came back from a goal down against Real Sociedad to snatch a dramatic last gap win thanks to a spectacular free-kick fired into the top corner by Óscar four minutes into added time. Javier Aguirre continues to inspire, but Los Pepineros are locked in a struggle to claw their way out of the deadly cloying drop zone. For a club who were rock bottom when the Mexican arrived however, a single defeat in their last five games offers serious hope of survival.
At the other end of the table, three successive victories have lifted Getafe into an impressive third position. Their 0-2 win at the Estadio San Mamés was entirely deserved as they blunted the home attack and subdued 40,000 or so Basques in the crowd with an efficient performance. With a minimum of fanfare and hardly any acclaim, the much-travelled José Bordalás has guided the club above its fifth-place finish last term. To repeat that would be worthy of credit. To surpass it, even more so.
The fate of clubs in Spain’s second city were also varied. In the concluding game of the Matchday, Barcelona looked a little more at ease with themselves and their new head coach. On paper, a 2-1 win over Levante hardly looks massively encouraging, but much of the Blaugrana’s play was both enterprising and entertaining. A very late strike by the visitors made the final score look a lot closer than was merited by the game. A larger home victory would not have been unmerited. A visit to Betis awaits in the coming weekend, before entertaining inform Getafe. Two wins would do much to cement Quique Setién’s plans into the squad’s psyche, and continue the pursuit of Real Madrid.
Despite taking the lead at the Nuevo Los Cármenes, Espanyol fell to another defeat as strikes by Machis and Carlos Fernández cancelled out the opening goal by Raúl de Tomás. Almost adrift at the foot of the table, Abelardo has plenty to do to get the Budgies flying up the table. A victory over fellow struggles Mallorca at the weekend is now assuming a ‘must win’ urgency.
By the time you read this, the midweek Copa del Rey quarterfinals will have been played out. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona will fancy their chances of overcoming Basque opposition, with the Granada tie against Valencia, promising to be much closer. In the remaining tie, many will be offering up quiet hopes that Mirandés can pull off another shock when Villareal visit the banks of the Ebro. A lower tier club in the last four, would be something to savour. Hasta luego!