A point or to the lions

City, United, Liverpool, Bayern, Ajax and whatever falls. Pot 1 is a crocodile pit that Madrid intends to avoid today with a win or a draw against Inter, team with very similar traits: overflowing with optimism, with a almost traced trajectory in his League although with more opposition, with a new coach that has fit as a glove in record time and with a scoring proposal What do the fans like? (Follow the game live on AS.com). It will be without Benzema, who will rush for the derby, author of five of the twelve goals in the competition, and with Jovic, who with his party in Anoeta sent the message that it rains less.

Since Cristiano’s departure, Benzema it has only been lost two Champions League games, both against Italian teams and both Madrid won them: 0-2 at Inter de Conte, first cousin of this, and 0-1 to Atalanta de Gasperini. Tonight will be his third absence and Jovic’s third chance as a starter in a competition that has rarely seen him: eight incomplete games with Madrid and two minutes with Benfica against Bayern. He neither scored nor assisted in any of them.

The usual

The Ancelotti immobility, which gives results, causes that before the arrival of setbacks there are football players that come out of the back of the closet, no competition rhythm. Happens to Jovic, which until now had not been a solution in the second instance. His distant air has not helped him and certain extravagant behaviors (breach of confinement to go to his girlfriend’s birthday, that injury when jumping off a wall in Belgrade …), but Ancelotti ve with more possibilities than Mariano. It points to a unique change compared to Anoeta’s duel because a puncture in Saturday’s derby, with ten points ahead of the neighbor, may not be as important as a loss against Inter. Before the Real, Ancelotti switched to Kroos and housemiro, but no a Modric. If he touches the center of the field, the Croatian is the first in the list of those who can rest.

Simone Inzaghi go through a parallel path at Inter. If eight Madrid players have already played more than 1,000 minutes, the Italian team has the same situation for eleven. And it is that his technician is to move the eleven little and the drawing, the 3-5-2 that he inherited from Conte with the champion team and that he has preferred not to touch. Inter is the highest-scoring team in Serie A, with 39 points in 16 matches (Madrid have played 37 with the same number of games), they have only lost one game (3-1 before Lazio, the team that Inzaghi trained and in which he played in three different stages) and is now a point of the leader Milan.

Nobody expects that Inzaghi, who has spent the last 21 years in Rome, handled Conte’s heritage so well, but his adaptation to the city and the team has been immediate. He settled in the central apartment in the Corso Garibaldi area that Mandzukic occupied for years, one of his sons is already in the academy blue-black and he likes to live an urban life and interact with the neighbors. He likes his costume policyI hear your bravery. It’s the Simone Style, what has softened the iron hand of his predecessor, “a hammer to the head and heart of his players”, as written in Italy. “The team has changed yet strict father for older brother tolerant and demanding“With a contract until 2023, Inter intends to extend it until 2025 and pay him six million a year. He begins to see him as a leader.

Dzeko, released

At the Bernabéu he will present his gala team. Of the essentials only the Darmian falta, right lane, but his substitute, The dutch Dumfries, already dazzled in the Eurocup. In Rome he booked Lautaro Martínez, who will be there today, and recovers Belgian central De Vrij. The ex-Sevilla player Correa misses it, injured at the Olímpico and first bench forward. So far everything has worked like clockwork, also in sports management. Three of his four top scorers they arrived this summer. And the veteran was especially surprised Dzeko, author of eleven points, who has mitigated the loss of Lukaku, who has only made four at Chelsea. In the Champions League, he has created three times as many times as Madrid and has run 27 more kilometers, although he has scored four fewer goals.

Just this one against Inter the past. If at the Bernabéu he won his last Champions League, with Mourinho on the bench, He has also recorded his six consecutive defeats at this stadium against Madrid. But among his notes is also that the white team has won only six of their last 14 home games. That fort has gaps.