Soothing Benzema – AS.com

“This calendar doesn't allow big training sessions. That's why there is so much instability.” Luis Castro, Shakhtar coach, assures this in an article published in The coaches voices, and it goes for anyone. Even more so for this Madrid of up and down than today in Kiev, at below zero, it is played to enter the knockout stages of the Champions League. He will if he wins He could need another point against Borussia Mönchengladbach on the final matchday if he draws and will stop depending on himself if he loses. After his double win against Inter, he is in an advantageous, but not definitive, position at a time when his reliability is on the ground.

Three modest (Shakhtar, Cádiz and Alavés) and a downward Valencia have already beaten him this year. And yet he has survived the most complicated Anoeta, the Camp Nou and the double duel with Inter. The data reflects a lack of attention in medium / low size matches like the one in question.

A waning Benzema

Return today Benzema, which has been out three games. It is without a doubt, the best offensive trick of the team although its performance has dwarfed. He has six goals, eight less than last year at this point and four less than the previous one, and his indicators in the Champions League are also alarming: he shoots less, dribbles less and loses more balls. He's been out for three weeks and that won't help him. Remember that here he scored his only goal in a Champions League final, yes.

Neither will Hazard, the best translator of his football, and yes Vinicius, with which you connect less. Zidane needs little to remove the Brazilian, who despite the repeated casualties of Hazard he has started only six games out of 14 possible. Neither last year nor this one is among the eleven most used.

Opportunity for Militao

The Militao return, who has not played for a month. That piece clears up the puzzle, because it would place the team in natural luck, with Nacho at the winger and Lucas Vázquez at the winger. It has been the most notable of that square without an owner. The question is who will accompany Casemiro in the center of the field. Kroos, Odegaard and Modric they are the candidates for two positions. The Croatian, who He has played eight games in November (three with his national team and five with Madrid), is the most fatigued. Mendy's for Marcelo is taken for granted.

Shakhtar have more players and worse prospects than when they arrived at Valdebebas. Since then he has not lost in his league, He has beaten Dynamo Kiev, his great rival, and has taken two beatings from Borussia. It is very cold in the Champions League for this Ukrainian-Brazilian team, but it should be remembered that with these players (he only transferred Zubkov to Ferencvaros for a million) last August he was a semi-finalist in the Europa League.

A team hit by COVID

Before Valdebebas, where he won against all odds, eleven players tested positive for COVID. Seven of them could not travel and some others like Pyatov, the goal of the national team (36 years and 96 times international), remained on the bench. He also now has casualties (seven), but not as many or as relevant. The most notable, that of Kornienko, left back who caused a sensation in Madrid. In exchange he has recovered Alan Patrick and Kovalenko, today the top scorers of a team led by Marlos. From the defense forward there are almost full of Brazilians.

It will be played in Kiev because in 2014 Shakhtar had to flee from the Dombass Arena and all its facilities in Donetsk due to the conflict between Ukraine and pro-Russian militias. Five Brazilians and one Argentine then refused to return to the fighting out of fear. His exile began in Lviv, continued in Kharkov (from there he also took martial law from him) and continues in Kiev, where he receives the support of fans in his region who have fled the burning. “Last year we had to make 90 trips,” complains Luis Castro, who inherited the team from his compatriot Paulo Fonseca, today in Roma. He already had to do it five years earlier at Porto, where he spent three months as interim coach after the firing of Fonseca. In a team with 13 Brazilians, a Portuguese is always welcome. And more this, which made him champion and brought him closer to a European title in his first year. Shakhtar are not ruled out to pass and have an advantage over Inter to go to the Europa League. Madrid will find a worse team but not beaten.