A calvary and a centenary

Madrid enters Zidane territory: the extreme situation. And this time the Frenchman, the man of a thousand lives, will have to handle the delicate matter for remote control, after testing positive for COVID that will prevent you from being physically in Vitoria. From game to game Madrid has gone from misery to misery in a week in which each news item worsened than the previous one.

In a single morning it was known that Odegaard already has one foot in Arsenal; the positive of the technician, who will be relieved by his second, David Bettoni; an injury to Valverde's adductor, the fourth man from the center of the field, and the confirmation of Nacho's casualties, confined by close contact with a positive for COVID, and de Ramos and Carvajal, not yet recovered from their injuries. Everything, with the loss of two titles in a week in the loins and Atlético already seven points with one less game in the midst of an environment between disturbing and depressing (follow the meeting live on As.com).

Militao, incumbent

In the midst of so many setbacks, winning in Vitoria is an essential item. To do this, what is left of the first unit will return with the readjustments that the casualties require. Lucas Vázquez will have to return to the right back and Militao will play his fifth game in four months. The rest will be the coach's praetorians, Hazard included, despite the fact that the Belgian has been invisible since returning from his ninth injury.

In Vitoria, blue neon has polished the main buildings of the city throughout the week as a tribute to its emblem club, which today turns one hundred. Fifteen of them were passed in First, including the last four. And there he wants to continue, to equal his longest streak among the greats in history. So, with the team one point from relegation, the club replaced Machín with Abelardo, a replacement that took place at Espanyol last year without effect.

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With Machín, Alavés already beat Madrid in Valdebebas two months ago, but since then the team has only won in one league game and the relegation zone, where it was already seen at the beginning of the season, threatens it. Abelardo had an immediate effect in his first stage. He took the team last in December 2017 and won six of his first eight games. Alavés finished fourteenth that year and spent, in the following, 28 matches in the European market (nine of them in the Champions League), although they collapsed in the end with a win in the last ten games. In that black streak Abelardo and the club argued about a renewal that did not come. “He was asking for double what he was earning,” said then the largest shareholder, Josean Querejeta. And the technician feared about the effectiveness of his message the following year: “The third year is always the most difficult.”

Little attack and a lot of defense

After the reconciliation, Abelardo returned and It has opened with two defeats, one defensible (against Sevilla) and the other unforgivable (5-0 against Almería in the Cup). His recipe, on the other hand, is the same: “You have to be strong defensively and upright.” The thing points to a cement team behind forced to take advantage of the few opportunities that arise. Two years ago he did well. With only 39 goals and the worst ratio of shots to goal per game (3.2) in the entire First Division, he scored 50 points and stayed close to Europe.

For the game recovers Lucas Pérez, author of eleven goals last year. Now he has four, but three of them from penalties. Low definition is lead for the team. Also the red cards. In six games he has finished in inferiority. But today Madrid arrives and has the bonus of the Centennial. On this springboard, a team wants to gain momentum that this January He has already made Atlético and Sevilla suffer with his direct football and his expertise in set pieces (this is how he has done 47% of his goals).