A Madrid with two finals

The Rubicon of the season for Real Madrid is between tomorrow and Wednesday. Five days with two exits from which there is no going back: either the confidence of that Madrid that swept PSG returns or the blackness of the 0-4 in the Clásico increases. Balaídos and Stamford Bridge are two finals and the Real Madrid squad and technical staff see themselves as such.

Crucial meetings for the future of a season that is under real threat of twisting. The League and the Champions are now communicating vessels. If Madrid pays for the trip to Vigo, they will recover the self-esteem garter belt (just the day before that Barça-Sevilla, with everything that match could entail for the classification) before packing up again for London, where last May the Whites’ hopes of seeing each other in the Champions League final with a 2-0. Staying alive in the tie on English soil opens the door for the Bernabéu to ‘play’ in the return leg as Mbappé, Neymar, Messi and company discovered in their own flesh…

Five days for which Ancelotti is looking at the physical state of the squad with relief. Benzema and Mendy sign up for the match against Celta to erase the echoes of their absence from the Clásico, which weighed heavily on Madrid. The defensive sobriety of the French side to contain the talent that Coudet (with Aspas) and Tuchel (with Ziyech and Havertz lately) usually display on that band. To that is added the calm the Karimdependencia that has led the team to get just one goal in the last four losses of the nine. Two issues resolved. As well a Carletto It has given him peace of mind that from the much-feared national team break, none of the other starters have returned with scratches (only Jovic’s ankle).

Shorten the title…

Madrid has been thinking about the ‘marking’ of this Barça that has been growing since the hit of the Clásico. The calendar makes it almost mandatory not to play in Vigo. Xavi’s team is still 12 points away, but with one game less (the postponed one against Rayo: April 24) and the balance of matches at the Bernabéu and the Camp Nou it is unequal: the whites have four left in the warmth of their home and the azulgrana, six. Hence, Balaídos is a league station from which you can leave with recharged batteries or under threat of derailment.

Tranquility in the national sphere is the best medicine for Europe. The comeback against PSG was better cooked by not having openings in the League thanks to three wins in a row since 1-0 in Paris: against Alavés, Rayo and Real Sociedad, with eight goals for and only one against.

These two finals will have twin sisters, also five days apart, from April 12 to 17. It will be the second leg against the Blues at the Bernabéu and the duel at the Pizjuán. But that will depend on what happens now.