An unstoppable Benzema against Chacho Coudet's poker

Meet on the same day and at the same time Brais Méndez, Denis Suárez, Nolito, Iago Aspas and Santi Mina and they will have, in one piece, Celta and Chacho Coudet. “Throwing eggs is not throwing oneself to the feet but playing ball”, He explained once at the foot of the field after a Racing game to summarize his taste for good foot players. “You have to find the formula so that in a team the ambition to win outweighs the fear of losing.” That plan brought Celta at a time when it seemed impossible for the message to get through. The team was on the decline and went to last after the defeat at Pizjuán. Then he won 16 of the next 18 points with all the good guys in the eleven and Coudet's principles no longer seemed like lip service.

Now Celta is in the middle of the table, closer to Europe than to relegation and with records more typical of a great than a modest: 53% possession, seventh in the passing ranking, fourth that makes the most goals … “The fans come for two years with their hearts in their mouths. The plan is for the fan to feel good,” explained the coach recently, who has changed everything. Or almost everything. Because something remains unchanged: the dependence of the Iago Aspas team. If he gets constipated, Celta goes to bed. Participate in 76% of the team's goals. Not even Messi weighs so much at Barça.

Aspas, to zero in 2021

Aspas has yet to score a goal in 2021, but his influence is tremendous. Of the last seven games, Celta only lost one, to Valencia. The only one in which the 'prince of the rafts' did not play, despite the fact that it is costing him more to find the goal than in previous years. He reaches nine goals in the League, a respectable figure, but far from the sequence of the previous four years: 19, 22, 20 and 14. In the first three he was the national top scorer. Last year he finished third. In this he is fourth, behind another cannon, Gerard Moreno, and the fantastic couple from Levante: Morales-Roger.

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Today he will be next to Santi Mina in point and in the eleven of gala (Hugo Mallo returns after serving his sanction), the one that Coudet barely touches. The gap between starters and substitutes in the team is even more pronounced than in Madrid, and that is to say. And yet, the thing works because he has managed to win over the squad from the first minute, when He gave Hugo Mallo back the captaincy that Oscar García took from him: “The captain always chose the dressing room and I'm not going to change it.” However, Celta has a pending issue: the greats. He has already played eight games against the first seven of LaLiga and only took one point from Atlético in the Wanda.

Another chance for Vinicius

Madrid no longer has lives left. The first mine you step on can end your pursuit. And as there are two weeks ahead of FIFA, Zidane will pull the usual ones. His merit and demerit of a bench that does not press, from Militao to Valverde, from Marcelo to Isco.

In any case, the team collects good news. He is in the quarterfinals of the Champions League after a start in the competition that pointed to catastrophe, he has Atlético at a reasonable distance and has been recovering from his clinical misfortunes (remember that of the first team, on the Bergamo bench, there were only Mariano and Lunin). Now there is more to choose from and Casemiro returns, the player who most conditions the way of occupying the field. Without him, Madrid seeks refuge in the three centrals. With him perhaps Zidane will return to natural luck. More with the loss of Sergio Ramos, for a bruise on the tibia and because, with what comes, all precautions are little.

The loss of Ramos conditions the companions of Benzema, which, contrary to Mourinho's opinion, has mutated from a feline to a large feline. He has scored 21 goals and five consecutive games. As he begins to understand himself with Vinicius and as the Brazilian is the highest scorer and the best assistant of those around him, it seems that he will have a place on the left. And on the right there is a gap for Asensio or Rodrygo, because Lucas Vázquez will be left as a side in a rear of four. Work will not be lacking.