Benzema y Vincius, at 1,000

Of the four candidates for the only place that is raffled in Madrid, Hazard is, with Rodrygo, the one who adds the most titles and the only one who has not yet scored. On the 23rd of this month, it will be two years since the last game in which he played 90 minutes in white. Less than a month ago, his coach, Roberto Martínez, assured that “he has a character that makes him get up quickly.” Madrid does not know that capacity. However, today, against Shakhtar, another door may be opened for him by elimination. Rodrygo, Valverde and Bale are injured and Marco Asensio, except for his hat-trick against Mallorca, remains out of focus.

Hazard, until now, has been an invisible player. He gave an assist against Alavés in his debut and did not leave a trace again. In fact, in the five games they entered the second half, Madrid were unable to score a goal. The team’s scoring balance in those games was 0-1. In October he only played 45 minutes spread over three short periods, but Shakhtar could be a first step towards his redemption. More if they accompany him Benzema, who thanks to his goal in Kiev equaled Messi’s record of 17 consecutive seasons scoring in the Champions League, and Vinicius, couple that already has 20 points, 60% of all the team. The Frenchman, who rested on the last day, returns in a crucial game for Madrid, which at this time should have been on the verge of qualifying if it had not been beaten before the Sheriff.

Gala eleven

The white pass does not seem to be in danger, but the first place does, a recurring fact in the last five years. Of the last five editions, Madrid, which is one goal out of 1,000 in the competition, passed second three times. It was not a handicap, because in two of them he ended up being champion, but this time a drum full of explosives is presumed. For this reason, and Rodrygo on the sidelines, a gala eleven is guessed, with the two starting full-backs (Carvajal and Mendy) that Ancelotti booked in the Martínez Valero, because both come from long-term injuries, and the honor roll in the center from the field: Modric, Casemiro and Kroos.

Yes it is the last train for Shakhtar, who only adds one point and has not scored yet. “We are not yet ready to compete in the Champions League in the way I would like. Many players are green,” warned his coach, Roberto de Zerbi, that he was a youth squad for Milan when Ancelotti began directing the first team, for which he was never summoned.

De Zerbi was one step away from signing for Las Palmas in 2017 as a substitute for Quique Setién. It was about giving continuity to a game model. He came to travel to Gran Canaria, but he still had an open dispute with Palermo after his dismissal and the yellow club chose to hire Manolo Márquez. In Palermo, precisely, he lived his worst moment. After thirteen games, its president, Maurizio Zamperini, fired him. The team had eight consecutive defeats. Much later he recognized that it was a mistake. “The mistake was mine for going there”De Zerbi replied.

Pressure for De Zerbi

In any case, his plan, which worked so well for him at Sassuolo, is currently playing at Shakhtar. It follows three points behind Dinamo Kiev in the Ukrainian league and in the Champions League it does not improve on the past. The team has not passed the group stage in the last three editions and comes from not winning a title for the first time in six years, a rarity for the 25 that oligarch Rinat Akhmetov has chaired the club. So the pressure on De Zerbi, who spent a week studying the Bielsa method when the Argentine was coaching Lille (“It was an incredible courtesy. He spent hours explaining us and then we saw how that work was reflected in the field”), is maximum.

Since the Kiev match, the team has won its three games, two in the League and one in the Cup, but has lost Pedrinho through injury, a winger from Benfica who this summer became the second largest purchase in the club’s history: 18 million. A setback that is added to another major, the long-lasting injury of Lassina Traoré, the team’s top scorer. But you have to remember that without them Shakhtar beat Madrid twice last year and that they remained standing in Kiev in the first leg until Kryvstov’s fateful own goal.

Shakhtar, in any case, will not be the hermetic rival that causes so much indigestion in Madrid. De Zerbi ensures that 80% of his field work is focused on the attack “with a certain preventive coverage”. In Kiev it did not appear. Vinicius continues to toast for it.