Cristiano's Madrid registered, in nine years, an average of 106 goals per League. The first course without him, the past, the team stayed at 63. 43 goals in the competition and a few more in the Champions League went in the Portuguese's luggage. The crash plan to get out alive from such an impact was to widen the range of scorers and notably reduce the number of goals conceded. The previous campaign did not come out and Zidane has solved it in this one.
The Madrid of austerity is two victories away from a title that, if it arrives, will be remembered by a scorers cooperative, with Benzema at the bow, and by an amazing defensive capacity of the team. Today he has a match with a crumb, against the best Granada in history, that for the first time has the great opportunity to get into European competition. It would be the twenty-ninth Spanish team to achieve it (follow the match live on AS.com)
Twenty Madrid players have already scored in this League. And one of them, Ramos, has scored ten goals. He would be the top scorer in nine Primera teams and would only have seven national players ahead of him. Today he returns after playing a game of sanction and is celebrated with relief by the team. Ramos has never weighed so much on the team as now. In the post-pandemic, already marked five times. Carvajal also returns, side without relief, to reconfigure the championship defense topped by the best Courtois since he arrived at the club.
Without Keylor's haunting presence, the Belgian has only received 21 goals so far in the tournament. Madrid had never fitted so shortly after 35 days. That reliability back is almost unusual in the club. The Madrid goalkeeper has won the Zamora trophy 17 times throughout history, but only once (Casillas, 2008) in the last 27 years. So far in the League, Courtois has left his door to zero in 19 of the 35 days.
Upstairs, on the other hand, it has been worse. It all comes down to Benzema's 18 goals and the accompaniment of midfielders and defenders. Jovic (two goals) and Mariano (one) have contributed almost nothing. They will not do it in Granada either. The first is awaiting a second coronavirus test and the second was injured again yesterday. The companions of the French are again unknown, although the circle narrows around Asensio, Rodrygo and Vinicius, because everything points to Hazard, whose only goal of the course was Granada, it will not be out. His war is the Champions. James stayed outside again and painted that Bale was traveling as a listener.
Carlos Fernández's season
Between Madrid and half a title stands the best Granada in history. The day began at a point in the Europa League, a goal well above the most optimistic forecasts for a newly promoted with 15 new players and the third lowest salary cap in the category.
He was already in the continental zone at the beginning of the season. Three consecutive defeats got him out of there and now he has it back within range. “We must be very little ants”, warned last August Diego Martínez, the youngest coach in Primera. Galician by birth and Granada-born consort and vocational, he has built the team with little money (8.7 million euros) and a keen eye. “This one year the taxi drivers applauded us after a defeat. My relationship with Granada will be eternal, no matter what happens.”
From his stay in the Sevilla quarry, the coach kept notes of Carlos Fernández, Eteki and Martínez. The first, author of 12 goals, is one of the great appearances of the championship. The team will look a lot like the one that beat Real Sociedad last week, perhaps with the entrances of Germán and Machís, the group's troublemaker. Diego Martínez will probably repeat with an elastic defense of five that, in attack, is reduced to four by Foulquier's push on the right.
Granada already has 50 points, was ten minutes from the Cup final, in Los Cármenes Barça fell and tied Atlético, they have scored more header goals than anyone else (11) in this League, they have not come back any time when they scored first, only has lost two of the last twelve games and it comes from winning at Anoeta. The list of warnings does not fit in the Madrid booth.