MADRID, 21 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid faces the final and decisive stretch of the season alive in two competitions -Copa del Rey and the Champions League- and, although their options for the LaLigaSantander title are remote, their schedule for the coming weeks is suffocating, since they will have to play up to nine games in the next month with a lot at stake.
With Barça leading the domestic table with an 11-point advantage over the whites, they will have to focus on the remaining nine rounds of LaLiga Santander to defend second place. The Real Madrid runner-up is threatened by an Atlético de Madrid on the rise in recent weeks, which follows in the wake of Carlo Ancelotti’s men by only two points.
The red and white pressure could help the 14-time European champion so that the remaining dates until the championship draws the curtain are not a mere formality and rehearsals for the Copa del Rey final on May 6 against Osasuna and the semifinals of the Champions League against Manchester City, after fighting for the cup title, as the two great objectives of the campaign for the meringues.
These frenetic weeks kick off this Saturday (9:00 p.m.), with Celta’s visit to the Santiago Bernabéu. The whites will have to return to the path of victory at home after losing (2-3) against Villarreal, in the final ‘blow’ to their alternatives to fight to retain the league title. Just three days later, in the first of the three remaining week-to-week days, they will travel to Montilivi to face a Girona team that has yet to certify a salvation well on track.
Already on April 29, Real Madrid will receive an Almería that is most in need in its fight for permanence and before facing one of its most complicated outings of the entire season at the Reale Arena, on May 2 and against a a rival that will also have a lot at stake, such as the fight for the fourth place in the Champions League.
The match in San Sebastián will kick off a definitive month of May for the meringues and will be the prelude to the Copa del Rey final against Osasuna. It is the first title this season, after losing in the Spanish Super Cup and winning the Club World Cup, which the whites opt for, who have not won the KO tournament since 2014, also with Carlo Ancelotti on the bench and with the goal of Bale after a splendid ‘gallop’ against Bartra in Mestalla.
Without too much time for celebrations in case they lift the cup trophy, nor to regret if they lose to the ‘rojillos’ in La Cartuja, Real Madrid will receive the almighty Manchester City of Erling Haaland and Pep Guardiola three days later, on Tuesday, May 9 , in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals. Both teams could arrive somewhat physically and mentally depleted, since the English would be playing the Premier with Arsenal in this final stretch.
In the middle of the tie against the ‘citizens’, the whites will repeat at the Bernabéu against Getafe in the League, an a priori affordable match to recharge batteries and continue with the policy of rotations that avoid problems in the form of injuries. And it is that on May 17 he will have to travel to Manchester to look for his second consecutive Champions League final in a stadium where he has never won.
The ninth game in these frenetic 30 days will not be a friendly procedure, by any means, since Real Madrid will visit a Mestalla in which they have historically suffered, with only three wins in the last nine games against Valencia as a visitor. In addition, Rubén Baraja’s men are not going through their best moment at the moment, and they could be fully involved in the fight to get out of the ‘burn’, a greater intensity that could be decisive.
–‘REAL MADRID MARATHON’ IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS:
Real Madrid – Celtic: April 22.
Girona – Real Madrid: April 25.
Real Madrid – Almería: April 29.
Real Sociedad – Real Madrid: May 2.
Real Madrid – Osasuna: May 6.
Real Madrid – Manchester City: May 9.
Real Madrid – Getafe: May 13-14.
Manchester City – Real Madrid: May 17.
Valencia – Real Madrid: May 20-21.