Real Madrid wants to start the course with the super champion award
Madridistas, main favourites, and Germans meet in Helsinki for the European Super Cup, the first title of the season
The semi-automatic offside technology will debut in the match
MADRID, 9 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid kick off the new season this Wednesday (9:00 p.m.) with the European Super Cup, the first title of the season, against Eintracht Frankfurt, in a duel in which the Whites will have to assert their status as favorites to lift the trophy and start the new campaign in the best possible way, while the Germans use surprise and unapologetic bravery to add another success to their record.
Still somewhat lethargic due to the summer and the heat, the new season kicks off with a classic from the summer stage. The European Super Cup hosts two of the champions of the continent (Champions League and Europa League) from last year to define who will keep the European title for the whole of next year.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team will resort to the spirit that made him lift the club’s fourteenth European Cup, with a team committed to defensive tasks and that lives, on many occasions, on the brilliance and details of a Karim Benzema who seems to remain plugged in, in addition to the duo that he forms with a Vinícius unleashed, going through the stops of Courtois and the solidity provided by the Casemiro-Modric-Kroos trinomial.
And he comes to the meeting after a preseason in which Real Madrid has gone from less to more. The meringues began their preparation in the United States with the Las Vegas Classic, a match they lost (0-1) and that showed some fatigue in the players, who were still not well-rounded. There was an improvement in the second summer test against América, where Ancelotti’s men gave a better image in a draw (2-2) with goals from Benzema and Hazard.
And the American tour ended in the best possible way for the Whites, who were a roller against Juventus, especially in the first half, in a match they won 2-0. That match saw a Real Madrid with better physical tone, already in competition mode and with no signs of having lost the qualities that allowed them to win the League and ‘Champions’ double: commitment, talent and unity.
In addition, Ancelotti already made it clear weeks before this crucial match to get the start of the season on track that the European Super Cup will be the continuation of last year’s good work, and a reward for the bloc that lifted the ‘Decimo’. This foreshadows that there will be no change with respect to the starting ‘eleven’ that jumped onto the pitch at the Stade de France in the ‘Champions’ final a month and a half ago.
Thus, Courtois must be that wall that was already last year -he stopped almost 5 goals per game in the last Champions League, conceded 14 goals and kept a clean sheet in five games-. In defense, there are no doubts either, with Carvajal, who suffered physical problems in preseason, but is now recovered, the couple Militao-Alaba and Mendy on the left. Rüdiger will have to wait his turn, although he has left very good feelings in the preparation of the year, standing out for his rapid adaptation, power and versatility.
You can also recite the center of the field by heart, with the immovable CMK for Ancelotti, reinforcing that plot with a fireproof Valverde, the Italian’s wild card and with more and more weight in the squad. Camavinga and Tchouameni could have opportunities off the bench. While in the attack Vinicius and Benzema are also fixed and essential. Hazard, Asensio and Rodrygo are the first replacement options for the Madrid forward.
REAL MADRID AND EINTRACHT SEE FACES 62 YEARS LATER
Both teams will face each other again this Wednesday after 62 years. It was in 1960 when Real Madrid and Eintracht met in the European Cup final, with the Whites winning 7-3 -the record scorer in a European final- to lift their fifth consecutive title. Now Ancelotti’s team will want to carry on that legacy, while the Germans will seek to avenge the Viking roller from the Glasgow final.
Eintracht arrives with more filming to the duel, since it has already played two official matches this course. Last week he achieved a comfortable victory (0-4) in the German Cup, while only four days after that feast he suffered in his meat the superiority and forcefulness of Bayern Munich in the first day of the Bundesliga, endorsing him a hurtful 1 -6.
However, the Madrid team must not underestimate the German side, who already showed last season that they are a very difficult team to predict thanks to their courage and their ability to ‘kill you’ when you least expect it. Barça himself suffered it in his skin in the last Europa League, experiencing in the first person another of his strengths: his fans. In a neutral stadium, the Germans will be much more, acting as player number ’12’ in the most difficult moments of the match.
If at Real Madrid the main claim will be Vinicius and Benzema -66 goals and 35 assists between them last season-, at Eintracht it will be the Colombian Rafael Santos Borré, one of the most dangerous players for Madrid’s aspirations. However, the best news for Real Madrid is the absence of Filip Kostic -7 goals and 12 assists last season-, which marks the end of his departure from the club.
DATASHEET.
–POSSIBLE LINEUPS:
REAL MADRID: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric, Valverde; Benzema and Vinicius.
EINTRACHT: Trapp; Toure, Tuta, N’Dicka; Knauff, Sow, Rode, Alidou; Kamada, Gotze; and Santos Borre.
–ARBITRATOR: Michael Oliver (ENG).
–STADIO: Helsinki Olympic.
–TIME: 21.00/Movistar Champions League.