The idols are back: Sergio Ramos and Fran Escrib

The football is used to to return to the known good after the failures of the good to know. This week they have been fulfilled two years of the return of Zidane to Madrid and it's been four games since the second half of Fran Escribá in Elche. The two left voluntarily, embraced to success, and the two made their way back in dire situations. Today they look at Valdebebas very demanded, although with more advantageous conditions for Elche (follow the game live on AS.com).

In the appointment will be Bouquets. It is not ruled out even that it is headline. Since the February 6th it was intervened From his left knee his roadmap was to reach the second leg against Atalanta, although he has not played since January 14. In the last four years, Madrid have lost eight of their twelve European games without the captain. So the team and the player are aware of its importance in large matches. More when Champions has become the Emergency exit more within reach of Madrid. In Spain its influence is not so remarkable. In fact, of the nine games in which he has been absent after his last injury, Madrid regained ground in the League and only added one defeat (against Levante).

Hazard, tenth try

It also returns, like Ramos and with three training sessions, Hazard, clinical and almost chronic case. It will be his tenth to start again after nine injuries (the last one has stopped him a month and a half) Y a convalescence for coronavirus in little more than year and a half. The Belgian has spent 320 days injured in that period and has been lost, for that reason, 50 matches. His case is extremely more serious than Bale's. The Welshman, who also came to Madrid touched, played 44 games and scored 22 goals in his first season. With a similar price, Hazard, in 20 months, has only disputed 35 games and scored four goals.

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The closeness of the duel before him Atalanta and the recovery of troops (only Carvajal and Mariano are still out) gives Zidane the opportunity to refresh equipment. Valverde may have a chance (instead of Modric, probably, because Casemiro, suspended in the Champions League, is safe). Marcelo, who has not played for a month, relapsed and remains out of. In the attack, Benzema is inalienable and the question of Asensio, invisible genius. A starter in the last seven games, he does not register goals or assists in that period. Another train has gone. And he closes the way for Vinicius, who with his ups and downs is the team's third scorer (4) and the second assistant (4). The changing of the guard seems inevitable.

Badía, leader in stops

Elche appears optimistic. The 4-4-2 of Escribá has revitalized the team, which has won two of its last four games, a hopeful fact considering that they only added three league victories in the previous 21. Escribá is an authority in the club. He took the team in Second in 2013 and promoted it with the record of leading from the first to the last day. Then he kept it for two years in First, although in the second he was relegated for financial reasons and the coach decided to leave through the big door. He had two years left on his contract and had risen to idol status. They had even named a palm tree in the Municipal Park after him. “I am leaving with injuries, but they will heal,” he said.

Now comes off the descent for the first time in ten days and it has not been out of tune despite the fact that it came up by surprise and late and changed thirteen players in the summer. Now four more have arrived: Mojica, Gazzaniga, Helibelton, Colombian side recommended by Almirón, and Piatti, long-term in LaLiga and unemployed after his departure from Toronto. Only the first one has debuted. So almost with the same (today he lacks Rigoni) Escribá has turned a peculiar team around: no other finishes less in the League but survives because his percentage of success (17.7% of his shots end in a goal) It is only below those of Atlético, Real Sociedad and Barça and because Badía, your goalkeeper, is the one more stops does in the championship. That awaits Madrid today, a closed team, with few changes despite playing three games away in nine days, and accurate in their arrivals. Just what this year has killed him in Valdebebas …