The last leap of faith

It takes a biblical faith to believe that Madrid will be champions tonight for the 35th time. Because on the ten occasions in which he came at a disadvantage to the last day he was left without a title. Because in the nine that Atlético had him within range on the final day he did not miss. Because the team has suffered about sixty injuries and ten footballers passed the coronavirus. Because their rival, Villarreal, has more hope of getting back into the Europa League than Valladolid, Atlético's last obstacle, of remaining in the First Division. Because in the last two weeks there has been more talk about Zidane's departure than what was aired on the field. Y because even the refereeing statistics register an unusual fact: Madrid is the team with the fewest penalties in favor (three, the same as Elche) and Villarreal, the most benefited (13). Well with everything, this Madrid, the second with the least goal in 21 years (the worst in that chapter was that of 2018-2019), plans to take the lawsuit until the final moment, as your story demands (follow today's game live on As.com).

Perhaps we are facing the last game of the second was Zidane, a coach who guessed the problem and found the solution. Without the doping of Cristiano's fifty goals a year and without a substitute of his size, he applied a double treatment, which, as unusual, seemed like a clinical trial: Benzema mutated from cat to lion and a historically neglected defensive team walled in. The Frenchman has scored 22 goals in this league (29 in the season), many of them scripted without help. And the team has conceded only 27, two more than those that led to the title last year. Only Valdebebas failed him. Because of his stumbling blocks at home, he looks at these. In the absence of a matchday, he took out nine more points than Atlético, but at home they beat Cádiz, Alavés and Levante. It was great before the great and small before the boys.

Ramos, period?

Those punctures made him a compulsory chaser in extreme conditions, although they improved slightly for the last day. Varane started training with the group on Wednesday and Ramos did it on Thursday. Lacking rhythm, they entered the list. Perhaps we are facing the last game of the captain after 16 years and 672 games for white, and who knows if also the French. In the center of the field there is little to choose from because of the low Kroos and above it is the eternal doubt: the companions of Benzema. Rodrygo and Vinicius were in the last two dates. They did not dazzle. His relays, Hazard and Asensio, either. The Belgian is injured again (twelfth mishap if the coronavirus is included) and will end the course as he started in Madrid: in the demarcation of eternal convalescent. The rest is what there is, with Miguel Gutiérrez bordering Marcelo and the reborn Odriozola on the right.

At Villarreal the game comes between the bird in hand and the hundred flying. He appears in the Conference League position and jumping to the Europa League is not in his power, although it is within his reach, because Real surpasses him by one point and with Betis he is tied, although the goalaverage is unfavorable. But on Wednesday he has a bigger goal, the final of the Europa League in Gdansk, and Emery must decide whether to save or invest in the Valdebebas party.

Gerard Moreno, fired

Villarreal also brings a good beating. Parejo (32 years old) and Albiol (35) exceed 4,000 minutes and five more footballers exceed 3,000. His problem is the inverse of Madrid. Goal is left over, because his forwards have scored 78 in the course for the 51 of his rival today (including the two of multipurpose Lucas Vázquez), but behind it has lacked solidity. In all offensive records he is very close to the big three and above Sevilla. In defense, at the height of the second half of the table.

In any case, Valdebebas is the top national scorer, Gerard Moreno, author of 23 goals in the League and alleged nine starters for Spain in the European Championship. Syour records are the best ever, although he had that sense of smell since he was a child: in the Damm; at Espanyol, where he arrived at the age of nine (“it's the club of my life”) and with which he won the national youth squad from Brunete and the international from Arona (“I never had a striker who scored so many goals,” recalls his coach then, Albert Villarroya); in Badalona, ​​where he looked for his future when he began to be a substitute in the lower categories parakeets and where he scored 41 goals in his last year as a youth; in Mallorca, whom he saved from relegation to Second B and where he had Asensio as a partner; in his second spell at Espanyol (39 goals); and en this Villarreal, who put a clause of 100 million on the intuition that he had gold there. Today he points to Madrid, who knows if in a role of judge of LaLiga.