Vinicius returns in full traffic jam

September 16, 2014 Ancelotti’s Madrid thrashed Basel (5-1) in a Champions League group stage match and began the most successful streak in Spanish football history (22 consecutive victories), interrupted by Valencia in January of the following year with a 2-1 at Mestalla. It was the beginning of the end: the team, which then took four points from Barça, lost the League by two, lost in the second round of the Cup against Atlético, in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Juventus and Ancelotti, hero of La Décima, ended up leaving the club. Hence his cautious speech with Madrid’s sidereal advantages over Atlético and Barça, especially after the stumble against Getafe in the worst game of the season and the proximity of the reliable Sevilla, and the reservations about Valencia.

The Bordalás team comes and goes in this League. He made ten points out of twelve at the start, then went seven games without winning and until the defeat against Espanyol in the last game of the year he had chained another eight without losing. Much of their irregularity is attributable to injuries, highly concentrated in the rear, which have disfigured the usual defensive strength of Bordalás teams. He had never conceded more than 20 goals in the top category in the first round and already has 28. Only the three relegation zone teams present the worst data: Levante, Cádiz and Alavés. In return, they appear at the Bernabéu as the third highest scoring team in the category.

Carlos Soler, relevant loss

It comes from eliminating Cartagena in the Cup with as little glory as Madrid liquidated Alcoyano. “I’m just happy with the result. There are things that I didn’t like,” Bordalás said after the crash. The least, without a doubt, the injury of Carlos Soler at the end of the game. Soler is, with Gayà, the most relevant player in the team: seven goals, two assists, participation in 35% of the team’s goals and a consolidated international in Luis Enrique’s Spain. A muscle injury knocks you out of the crash. Valencia have not won any of the four games without him. Hugo Duro will also be missing, sent off against Espanyol, and Gabriel Paulista does not arrive on time, low in the last seven days. If there will be the other two main players of the team: Gayá, recovered from COVID, and Guedes, the only footballer of the squad present in all the games. Portuguese is already approaching that of its beginnings. He has six goals, two less than in his best year with the team.

Madrid arrives almost completely and with a good part of its important players rested. Vinicius returns, who had been in all the meetings until he contracted the coronavirus. The team suffered a lot from his absence against Getafe and Alcoyano. The sensations say it and the numbers say it: ten goals, four assists, the highest number of dribbles in the championship and the player who receives the most fouls. With him will be the other four who rested in the Cup: Courtois, Mendy, Modric and Benzema. The only absent starter will be Carvajal, who will be in the Super Cup. Lucas Vázquez will repeat in the square. And for the eternal vacancy, Marco Asensio seems this time the best placed. Of the trio of applicants (Rodrygo and Hazard are the other two) he was the only one who started on the bench in Alcoy and the one who has shown the most scoring ability.

A referee in the eye of the hurricane

In the center of the scene will be Hernandez Hernandez, Canarian collegiate unpleasant for Madrid. The club’s television yesterday made an exhaustive review of what it considered serious damage to the white team in the past, especially in their duels against Barcelona. Of the last fifteen games in which he has whistled Madrid, he has only won five. Valencia has also tried to protect itself. “They try to exert pressure,” replied Bordalás, who directs the team that commits the most fouls. (With the arrival of the coach he has gone from sixteenth place to the leadership) and he suffers more cautions and expulsions from the championship. Alderete, with nine yellow cards, is the most punished. Nothing that did not happen to Bordalás before in Getafe.

Valencia is very close to the tail in possession and in passes per game. Live comfortably behind the ball and teams of these characteristics are indigestible to Madrid. Ancelotti acknowledges the problem. Just yesterday he insisted that it is necessary to improve the vertical game and in this he has insisted on video chatting with the footballers. In the field he has rehearsed it less due to lack of time. Another weapon of Valencia is the set piece, thanks to which he has scored twelve goals, more than anyone else in the league. But in his area, and in this chapter, he concedes too much.