There is nowhere to hide. Worth for Hazard and it goes for Ancelotti. The Belgian is lost this season one game for muscular discomfort and three for gastroenteritis, and but nevertheless He has only played 424 minutes, 19% of the possible ones, a record similar to that of the previous campaign, in which he suffered six injuries and the coronavirus passed. In short, there is no alibi for their substitutions. Has not played because the technician does not see him. Now the COVID outbreak has almost completely wiped out its competition. Without Asensio, Rodrygo and Bale, infected, will return to eleven under the magnifying glass of a Bernabéu that long ago stopped counting on him. Will do it in the right band. His, the left, gave it a long time ago to Vinicius (follow the game live on AS.com).
Madrid have been crazy to believe in Hazard. Zidane, his supporter, did it and Ancelotti has also been there for the work, which inherited the problem. The Italian gave him the title in four of the first five league games, but has ended up losing faith loudly. In fact, in the last month and a half he has played 16 minutes, seven against Rayo, nine against Inter. Statistically, it was irrelevant: one assist and no goal in 12 minutes.
If Ancelotti still believes him recoverable, the match seems suitable: the outbreak of COVID in the squad, some general fatigue, a demanding game against Athletic on Wednesday, an enemy on the decline and a game at the Bernabéu. It’s today or never in a team where a larger rotation was probably planned and will no longer be possible. Maybe Carvajal and Ancelotti will rest will have to relieve Modric, chanted by the stadium in the derby and at the level of his best days at 36 years old. It was negative in the last test but much of the week has passed without training. The talent is still there, but now it is necessary to dose it. It didn’t even make the list. The thing goes between Valverde and Camavinga. The Uruguayan has more minutes and more experience. He started in the three games of the black week (draw against Villarreal and losses against Sheriff and Espanyol) in three different positions and, injury through, has not returned to be in a starting eleven. With everything, it appears ahead of the French. Ceballos, who has not played since July 22, against Egypt in the Games, enters the list. He has not done it in Madrid since April 2019. And he makes his debut Peter, 19-year-old Castilla winger.
Benzema, recovered
Benzema, who missed the duel against Inter and only played the first half of the derby, he will be after a week in which he has even worked on days off. 2021 has been his year again. He has scored 45 goals, two more than Messi. Only Lewandowski, Mbappé, Haaland and Cristiano surpass him. Vinicius will be his inseparable partner.
The Cadiz lives in the Antipodes. Everything is in the red: relegation place, only one point from the last twelve, second team that concedes the most goals (15), worst difference in goals in the championship, worst percentage of success in the pass and the only team below 40% of possession … Even his coach, Álvaro Cervera, who arrived in 2016 and took him from Second B to First and kept him comfortably last year, He seems caught in the wave of discouragement. “You cannot make yourself eternal anywhere,” he pointed out days ago.
Cervera is a triumphant rarity at the club. “Cádiz were Mágico, Mejías, the Silver Cup, the nice team that wins 5-2 and loses 3-4. I’m not that. Order has brought me here and order will drive me out “, explained once in The country. He who was a extreme imaginative, has made an art of football without the ball and has become suspicious in the sanctification of the possession: “Not all passes are important. You have to go to some, not to others. We play for few things to happen.”
The memory of Valdebebas
Cervera had not trained for a year when he arrived at Cádiz. He did not win any of his first three games and he understood that this train could not leave him and he swerved: “The players said they were going to try to listen to this madman.” The team got into the playoff, promoted to Second and up to here. Last year he beat Barça in Cádiz Y to Madrid in Valdebebas, probably in your best match in a decade. The referee of that day, Jaime Latre, repeats today, but the triumphant speech of then is at risk due to exhaustion.
The Cadiz comes from beating Albacete in the Cup, But the fatigue factor does not seem to be part of the equation because only Fali and Akapo repeated those who had played against Granada on Monday. It is day Cervera revolutionized in the team in search of a reaction, although the thing remained half. It will be necessary to see if he insists on the Bernabéu (Salvi will be absent, sanctioned) or go back to your classics. The yellow ones they have only won two games throughout the League, but both were at home and in two complicated stadiums, Bullets and San Mamés. That data and last year’s clash are a warning so that Madrid does not fall asleep in its soft advantage.
