Real Madrid took its first step in the 2023-24 preseason with a 3-2 win against Milan that summed up well the benefits and shortcomings of the white team that were already seen last year: he conceded two goals in a first half with better ideas than a game, but then he brought out the white gene to come back with a definitive goal from Vinicius and, above all, with two goals in just over a minute from one of his best scorers, one of whom the club expects a lot to cover part of the scoring hole left by the departure of Karim Benzema. It is Federico Valverde, who starts this course as he already started the next one: flying.
El Halcón, formerly Pajarito, equalized in the second half with two right hands from the front. In the first, he owes much of the credit to Sportiello, the Milan goalkeeper, who ate a low shot and a very questionable danger for overconfident when going to pick up the ball. The second was another story: Uruguayan robbery, cut and kicked with his right hand, stuck to the post. Be that as it may, they are Valverde’s first two (unofficial) goals this season, which could have been more: in the first half he came close to making it 1-0 with a low shot that missed by millimeters. He also recovered the ball that ended in Vinicius’s 3-2 (“I recovered it, but then you have to have Modric by your side to score a pass like that”, he joked after the match). And the duel, with facets that could be improved as far as his participation in the game was concerned, once again showed his incombustible physique: he was the only player from the white field to complete the 90 minutes (Lunin did too).
They are the first two goals of the season, although in a friendly match and, therefore, outside the official statistics. Although the Uruguayan has begun his career in the 2023-24 season stung to improve on last season and to once again exceed Ancelotti’s expectations, as he made clear after the duel: “I’ve already started counting them, I don’t know what the coach will do… If he tells me that the mark is 10 goals, it will be 10, if it’s 15, then 15. I’ll go for it”. Ancelotti finished the 2021-22 season with a certain disgust around the fact that Valverde only scored one goal in that entire season and, facing the next one, he posed a challenge: “If you don’t score at least 10 goals per season, I have to tear up the coach’s card”. And Valverde showed in the 2022-23 campaign that Ancelotti knows something about this: he scored 12 goals.
“Mbappé is one of the best. It will be for years.”
But the Uruguayan’s campaign had some unfinished business: 8 of those 12 goals came before the World Cup in Qatar and of the remaining 4, 3 were in the Club World Cup against lesser rivals. Something went off in Valverde after Uruguay’s stumble in the World Cup, which left him touched, which combined with personal problems (which fortunately had a happy ending for him and his partner) made a tremendous dent in his performance during the second part of last year. The objective is to avoid that emotional and football roller coaster in this 2023-24 season that is now starting and Valverde’s staging could not have been more convincing: double and MVP for him in the first preseason friendly.
And Valverde’s goalscoring contribution is not a minor issue, as Real Madrid have lost their great scorer of recent years, Karim Benzema, this summer, and everything now revolves around the possibility of Mbappé arriving to replace him. But the signing of the Frenchman is a matter that is too volatile, too uncertain, and Madrid at the moment does not transmit much public interest in this regard (another thing is what is done behind closed doors); The possibility of the attack remaining as it is is not unreasonable and if that happens, the club has a shared contribution from the entire team to make up for that lack of goals. That’s where Vinicius, Rodrugo, Brahim, Joselu, Bellingham come into play… and of course, Valverde. Although the Falcon does not seem to dislike the possibility of sharing a dressing room with Mbappé and that he is the one who carries almost all the scoring weight of the team: “I can’t say much. Mbappé is one of the best in the world. Not now, he will be for many years. As a fan, I enjoy watching him play. I’m ready for whatever comes…”