Liga Preview: Atletico Madrid-Real Madrid
It's not unusual to enter the weekend of the Madrid derby with the term crisis-club being bandied about in the run up to the game. However, the term is normally attributed to Atletico, perhaps the most eccentric club in all of Spanish football. Under the guidance, or misguidance depending on your point of view, of Jesus Gil, Atletico have won the championship, the cup, and been relegated while appointed as many new coaches as Florentino Perez shops for Galacticos each summer. However, this time around, Atletico stand poised for an assault on the UEFA Cup, while it is mega-spending Real who are
It's not unusual to enter the weekend of the Madrid derby with the term crisis-club being bandied about in the run up to the game. However, the term is normally attributed to Atletico, perhaps the most eccentric club in all of Spanish football. Under the guidance, or misguidance depending on your point of view, of Jesus Gil, Atletico have won the championship, the cup, and been relegated while appointed as many new coaches as Florentino Perez shops for Galacticos each summer. However, this time around, Atletico stand poised for an assault on the UEFA Cup, while it is mega-spending Real who are the club in crisis. Some might say the fact that Real are second to Altetico's seventh sum up the difference in stature of the neigbours. However, that is to ignore the huge difference in outlay between the sides, and anybody denying that the Galacticos are having a disastrous season has little comprehension of what it means to spend wisely and get a relative return on your investment.
Atletico play host to Real on Saturday night with the incentive of strengthening their claim to a UEFA Cup place whilst simultaneously driving a coach and horses through their neighbours title aspirations. A capacity crowd in the Vicente Calderon will demand as much in one of the greatest and most traditional fixtures in European football. Real enter the game with even more to play for. Having seen their cup and Champions League pretentions dashed for one more season, what was once a treble goal has now become a desperate battle to save face. Having lost the league leadership with just five matches to go, there is a smell of death wafting about the Bernabeu now, a stench that will surely see the break up of the Galacticos and may even drive Perez from office. The Real president faces elections this summer, and given that his predecessor Fernando Sanz was unseated despite winning the Champions Cup, one can only wonder what type of penalty the Real socios will extract from the man who promised them the world, put his money (or rather other people's) where his mouth was, and delivered…well, delivered a false dawn it seems. Sure, the Galacticos are great to watch, but how many times have they truly delivered when it mattered this season? Rumours abound that Perez intends to sign four players this summer, yet there is no mention of a central defender amongst them. With Luis Figo likely to leave, the Galacticos will consist of the aging intermittently-effective Zidane, the injury-prone, overweight Ronaldo, and the hounded "headless chicken" – copyright John Benjamin Toshack (as they quaintly refer to the ex-Real manager) David Beckham. Even Raul and Roberto Carlos, bastions of the Real cause in recent seasons, seem burned out. With matches against Barcelona and Deportivo in the next fortnight, Real's season could be extinguished before we enter May. By then, should the revitalised Catalans and the Champions League semi-finalists take points off the champions (a very likely scenario it has to be said), leaders Valencia should be out of sight. This is not quite what Perez had envisaged in election year.
RECENT FORM
Atletico enter the game off the back of a poor 3-1 defeat at Malaga. However, home form has been excellent, and the Vicente Calderon is a stronghold with only one side, Valencia, emerging victorious from a visit to the notoriously hostile old ground. The question now is can Real match their title rivals? The signs are grim. Having capitulated to their own first home defeat of the season last weekend against Osasuna, the champions could not be entering the derby in worse shape. Still, they had won their two previous league encounters (against Albacete and Sevilla) and have won the last two derbies scoring six goals without reply.
TEAM NEWS
Both sides are without their top strikers. Fernando Torres is suspended, and will have to wait for another day to finally make an impact against the deadly rivals from across the city. Ronaldo too is absent, thanks to a thigh strain picked up in the debacle at the Bernabeu last weekend. Atletico will probably take the swap, considering the damage the Brazilian inflicted inside 15 seconds last time the sides met in December.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Atletico Madrid: Sergio, Gaspar, Legui, Garcia Calvo, Sergi, Aguilera, Los Santos, Ibagaza, Nano, Paunovic, Toche.
Real Madrid: Casillas, Salgado, Raul Bravo, Helguera, Roberto Carlos, Guti, Beckham, Solari, Zidane, Figo, Raul.
PLAYER TO WATCH:
Santiago Solari (Real Madrid)
The former Atletico man scored against his present club in this very derby and promptly left the Calderon to move across the city in Atletico's disastrous relegation year. The Argentinian has been a bit player ever since, but with the current turmoil making even the Galacticos touchable, perhaps now is the time to push for a greater role in the Real Madrid side. It's now or never for Solari who could find himself looking for a new club in the summer if he cannot impress upon Perez that he is worth another look.