Forty-nine days after the World Cup in Qatar paralyzed the competition, Barça and Real Madrid resume their frantic battle for the title in a kind of Clausura tournament
Forty-nine days after the World Cup in Qatar froze First Division competition, the wheel of the competition is turning again to launch that kind of final tournament consisting of the 24 dates left to play when the World Cup interrupted the path of the 20 teams that are part of the category. At 5pm on Thursday, Girona and Rayo Vallecano will once again raise the curtain at Montilivi for a championship that came to a standstill on November 10, when Real Madrid went down to beat Cádiz by a minimum at the Santiago Bernabéu, the blind of a fourteenth day that the Whites two points behind Barca’s leadership and that is being brought back into play this week in another chapter of the frenetic pulse that the two titans of Spanish football maintain.
The defending champion puts his boots back on Friday in Zorrilla, where the surprising Valladolid de Pacheta takes a closer look at the World Cup hangover of the troop led by Carlo Ancelotti and again led on the grass by Karim Benzema. The current Ballon d’Or winner, unprecedented since he contributed a goal to Real Madrid’s victory over Elche on matchday ten, returns with a desire to defend himself. After not being able to play a single minute at the World Cup in Qatar, saying goodbye to the French team and sealing his divorce with Didier Deschamps, the ‘9’ from Lyon strives to regain the genius that was lost in a first part of the season marked by persistent physical problems and again being the main beacon of a side that the calendar will not give up in the months to come.
On the horizon for Real Madrid is the Copa del Rey, which takes place next week against Cacereño. He will then visit Villarreal in the regularity tournament and head to Saudi Arabia, where he will face the Spanish Super Cup between 11 and 15 January with Valencia, Betis and Barça. At the beginning of February, the Whites are also at the World Cup for club teams, and almost immediately after that, a wild round of 16 is scheduled against Liverpool. But the League penalizes those who compromise their efforts and will need the best version of a team that laid the law until their back-to-back upsets against Girona and Rayo Vallecano were exploited by a very solid Barca to grab their heads.
Xavi Hernández’s hosts, who have been sentenced to play in the Europa League from February, have conceded just five points in their martial league run and have not suffered a scratch since kneeling in the classic on October 16. But the loss of Robert Lewandowski, who will serve a three-match ban following his exclusion against Osasuna, is a serious setback for the Barca team, forced to survive without its flagship.
Neighboring Espanyol will be first on Saturday to gauge the effect of the Polish ‘killer’s absence on a team that will look to maintain its extraordinary defensive records – conceding just five goals in its 14 games recorded so far – to consolidate in the culmination of a tournament that, having destroyed the dream of the Champions League, will mark the success or failure of the project under the supervision of Egar’s coach.
The third discord at the start of the campaign, Atlético, will visit subclub Elche on Thursday. A rival, a priori, favorable to the rojiblancos to straighten the course. Few teams greet the World Cup-induced pause with as much relief as those led by Diego Pablo Simeone. The defeat against Mallorca was the culmination of three consecutive days without knowing the victory of the colchoneros, plunged into an existential crisis and diminished by the war between Cholo and Joao Félix. The club takes the coach’s side and looks for a way out for the wayward Portuguese attacker, but while the market is being combed in the offices, the dressing room has to stage a coup.
At 13 points behind Barça and 11 behind Real Madrid, fighting for the title seems a chimera, so the immediate aim is to regain pride and storm a Champions League zone in which, alongside the two Spanish football liners, Real Sociedad is installed and athletic. For this he no longer has the help of Cunha, who has been transferred to Wolverhampton, but he gets a Griezmann who is boosted by the excellent World Cup he completed. The Little Prince is called to lead the Red and White Resurrection.
With Betis and Villarreal pushing to establish themselves in the noble part of the table, as is the case with the two major job reveals, Osasuna and Rayo, the emergencies mark the return to competitive combat of the teams that are part of the lower zone, with special mention to a Sevilla that has changed in a matter of months from dreaming about discussing the previous league against Real Madrid to dealing with the nightmare of relegation.
Sampaoli’s block, third from last with 11 points, the same as Cádiz and one of Celta and Espanyol, defines the positions that open the gates of hell and demands an immediate response. But the World Cup has been prepared with footballers like Delaney, Alex Telles or Papu Gómez, and to this we must add the transfer in the offices, which Isco’s departure has already caused, and the institutional instability resulting from the confrontation between President José Castro and former president José María del Nido. Celta, Friday at Balaídos, will be the touchstone for the Sevillans in the return of a game that, after almost two months in the freezer, is entering unexplored territory. There are no precedents and that’s why everyone is crossing their fingers.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
