Real Madrid (H) - Tue 26th April, 20:00 (BST) | Pre-Match Thread | Team news (pg 67)

[shevtheblue]

Re-watched their games with PSG and Chelsea this morning. PSG were abysmal at the Bernabeu. Chelsea were awful at home. The setup was all wrong. They were sloppy in possession and allowed Real to counter with ease through the passing brilliance of Modric and pace of Vinicius. Benzema was class. He has a good relationship with Vinicius and his finishing is excellent of course.

The away leg from Chelsea is our template. Press with intensity. Pass and move and stretch them. That midfield three struggles to cover the ground and Vinicius can be quite slow to get into position as well. They don't have the discipline of Atletico (discipline in terms of staying in position as opposed to its other meaning of course).

I think we'll create a lot of chances, and hopefully we take the majority of them. I can't believe I'm writing this considering it's Real Madrid, but we're a better team and if we play to our best then I really think the tie could be all but over by the end of the game tonight. I think we can beat them by 4.

A lot of this is completely true, this is one of the worst Real Madrid teams in recent memory which shows how amazing Carlo has actually done to get them to a semi final and top of their league, they got battered 4-0 by Barca FFS! Our defensive issues aside, we should be able to deal with them. But obviously without having any recovery pace now, without Cancelo and Walker, the key is going to be the way we handle the counter attack. There were elements a couple seasons back when we played them were Kroos and Modric managed to get through our press pretty easily, hopefully we have made some adjustments there.

If Stones isn't available, i'd probably say it has to be Fern tbh. Play him in the same way we play Zinny in that he's not expected to get forward much and is used more for midfield overloading. It would require Ruben to help out a lot though, because Vinicius is gonna be a bit of a problem.

 

[wolviedinho]

Big performance needed tonight. If we genuinely want to win this cup we need to leave nothing on the pitch. Take our chance and we go through.

2-1 City.

 

[waspish]

I actually like the sound of that, but I'm not sure it would suit Sterling too well.

Yeah maybe but we will have majority of the % possession with Rodri Silva in the middle who will cover, think it will work well.

 

[waspish]

Team prediction


_____________Ed______________


______Dias__Laporte__Ake_______


Sterling___________________Zink

______Silva________Rodri_______

Jesus________Kdb________Foden

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Was thinking back to that bloody game against them way back in September, 2012. We went ahead in the eighty-fifth minute, but couldn't defend the lead. We were totally unable to just play out the game. Not only did they equalise, but they won it at the death. By god but we were young and naïve then. I was intensely annoyed at the time.
We've come a long, long way since then and learnt a lot about game management (although the two Tottenham games were a throwback to bad habits).
On an entirely different note: is anybody else having difficulty with the OS? I'm getting a warning that it's not secure, and that there may be a site impersonating it.

 

[alexmcity]

A lot of this is completely true, this is one of the worst Real Madrid teams in recent memory which shows how amazing Carlo has actually done to get them to a semi final and top of their league, they got battered 4-0 by Barca FFS!

This is lazy thinking. They are 15 pts clear in La Liga. The derby with Barça had no bearing on the table, they rested Benzema in that game.

It's like saying: City must be shit, 10 man Leeds beat them at the Etihad...

The mistake some people make when thinking about Real is to focus on their games vs Barça and Chelsea instead of considering their season as a whole, the fact they eliminated two of the best teams in Europe: PSG and Chelsea. To underestimate them is naive.

 

[domalino]

This is lazy thinking. They are 15 pts clear in La Liga.

No, this is lazy thinking.

It's a 3 team league and Barcelona completely imploded - had their budget reduced by 80%, lost Messi, changed manager mid-season - and Atletico Madrid had their worst season since Simeone arrived. Of course they're 15 points clear. They should be 25 points clear.

 

[kunaguero10]

Hope this is true, but who is Jose Alvarez and how would he know?

He is mates with Aguero and used to leak team news via Sergio when he was here. Maybe still got a connection

 

[alexmcity]

No, this is lazy thinking.

It's a 3 team league and Barcelona completely imploded, and Atletico Madrid had their worst season since Simeone arrived. Of course they're 15 points clear. They should be 25 points clear.

Well, we saw how difficult the game at Atlético was. And we saw that Vilarreal, 7th in La Liga at the time, eliminated Bayern who were among the CL favourites. What's more, Vilarreal outplayed Bayern in the 1st leg, it wasn't only about luck.

I guess some people try to deal with their insecurity by underestimating Real (they lost 4:0 from Barca, must be shit!!!). The same was happening before the CL final last season, Chelsea were regarded as very average. Lazy thinking.

 

[domalino]

Well, we saw how difficult the game at Atlético was. And we saw that Vilarreal, 7th in La Liga at the time, eliminated Bayern who were among the CL favourites. What's more, Vilarreal outplayed Bayern in the 1st leg, it wasn't only about luck.

I guess some people try to deal with their insecurity by underestimating Real (they lost 4:0 from Barca, must be shit!!!). The same was happening before the CL final last season, Chelsea were regarded as very average. Lazy thinking.

But anyone who followed Spanish football would know that Atletico started turning their season around with the second leg at Manchester United and that's when they started playing like the old Atletico and have only lost 2 games since (1 being us).

So they wouldn't be surprised that Atletico were tough vs. us.

Anyone who watched the PSG games knows Real were completely outplayed for 90% of the tie. Anyone who watched the Chelsea games saw how Chelsea cut through them almost at will in both legs and only comedy finishing at Stamford Bridge cost them. The clasico was an anomaly because he tried to play Modric as a striker, but they've been terrible.

Spanish journalists are openly admitting they're a 2 man team - Benzema and Courtois- with occasional big moments from Modric. They know this is a bad Real Madrid side, and yet you refuse to accept it.