Monday, November 4, 2024, 16:42
A European football classic will offer Real Madrid the opportunity to redeem itself from the league classic par excellence. Chamartín’s team will host Milan this Tuesday at the Santiago Bernabéu with the need to recover after the setback suffered against Barça and turn the page on the disappointment that came with the Ballon d’Or that Vinicius missed. The ‘rossonero’ team, an old acquaintance that starred in the worst nightmares of the whites at the end of the eighties of the last century, will test the reaction capacity of Carlo Ancelotti‘s team on the fourth day of the Champions League.
The current European champion returns to action ten days after the defeat inflicted on him by Barça. The postponement of the League match that was to be played last Saturday against Valencia due to DANA, which hit that community with tragic virulence, granted extra time for Real Madrid to digest the shock they suffered against the Barça team and prepare with a little more calm. a duel against Milan that can help them get on track to the knockout phase within their favorite competition.
The comeback against Dortmund on the third day of the top continental competition has alleviated the situation in the table for Ancelotti’s troops, who despite this remain outside the positions that ensure direct qualification for the round of 16 due to the defeat in Lille . That is why the fight with Milan takes on an even more relevant character for a squad that will subsequently have to face two European trips, to Liverpool and Bergamo, before facing Salzburg at the Bernabéu and closing the phase by visiting the lair of Brest.
With all those appointments marked in red on the agenda, although placed in the background in the minds of some footballers shocked by the drama suffered by the Valencian Community, the Real Madrid squad has conspired to reverse the bad dynamic and avoid a crisis that lurks around the corner. The game, the attitude, the scoreboard and even the physical resistance of a team that should fly high with a dazzling squad, but that fails to activate its engines, is questioned.
The good news for Real Madrid is that the ball takes center stage to give the whites a chance to get even. Ancelotti’s team will try to take advantage of it, which recovers Rodrygo, but still has Courtois, Alaba and Carvajal missing. The Brazilian is not expected from the start, but his return provides Carletto with a valuable stimulus. With the ’11’ in the chamber, it is normal for the coach to go back to betting on a line of four midfielders whose performance will be crucial when implementing the improvements in pressing that the transalpine team has emphasized throughout the last few days and solidify the defensive gear.
The nightmare of Quinta del Buitre
A Milan team that returns to the Bernabéu fourteen years after its last visit will try to avoid it. That 2-0 that the locals tied with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Özil meant the penultimate chapter so far in one of the great rivalries of European football. The two teams that have the most European Cups in their showcases have fought fifteen battles to date with an even balance in statistics, but unbalanced in emotional terms by that 5-0 victory at San Siro that elevated Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan and scored the dream of Quinta del Buitre. Ancelotti opened precisely that rout of unfortunate memory for the meringues and pride of the ‘rossoneri’, which a month later would certify the third European Cup in their history at the Camp Nou, the first of the two consecutive ones that they would win with the current coach of the Real Madrid in its squad.
The Lombard team would win another ‘orejona’ years later with Fabio Capello at the helm and two more already in the 21st century under the aegis of Ancelotti. Financial problems would later distance him from the continental aristocracy, leading him to a long reconstruction process that began to pay dividends in the 2021-22 campaign. The reconquest of Serie A by a squad led by Stefano Pioli and of which Brahim was a part restored pride to a Milan that reached the Champions League semi-finals a year later. He returns to the Bernabéu with the Portuguese Paulo Fonseca as coach, Morata as the main threat and under an emergency situation.
With only three points in their locker thanks to the victory they achieved against Bruges on the last day, after previously losing against Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, Milan, which has the losses of Gabbia, Bennacer and Florenzi and is not registered in the competition to former Madrid player Jovic, he barely has a margin for error against a Real Madrid with little network and many problems.
-Probable alignments:
Real Madrid: Lunin, Lucas Vazquez, Militao, Rüdiger, Mendy, Chouamen, Valverde, Modric, Bellingham, Mbappe and Vinicius.
Milan: Maignan, Emerson, Pavlovic, Tomori, Theo Hernández, Fofana, Reijnders, Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leao and Morata.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Stadium: Santiago Bernabéu.
TV: Movistar Champions League.
