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Real Madrid (4-4-2): Lunin; Carvajal, Nacho, Tchouameni, Mendy; Valverde, Kroos, Camavinga, Diaz; Rodrygo, Vinicius. Subs: Arrizabalaga, Gonzalez, Modric, Joselu, Lucas Vasquaz, Ceballos, Fran Garcia, Arda Güler, Mario Martín, Paz, Alvaro Carillo, Ramón.
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Football teaches us all sorts of things – capital cities and pettiness, say, or advanced geopolitics and basic shilling. Or that when it comes to the European Cup and Champions League, you can’t ever rule out Real Madrid.
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But can they turn la decimocuarta into la decimoquinta – add fluency in foreign to the list – to salve the pain of what happened last season? And by what happened last season, I mean the Madre de Dios of all semi-final beatings, Manchester City administering a going-over for the age.
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Madrid, of course, did what Madrid do: they signed Judfredo di Stefellingham, the club that can’t help knowing how good is perfect for a player who can’t help knowing how good he is, and the pair have taken to each other exactly as we’d assumed they would.
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Nor is that it. Rodrygo and Vinicius are improving, Camavinga is growing, Kroos and Modric are more effective now not deployed together; there is the sense that something is building.
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If it seems unlikely a side with all that going on loses over two legs to the fifth-best team in Germany, that’s because it is. But football also teaches us that football isn’t like that, and an outfit boasting Dani Olmo, Xavi Simons, Loïs Openda and Benjamin Sesko can give aggro to anyone. So pour yourself a nice cold Gazprom, kick back, and enjoy what should be a decent evening’s soccer.
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Kick-off: 9pm local, 8pm GMT
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important events
23 minutes Camavinga wins the ball in midfield and finds Vinicius. He drives towards the line and cuts back, Rodrigo arrives and has his shot blocked. Madrid are currently controlling this without any danger.
22 minutes Madrid gave Rodrigo a chance to shoot just outside the box, but he was blocked at the source of the shot, but he started moving the ball again, only to lose the ball again. Their inaccuracy gives Leipzig a lot of attacking scope.
20 min Here comes Leipzig again. Sesco bravely moved forward with the ball and found Olmo. Olmo slides back and returns… Olmo stomps on it. He flusters the shot that goes wide. The resulting corner is reduced to nothing.
19 minutes Does anyone remember Hammerhead from Return to Oz? Dani Olmo reminds us of one of those, but Soccer rudely interrupts this pop culture sojourn when Kroos is cleared. He rushed to the ball and took a shot that landed with a thud down the middle of Lunin.
17 minutes Is there a set pattern for this match? Madrid will explore and Leipzig will try their best to counter. The latter then beat the former, and Simmons defeated Carvajal, who fouled him.
15 minutes Olmo was worried about Camavinga and thought he had won a corner, but the referee ruled out Reno and then Simmons jinked and teed up Henrichs, but his low shot was easily saved.
13 minutes Madrid are now enjoying a bit more possession, choosing good angles between Leipzig’s lines. However, he has not yet been able to run Vinicius one-on-one at Simakan. Furthermore, there are no other players either. They do not command, but wait for quality moments.
11 minutes hilary in the neighborhood Kevin De Bruyne gave City the lead in Copenhagen.
9 minutes Lovely, from Leipzig, sounds like a participant on a blind date, but she’s actually a spectator at a soccer match. Simakan slides into the infield, Olmo releases Sesco…and Rudin saves the low shot! It was a decent chance – he snatched it a bit, but the goal was cheap and thoughtless, straight at the keeper. However, Leipzig has Madrid’s defensive prowess.
9 minutes Madrid won a corner kick on the right and the cross was well-taken and Choameni’s header went wide but over the goal line. Then the cross came back and Camavinga fired a shot towards goal, but Grassi saved it. This is under construction.
8 minutes Thinking more about Bellingham, who are the other midfielders who are comparable? They have to be all-rounders, so Matthäus, Keane, Ince, Souness, Bellingham have more skills that other players can control. And I think you are.
7 minutes Madrid held the ball briefly, and Rodrigo snaked his way outside the box, to the right of center, and fired a shot that was easily saved by Graci.
6 minutes Leipzig are off to a very good start, pressing high, but Madrid are struggling to build from the back as they lack many defenders.
4 minutes What an opportunity for Leipzig! Simon plays a one-two from Sesco who can’t get it together and as the ball comes back to the little schemer he sends a wedged pass over the top and Sesco has time to drop it! But instead he looks like Daniel LaRusso and Lunin makes an easy save.
2 minutes Carvajal and Choameni are in trouble, the conceded corner reaches Henrichs on the edge, Henrichs takes a shot, the ball rises and Sesco heads home… but the offside flag goes up and a man goes behind the keeper. was standing there.
1 minute Madrid tried to separate Leipzig’s defenders and cut off the passing angle, and when the ball passed to Lunin, Olmo immediately fit snugly into his own grill.
1 minute And we’re off!
It’s been quite a while, but… Play music. Then I’ll have Getz, Small God, Goldie, and Scorpion King do their own remixes.
…and here they come!
Our team is trapped in a tunnel…
Of course, Kroos has had a great career. He did very well what coach Louis van Gaal thought Ander Herrera was better at, and this perfection may be what I like most about him.
Vinicius was great this weekenddribbled past Yann Couto more than any player in La Liga to date, and played full-time, as Ronnie O’Sullivan did with his genius-traumatized adversary Ding Junhui. I consoled him.
Vinicius consoles Jan Couto after the match pic.twitter.com/s2Gus2qpZ1
— Real Madrid Information 3⁵ (@RMadridInfo) February 10, 2024
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On the other hand, Madrid Will tries to pass to Leipzig in midfield, with Rodoljo running in behind and Vinicius trying to get on the ball towards goal.
So where is the game? Leipzig will be hoping that their two strikers, Openda and Sesco, who have scored in four consecutive games and three in a row, respectively, will cause trouble for Choameni, and dare I say, Nacho will also be in trouble in two-on-two situations. It’s more comfortable to play 2-on-1. So I think Simakan and Raum will be high and wide, with Simmons looking to slip passes out wide.
Bellingham will be out for two weeks. Madrid will be fine and the holidays will go well.
Kevin De Bruyne has some kind of wedge haircut. We haven’t seen anything like that since Hilary in Neighbors.
And I say that as a compliment. I remember hearing him in an interview when he was selected for England and being asked about who he was with. He said that, but I’m pretty good at it myself – this line reminded me of Wayne Rooney, who realized at the age of 14 that he was Everton’s best player.
But I wonder if Bellingham will spend his entire career in La Liga. Unfortunately, the Premier League seems to be lagging behind other leagues in terms of quality, and given his personality, he will likely want accolades in his home country at some point.
I can’t lie, I was looking forward to seeing Bellingham tonight. He might be the closest thing to Bryan Robson I’ve seen since Bryan Robson, and I can’t think of a higher compliment.
I’m enjoying listening to and thinking about Rio Ferdinand’s intense interview – Comparisons with former UFC play-by-play commentator Mike Goldberg are inevitable, though.
Afternoon uncontrollable cheerfulness:
Tonight too…
In an eerie display of power, Madrid defeated Man City 4-0 at the weekend. However, Jude Bellingham was injured in the process, so his position went to Brahim Diaz.
Leipzig made one change from the team that drew 2-2 with Augsburg, with Kampl leaving and Simakan joining. That could mean adding a centre-back or putting Henriks in midfield.
tonight’s team
Leipzig: (4-2-2-2): Grassi; Simakan, Klostermann, Orbán, Raum. Schlager, Henriks. Olmo, Simmons. Sesco, open da. sub: Blaswich, Zingerle, Lenz, Bitsiab, Elmas, Haidara, Poulsen, Seiwald, Baumgartner, Rukuba, Jatta, Kampl.
Real Madrid (4-4-2): Lunin; Carvajal, Nacho, Choameni, Mendy. Valverde, Kroos, Camavinga, Diaz. Rodrigo, Vinicius. sub: Arrizabalaga, González, Modric, Joselu, Lucas Vázquez, Ceballos, Fran García, Alda Guler, Mario Martín, Paz, Álvaro Carrillo, Ramon.
preamble
Football teaches us all sorts of things – like capitals and trivia, or advanced geopolitics and basic shillings. Or maybe you can’t rule out Real Madrid when it comes to the European Cup or the Champions League.
But could we add fluency in a foreign language to the list, turning La Decimo Quarta into La Decimo Quinta, to ease the pain of last season? And what happened last season meant that Madre de Dios were completely defeated in the semi-finals and Manchester City achieved a timeless victory.
Of course, Madrid did what Madrid had to do. They signed Judofredo Di Stefferingham. A club desperate to find out what he’s good at is the perfect club for a player desperate to find out what he’s good at, and these two hit it off as well as we expected they would. That’s right.
That’s not it either. Rodrygo and Vinicius are improving, Camavinga is improving and Kroos and Modric are more effective not being placed together. There is a sense that something is being built.
If it seems unlikely that a team in this situation would lose two games to Germany’s fifth-place team, that’s because it does. But football also teaches us that football is not like that, and that a team boasting Dani Olmo, Xavi Simons, Reus Openda and Benjamin Sesko can give aggro to anyone. I’ll give it to you. So pour yourself a cold Gazprom, relax and enjoy a decent night’s football.
kick off: 9pm local time, 8pm GMT
