Real Madrid will host Atlético de Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu at 8:30 p.m. Moscow time. And the “creamy” come to this meeting with more courage, although when did Carlo Ancelotti’s pupils have a deficit in this matter?
Having given Liverpool and wizard Klopp a quality shake-up at Anfield, the royal club will take on their compatriots. Don’t count on Real Madrid showing up on your field tired or unmotivated after the battle with the British, these guys are too sure of themselves.
At the moment, the “creamy” in the Spanish championship 16 wins, 3 losses and 3 draws. Real Madrid is the highest scoring team in the tournament. But with all this, the club fails to close the gap in points with the leader of the Barcelona standings: 51 against 59, the difference is still decent.
Atlético is also stable, although with a negative sign. Of the tournaments, the ‘Indians’ only have First Division, but they still haven’t come out of the apparently haunted fourth place. Although there are positive news: we managed to reduce the distance with the closest rival in the table, Real Sociedad, by two points, now the teams have 43 and 41 points, respectively. In addition, Atleti is currently considered the second team in terms of defensive reliability after Barcelona. What can’t be said about the favorite of the next Madrid derby, Ancelotti’s flying eyebrow reaction to his pupils’ game in the defense of Anfield, especially with the 0-2 scoreline, was hard to miss .
And, nevertheless, all the alignment of the next confrontation with the ‘rojiblancos’ favors more to the ‘creamy’. Even the name of the head referee designated for this match! The referee will be Jesús Gil Manzano, 39, and for Atlético it is one more reason for sadness. I must say that the “mattress” is somehow always unlucky with the referee, especially with those who are assigned to games with the “Real”. Suffice it to remember the cup fight on January 26 of this year, which was judged by César Soto Grado. He worked with such finesse (in favor of the “creamy”) that not even Simeone, who had never commented on the work of a referee, could contain himself.
Let’s see how it goes this time. But that there are jokes about Manzano, who has been a Real Madrid player for a long time, is a fact. Just look at the statistics: in the Spanish Championship, Jesús Gil refereed Real Madrid on 37 occasions, which meant 30 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses for the team. With “Atletico” the referee worked 27 times, of which – 15 wins, 6 draws and 6 losses. By the way, in 11 seasons and 205 games in LaLiga, Manzano has never worked for a derby.
Be that as it may, although the referee Jesús Gil is completely impartial on this occasion, it is unlikely that there will be a scoring match at the Santiago Bernabéu. We won’t wait for a hockey scoreline like with Liverpool, but surely one or two balls, in the best tradition of the Madrid derby, will fly in. The only question is: at whose doorstep?
