Real Madrid, current league champions, faces the difficult mission of revalidating a league that already seems very far away, 9 points behind Barcelonaa difference that no team has managed to overcome at this stage of the championship in the League.
The Barcelona team has shown itself to be intractable in the regularity competition, conceding only 8 goals in 24 gameswith only two defeats and two draws, and leaves the whites three victories away and 17 victories away from third-placed Atlético de Madrid.
There are still, in the absence of the start of matchday 25, 42 points up for grabs, so it would not be so unreasonable to think of a hypothetical comeback, even more so, since Ancelotti’s team is a team with winning DNA and its idiosyncrasies, the virtue of triumphing in the face of the most complicated adversity. The real Madrid enjoy competing holding on to a burning nail.
History does not favor Madrid
However, history hardly offers rosy precedents for the meringues. Only one team, curiously Barça, has been able to overcome just those 9 points on one occasion to end up winning the League. It happened in the campaign 98/99, in which Mallorca took a distance of nine points from Barcelona, the same one that the culé club now has with respect to Real Madrid. The team trained by Van Gaal he finished first in the qualifying table, proving that anything can happen in football until the last second.
To a lesser extent, both Barça and Madrid managed to cut a difference of eight points in their day from the leader to win the championship. It happened at seasons 91/92 and 03/04where Barcelona and Real Madrid staged a true miracle that, seeing the level offered in Spain by the whites, does not look like it will be repeated.
However, the possibility is still there, so the question is: What should Real Madrid do to come back? Logically, winning everything is a chimeraalthough it would be the fastest way to put pressure on Barça, but also They will have to expect more than one setback from the culés to eat land and get excited. If it happens, yes, the emotional factor of one and the other can tip the balance to either side.
The calendar will dictate judgment
Thus, it will be the calendar that will dictate the sentence. While Barça only has to receive at the Camp Nou, in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, Real Madrid itself, the meringues still have the Champions League, fetish tournament in which the skin and soul will be left to reissue the title again. The current leader of the League, therefore, only has one concern on his mind, while Madrid, blessed problem, still has its hands full.
In addition, and this is the great trick that the madridistas hold on to, they have to visit the Camp Nou again, but this time in the League. Last direct duel between the two, the next March, 19in which the winner will eat the toast of morality to his eternal rival. There will be more than 35 points to be played after that classicand if Madrid gets to six points or less, there is a lot of cloth left to be cut in the League.
Beyond the classic, which can sentence the League or tighten it even more, the simplest calendar a priori is that of Real Madrid, saving the detail of having to play during the week in the Champions League. From here to the end of the League, removing the match against Espanyol and the classic in Barcelona, Ancelotti’s men receive Valladolid, Villarreal, Celta, Almería, Getafe, Rayo and Athletic at the Santiago Bernabéuwhile they must visit Cádiz, Girona, Real Sociedad, Valencia and Seville.
Those last three outings seem like the most complicated test for the madridistas, although the fight for Europe and relegation can turn, from here to the end, every game into hell. For its part, however, Barça have it ‘even worse’, despite the nine-point advantage: at home receives Girona, Atlético de Madrid, Betis, Osasuna, Real Sociedad and Mallorca; and shall visit Elche, Getafe, Rayo, Espanyol, Valladolid and Celta.
Two really even calendars, in which the team that lowers its guard can find itself in serious trouble, although Real Madrid’s room for maneuver is increasingly narrow. There are two and a half months of competition left, a world yet to be played, and everything can change in the blink of an eye, but one thing is clear: strong emotions await us between now and matchday 38. Who will take the title?
Espanyol, first stop
The comeback for the whites starts this Saturday at the Santiago Bernabeu before a Spanish with needs, who tries to escape from the positions of the abyss (thirteenth in the championship, four places above the relegation). Ancelotti’s men cannot miss another week and this matchday, with a Athletic – Barcelona on the horizon (a difficult match for Xavi’s men), it will be key to try to cut points. He will have to do it without Benzema, low confirmed this Friday, and one more week will be entrusted to Vinicus, Rodrygo and Asensio. For his part, Diego Martínez is absent due to injury to Pedrosa and Keidiand I will have to see a Santiago Bernabéu hungry for comebacks.
