The story appears on

Page A16

December 13, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeSportsSoccer

Real braces for America duel

REAL Madrid arrived in Japan and went straight to work.

Real arrived in Tokyo yesterday at 5am and was greeted by about 300 Japanese fans at Haneda airport before boarding a team bus. The Spanish club held a light training session in the evening and has a couple of days to overcome jet lag before Thursday’s Club World Cup semifinal match against Mexican team Club America.

“We arrived well. We are mentally well and happy to be here,” Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “Today we will be resting and tomorrow we will see what we will do.”

Real set a club record after a 35th consecutive match without a loss by beating Deportivo La Coruna 3-2 on Saturday, when Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Luka Modric did not play. Gareth Bale is recovering from a foot injury.

European teams have triumphed at the CWC the most, with eight titles.

Zidane said he has been looking into Club America and expects to do more in the next several days.

“We have already studied our rival,” Zidane said. “I saw Club America in their most recent game and a few cup games. We will do some more research about them in the next few days.”

Real hasn’t lost since April at VfL Wolfsburg in the quarterfinals of last season’s UEFA Champions League. It returns to the CWC with 13 of the players who won the title in 2014, when it beat San Lorenzo in the final.

Winning the CWC could launch Real on to a unique quadruple title haul.

Real has a shot at becoming the first team to win the UCL, Spanish league, Copa del Rey and the CWC in the same season. It leads the Spanish league, is through to the knockout stage of the UCL, and is alive in the Copa del Rey.

“Real has the obligation to win every tournament it plays,” defender Marcelo said. “Every event we play we must give our best to win. We are here with a great will and a lot of hope to win.”


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend