Real season on the line as battle with Juve awaits
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STUTTERING holder Real Madrid could see its last chance of silverware slip away if it is unable to overturn a 1-2 deficit in today’s Champions League semifinal, second leg at home to Juventus.
Ending the season without winning the Champions League, the La Liga title or the Spanish Cup would be a disaster for the world’s richest club by income but this is a real possibility for Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
Saturday’s 2-2 La Liga home draw with Valencia left it four points behind leader Barcelona with two games left and it was dumped out of the Copa del Rey by Atletico Madrid, the team it beat 4-1 after extra time to secure a record-extending 10th European Cup last term.
Exit from the latest edition could prompt drastic action from Real’s notoriously impatient — and deep-pocketed — president Florentino Perez, who has rarely stuck by his coaches for long if they do not deliver trophies on a regular basis.
An exodus of players is also a possibility, with local media speculating that top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo and captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas could be on their way.
Real’s hopes of getting past Juventus into June’s showpiece in Berlin hinge on cutting out the errors and inconsistency that have dogged it in recent weeks.
Injuries have also played their part and Ancelotti is hoping to have France striker Karim Benzema back for the Bernabeu clash, while a suspected injury to Germany midfielder Toni Kroos on Saturday looks to have been nothing more than a scare.
“Above all we need to keep a cool head, be patient, and not go crazy,” defender Dani Carvajal, who conceded the penalty Carlos Tevez converted to win the first leg, said on Monday.
“We have to try to make time go really slowly for Juve so that they suffer without the ball.”
Meanwhile, Ancelotti has hit back at Gareth Bale’s agent for suggesting the winger’s teammates do not pass to him enough, telling Jonathan Barnett it would have been better to keep quiet.
Bale’s disappointing second season in Spain hit a new low with a poor performance in last week’s defeat at Juventus and he again failed to spark in the 2-2 La Liga draw with Valencia.
The 25-year-old has been whistled by disgruntled fans at the Bernabeu, a startling turnaround for a player who scored in the finals of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey last term, but has a chance to redeem himself when Real hosts Juventus today.
“This is a world in which a lot of people talk and sometimes they talk too much,” Ancelotti told a news conference yesterday.
“Bale’s agent spoke who has never been to one of our training sessions, who doesn’t know the atmosphere we have, who spoke from outside,” added the Italian. “Bale has never had problems with his teammates and his teammates have never had problems with Bale.
“So too many words and it would have been better to stay quiet. We are happy with Bale’s season.”
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