Madrid: Real Madrid and Barcelona face two Clasicos in four days next week but the La Liga’s giants are not so much revving up for the double-header but crawling reluctantly towards it.
Real host the Catalans next Thursday in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal before playing them again at the Santiago Bernabeu three days later in the league.
Barca travel to fourth-placed Sevilla this weekend while Madrid are away to Levante, when priorities, rest and rotation will all be high on the agenda again.
Real manager Santiago Solari pointed to exhaustion following his team’s latest loss at home to Girona, four days after they came from behind to beat Ajax, eight after defeating Atletico Madrid and 11 after holding Barca to a draw at the Camp Nou.
“The fatigue is not only physical, it is mental, it affects our concentration,” Solari said.
“Obviously we have come from an important period, with a lot of hard games. We have to overcome it because it might be that our energy levels dipped in the second half.”
The dilemma for Solari is that preserving key players against Levante risks another slip which, combined with Barca winning at Sevilla, would surely spell the end of any fading title hopes.
“We will continue fighting on all three fronts that we have open,” Solari said. “We have to keep trying to reduce the gap.”
The most disappointing aspect of their defeat to Girona was that Barcelona have been stumbling themselves, a stodgy 1-0 win over Real Valladolid doing little to restore confidence after three consecutive draws.
A stalemate away to Lyon in the Champions League should not prove too damaging to their chances of progress but Barca have now scored only twice in four matches
“I would worry if we did not create any chances,” coach Ernesto Valverde said in France. “Football is all about results. But I get more nervous if the opposition are missing chances.”
Valverde has more wiggle room than Solari, both in the league, due to his team’s healthy advantage, and the cup, which comes a distant third this season in the club’s list of priorities.
Messi could even sit out any, or all, of the next three games in a bid to be sharp for the business end of calendar.
But momentum is on the line too. Defeat to Sevilla would swell the sense of a dip while succumbing to Real, in either match, let alone both, could knock morale just as much as it might boost their opponents.
AFP
