La Liga
THIS IS FOR REAL! ZINEDINE ZIDANE STILL ON SHAKY GROUND AT REAL MADRID
Real Madrid have relaxed the pressure on Zinedine Zidane temporarily, with the next task to fix their dismal start in the Champions League.
Real’s 3-1 win over Barcelona in the Clasico on Saturday swerved a third consecutive defeat after losses to Cadiz in La Liga and Shakhtar Donetsk.
“There are always bad spells,” said Sergio Ramos. “Hopefully, this one has only lasted a week.”
But the effects of the 3-2 implosion against Shakhtar, who had 10 first-team players missing due to coronavirus infections, still linger, with Real sitting bottom of Group B in the Champions League.
A victory away to Borussia Monchengladbach today would limit the damage, especially after the Bundesliga outfit’s opening 2-2 draw with Serie A side Inter Milan which kept the group tight.
Zidane knows a convincing performance in Germany should suspend talk of a crisis and dispel doubts about his future, at least for now.
Even for Real, two defeats seemed ammunition for the uncertainty around their coach that followed. In the aftermath of their win at the Nou Camp, Spanish radio station Onda Cero said that former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino had been sounded out by the Spanish giants with a view towards potentially replacing Zidane.
Other reports in the Spanish press also discussed the Argentinian, who spent five years with the Premier League club before being sacked last year.
But Zidane has brushed off the speculation, saying: “I have always been critical of myself, it is what drives you to improve.
“After a loss, as a coach, most of the criticism comes at me and that’s normal.”
The quickness to question the Frenchman has become a regular feature of his tenure, even while the players sing his praises and the trophies have poured in.
It was only three months ago Real were winning their second La Liga title of his three full seasons in charge, to go with three triumphs in the Champions League and 11 trophies in total.
Success, though, has never been enough for Zidane, who began his second stint in March last year.
His reputation as a man-manager has always been a backhanded compliment, even if getting the best out of good players is surely the key to being the coach of a team like Real.
Inconsistency continues to plague his side. When they stormed to the title during the 11-game run-in last season, it was with no other distractions and a trophy in sight.
With a less immediate prize and against lesser opponents, the suspicion is those players Zidane trusts completely become unreliable.
“I have won many things with these players,” he said. “I will always be with them until the end.”
Zidane routinely sidesteps the issue of his future, which creates a nervousness after he resigned so unexpectedly after winning the Champions League in 2018.
That contributes to the sense of short-termism, an ageing team managed by a coach who seemingly refuses to look beyond the end of the week.
Anything but a win today and the cycle of instability begins again.
-AFP
It was mission accomplished, said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti after his side fought back from two-goals behind to snatch a rip-roaring 4-4 draw on Tuesday for a 5-4 aggregate win that put them through to the Copa del Rey final.
Ancelotti brushed off questions about a sub-par performance by his side and praised his players’ effort in what he considered a highly entertaining encounter.
“We have achieved our goal today which was to reach the final and there is not much time to think about it,” Ancelotti told a press conference.
“It was an entertaining game with some mistakes and a lot of good things. It was fun and we are in the final.
“I never saw ourselves out of it because anything can happen at the Bernabeu. When we have to come from behind, we never give up. We never give up, especially at home, with the fans by our side.”
Ancelotti said David Alaba was not to blame after he deflected two balls into his own goal, calling it “bad luck” by the Austrian defender, but urged his defence to play with better focus moving forward.
“It’s not good to concede four goals in a game,” Ancelotti said.
“Right now we are a team that has a lot of effectiveness up-front, but little balance.
“However, we can’t ignore what we did in attack, scoring four goals against Real is not that easy. I think we are doing quite well.”
Real Madrid, who have won the Spanish Cup only once in over a decade, will play either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in a mouth-watering final in Seville next month.
Atletico fought back to hold Barca to a thrilling 4-4 draw ahead of Wednesday’s second-leg in Madrid.
-Reuters
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Real Madrid’s legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti will go on trial next week for allegedly failing to declare income to Spain’s tax office, the Madrid court which will hear the case has said.
Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of four years and nine months for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him of having cost Spain’s treasury more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015.
The trial will begin on Wednesday and it is expected to last two days, a spokesman for the court said.
Ancelotti, who as a coach has won a record five Champions League trophies including three with Real, must be present for the hearings, he added.
Prosecutors accuse him of only declaring in his tax returns the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid during those two years even though he himself declared himself to be a tax resident in Spain and indicated his home was in Madrid.
They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly setting up a “confusing” and “complex” system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings from his image rights as well as from other sources such as real estate.
A Spanish court in 2023 ordered Ancelotti to stand trial over the affair, but did not set a date.
Ancelotti dismissed the affair last year as “an old story that I hope will be resolved soon” when he was asked about the case.
He took over at Real Madrid in 2013, leaving in May 2015, before being appointed at Bayern Munich the following year.
The former Italy international midfielder, who as a player won the European Cup twice with AC Milan, later managed Napoli and Everton before returning to Real Madrid in 2021.
Aside from his success in the Champions League he has won domestic league titles with Madrid and Milan, in England with Chelsea, in Germany with Bayern Munich and in France with Paris Saint-Germain.
-AFP
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Spain’s former soccer chief Luis Rubiales told Reuters on Thursday he would appeal a court ruling which found him guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent.-
-Reuters
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