Okay, let’s go and give it our all.
We’re not the favourites with the problems we have obviously. It’s not like our chances are slim either, but I can’t objectivelly say it’s a good draw for us.
It’s Real Madrid. Like them or not as a club and how they work (or some parts of them, like this Ramos-hate), I’ve seen that movie where people write them off way too often.
As clubs, it’s games I want to see every year. We played them only 6 times in our history, twice in a final. That’s not enough, I want challenges like this every year. So from that perspective, I’m excited.
Tactically, it will be very interesting.
Let’s see if they have Carvajal back at RB. Question remains over position 1 and 2 in attack alongside Benzema. They can sometimes flip their formation from 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 diamond (which they played in Kiev with Isco at the top of it). Benzema himself already plays that false 9 role probably better (technically for sure) than anyone in the world. I could see them playing two combining players and one runner who will look to attack space. They’re maybe not an impressive team (it’s just not how they work, their philosophy is buying top players and winning), but it’s an outstanding group of players. Technically brilliant, among the very best, strong mentally in big games with big experience. It was often the case that they raise their levels with higher challenges.
On our side, we’ll see how our back line reacts. Who starts up top. Bobby or Jota on the bench. Maybe start with both and play with a double-six. Who knows. Gini played RCM and Milner played LCM in Kiev. I wanted it to be the opposite, that Gini goes against Modric and Milner plays against Kroos. This time Gini is LCM so he’ll go up against Modric, who is still for me one of the best midfielders in the game. Thiago most probably against Kroos.
Real love teams like us. We can cause them problems even with our problems, but they have the technique and know how to play around and through our pressure. They showed it in Kiev, flipping Casemiro with either Kroos or Modric in the build up, to avoid that Bobby vs Casemiro battle, which was our target. On paper, they should have more chances of imposing their qualities.
I just don’t see us going through, Real or Chelsea will probably knock us out.
But it’s still exciting. I’m relaxed as I’m not expecting much. Let’s give it 100% and die like men!
, can’t stand those Barcelona prima donnas.
