The return of Benzema and the resilience of Zidane: "We always overcome difficult moments"

• The sins of Madrid: broken in front and broken behind

• The lawnmower, Zidane is the Chinese drop

For the second consecutive week, Real Madrid returns to one of the stages where it carved out its unique legend in the Champions League.

Five days after the convincing triumph in Milan, the Kiev Olympian hosted the last training

for

.

However, even the French coach is not certain of what will happen on Tuesday against Shakhtar.

The victory means qualification for the round of 16, but any other result would leave everything at the expense of an unpredictable last day against Borussia in Valdebebas.

Since that Thirteenth of 2018 in Kiev, with the Chilean

and the abrupt goodbye of

, nothing is the same for Madrid.

Especially in the Champions League, where he sails, another year, at the mercy of the winds.

The defeat of the first day against Shakhtar conditioned the entire subsequent journey.

And even the good game last Tuesday against Inter cannot be considered a new starting point.

As plausible is the 0-3 as the 3-0 against the Ukrainian champions.

"We know that it is another final. And there are two left. It is surely the most important game of the group, because there are three points that can make us go through the phase. We have to think only about that," Zidane explained yesterday at a press conference, in a more restrained tone than after the fiasco against Alavés.

If on Saturday he had underlined the inability of his players to rebel against the result, yesterday he opted for a message focused on what they now call resilience.

"In this club there are always difficult moments, but we always overcome them," he predicted.

If an example is enough for these difficulties, just remember that after 10 league games, Madrid has 217 minutes behind on the scoreboard, more than in the 38 games of the previous season (185 minutes).

Mariano's will

With all these conditions on the board, Zidane repeated a serious face, typical of someone who knows the terrain and so many times came out gracefully.

In the morning he had breakfast with

medical report

, who suffers an injury to the rectus femoris of the right thigh.

Those bad vibes were at least offset by the return of

, who is now emerging again as an offensive reference.

Having overcome his problem in the left abductor, the Frenchman must guide the white attack, entrusted in his absence to

.

Nothing can be objected to the canterano's predisposition, author of a great goal with a header at Villarreal and with interesting details against Inter.

However, Karim's power of suggestion, his ability to make any viscous ball flow, are essential for Madrid.

Just before falling at the Mestalla he accumulated five goals in four games.

His best streak since the pandemic broke out.

12 goals from five forwards

The goal, in any case, is a daily challenge for this team, accustomed to deficiencies since they lost Cristiano.

Only thanks to the contributions of its defenders and midfielders has Madrid been able to maintain a scoring balance that is no more than discreet.

Of the 22 goals scored in the 14 official matches, 10 came in the boots of

,

,

and

.

The remaining 12 were distributed among five attackers (Benzema,

, Hazard,

and Mariano).

not even appear on this list

, still pending his positive for Covid-19.

The Serbian's alarming lack of adaptation adds to Hazard's umpteenth forced break.

Although the medical services have not offered a recovery period, it is assumed that the Belgian, whose case already sparks comparisons with Bale, will be absent for at least three weeks.

And this December hides several difficulties on the way for Madrid, which visits Sevilla on Saturday, receives Gladbach on Wednesday 9 and three days later, Atlético.

There is no place for that regularity that irritates Zidane so much.

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Know more

• Real Madrid

• Zinedine Zidane

• Eden Hazard

• Gareth Bale

• Mariano Diaz

• Sergio Ramos

• Casemiro

• Cristiano Ronaldo

• Fede Valverde

• Karim Benzema

• Luka jovic

• Luka modric

• sports

• football

• Champions League

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