Chronicle. Real Madrid, humiliated and eliminated from the Copa del Rey by Alcoyano
Copa del Rey.The great debacles of Real Madrid: Toledo, Alcorcón, Irún ... and Alcoy
Reactions. Zidane calms down: "It's not a shame, we're not going to go crazy"
May 23 and 29
.
That Sunday and that Saturday in spring the last day of the
Santander League
and the final of the
Champions League will be played
.
That date will mark, if the pandemic allows it, the closing of this strange football season starring Covid-19.
It will also be a turning point in the career of
Zinedine Zidane
and in
Real Madrid's
medium-term situation
.
A title or a very good European performance would guarantee its continuity, but an early goodbye to one of the
he two competitions would put his future on a precipice.
After the defeat in the semifinals of the
Spain Supercup
against Athletic Club and the disaster experienced on Wednesday night in
Alcoy
, Zidane has four months left to convince the white officials that the future passes through his hands.
The famous
Alcorconazo
did not end with
Manuel Pellegrini
And, as this newspaper has learned, the cup debacle will not result in the removal of the Frenchman.
«
It's not a shame
.
We are not going to go crazy, they are things that can happen », warned the Frenchman.
So shall.
This Thursday, the coach and footballers met for five minutes before the start of training.
A talk to recover your spirits and recharge your batteries
At a time on the calendar that does not allow for breaks, Zidane, who was walking head down on the El Collao pitch after the final whistle, is facing the second serious crisis of the season.
He solved the first in December, when the
defeat in Ukraine to Shakhtar
left Madrid with one foot out of the Champions League group stage for the first time in its history.
He refused to resign,
the team was reborn with outstanding
, chained six wins in a row, one of them against
Athletic
, confirmed the first place in the continental tournament and accelerated towards Christmas.
He did, yes, with a
hard core and ending rotations
, a key tool in the two leagues that he has conquered as a white coach.
League, Champions and reconstruction
However, 2021 has returned Madrid to the nightmares of a month and a half ago.
Two ties in
Elche and Pamplona
and two defeats to say goodbye to two titles.
In the offices of the Bernabéu, the clashes against Athletic and Alcoyano have hurt, but the Super Cup and the Cup are also assumed as inferior tournaments to the two big ones.
And although some disappointment is shown with some decisions by Zidane, the guilt of what happened in Alcoy focuses on the footballers.
The Frenchman has not managed to reactivate habitual suspects such as
Marcelo and Isco
nor has it managed to get the best out of secondary pieces like
Militao or Vinícius
, who missed several times and missed the mark in Alcoyano's tying goal.
Everything, in addition, with
Luka jovic
in Germany and
Martin Odegaard
asking to go out on loan, young players who should be leaders of that 'Team B'.
His absences increase the difference in level between the starters and substitutes of the squad, despite everything, the two leagues and three Champions of Zidane place him in one
position of strength at any moment of crisis
, especially now that the club is suffering
economic ravages of the pandemic
: lowering wages, timidly facing the transfer market and
pending the future of your veterans
, key to the reconstruction process in which the staff is.
Those responsible for Madrid consider that a dismissal now would not change the situation at all and mark those four months as a key date.
In front,
two objectives: League and Champions
.
In the domestic competition the whites will try to come back against an Atlético that surpasses them by four points with two games less.
They now have six games before
Alavés, Levante, Huesca, Valencia, Getafe and Valladolid
that should serve to recover sensations.
In the event of several punctures, Madrid would say goodbye to the League and would face the hardest bone with doubts: the
knockout round of the Champions League against Atalanta
, with the departure on February 24.
Zidane will see them with his fetish competition, the one in which Madrid takes
two years in a row falling in the same round
, one against Ajax and another against Manchester City, and that in the white offices is considered the great yardstick to measure glory and crisis.
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