Never in its brief history, which began in the 2020-2021 season, had Madrid reached matchday ten of the League without losing a game. In its first four years of life, Real lost in the first nine games between one and five times, but this Saturday it receives Barcelona undefeated in the domestic championship (8:00 p.m., Dazn), the current dominator of European football, at the Alfredo stadium by Stéfano de Valdebebas. The clash is presented as a key test for the white team, with the most complete squad and recording its best numbers since it was born. the day before yesterdayexamine if his progression is enough to finally compete with Barça, the rival that always knocked him down and many times thrashed him in his 14 previous matches.
The scenario is almost ideal for the team led by Alberto Toril, which has almost the entire squad healthy and arrives at the match after having achieved its biggest win in the Champions League, the 7-0 with which it punished Twente, the champion, last Wednesday. of the Dutch Eredivisie, and put their place on track for the quarterfinals. “Every year we are stronger, we have more possibilities, we are more competitive and we are better established in all competitions, with more possibilities of being successful,” said the white coach after the game. The day before, at the press conference he had been even more specific: “This year we have taken a step forward and we have very good pillars for the future. Soon we will be very close to winning titles.”
Real, who have only conceded a draw in the League against Atlético in a match in which Lola Gallardo supported the red and white team from the goal, even have the possibility of aspiring to the leadership if they knock down Barcelona and also defeat Levante in Valdebebas , a clash on matchday eight that was postponed due to the devastation caused by the storm in the Valencian Community. Pere Romeu’s team has won all its games in Spain this year, but it has also not lost in the league championship since the last day of the 2022-2023 season, when it had already clinched the title. The last puncture with the tournament at stake was on June 1, 2021 against Atlético, three and a half years ago. Its hegemony is so formidable that it has won five consecutive Leagues and last year it hit second-placed Madrid with two league wins (5-0 and 0-3) and a third in the Super Cup (4-0).
Although Barça is the highest scoring team – 43 goals, 4.78 per game – and with the best goal difference (+38), Real is better defensively so far this year. He has only conceded three goals – his goal average It is +17—, for five of the Blaugranas. Natalia Pablos, a former international player with Spain, considers that Barcelona is a much more mature team but does not rule out that Madrid will finally be able to get their hands on it: “It has started with very good dynamics, and it is important because it helps to gain confidence since things come out They can compete head-to-head and surprise and beat Barça, but Barcelona has been working for many years, creating a team, having its own style of play, and Madrid still has some time to lay its foundations.”
Fundamental in the growth of the club chaired by Florentino Pérez are the purchases it made in the summer, when it was reinforced with four La Roja players —Alba Redondo, Eva Navarro, Sheila García and María Méndez— and four other international footballers —Angeldahl, Luepolz, Lakrar and Antônia—with physique, quality and experience. The signings have given him a leap in quality and have allowed him to expand his records, now capable of also handling more open matches with the presence that the Swedish Angeldahl and the German Leupolz give him in the midfield. “They have those back-and-forth characteristics, they are faster and have physical power,” Toril said about them on Wednesday. The other two high-level midfielders, Tere Abelleira and Sandie Toletti, are more positional players with an enormous ability to combine and direct the team’s play.
Real also celebrates the evolution of the young Colombian Linda Caicedo – 19 years old –, an attacker with extraordinary one-on-one resources who is now indisputable on the left wing, and above all the recovery of Caroline Weir, who was almost lost. all last season due to a torn ligament. The Scotswoman, the player with the most ability to give verticality to the game in the last areas of the attack, is a differentiating element even though she has not yet reached her peak after the injury. Beyond her five goals and six assists in White’s 13 official matches this season, she is the second player in the F League who generates the most scoring chances per game for her teammates (3.22), only behind from the Blaugrana Caroline Graham Hansen (3.44), according to the Hudl Statsbomb model. Weir is the Madrid star who, with the deepest squad and the best records in its short history, seeks for the fifteenth time this Saturday to scratch something at once against Superbarça.
