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Joy and anguish after the five best days of Real Madrid

2021-04-12T03:57:17.719Z


Zidane's team beats Liverpool and Barça, is still alive in the Champions League and La Liga, but loses Lucas for the remainder of the season


Real Madrid published on Twitter the medical report that gave an account of the extent of Lucas Vázquez's injury during the classic, and Toni Kroos reacted with an emoji that dropped a tear.

A few hours before, the last thing the German had tweeted was a jubilant photo in which Modric hugged him, who had just made it 2-0 for Barça.

It is the story of the Madrid season, which progresses and remains standing in the League and the Champions League while increasing its share of casualties.

Like a squad thinning to the bone as it takes hill after hill, from Pyrrhic victory to Pyrrhic victory.

😪 https://t.co/fGTKR546rd

- Toni Kroos (@ToniKroos) April 11, 2021

On Saturday night, still at the Alfredo di Stéfano stadium, Zinedine Zidane issued an almost desperate alert: “I don't know how we are going to finish the season.

Physically we are at the limit.

It is difficult for us to finish our games, but we are alive.

We are going to rest well, we are going to see how we can rest better and then prepare for Wednesday's game, ”he said.

He had just completed what may have been the five happiest days of the year: victory against Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals (3-1), victory against Barcelona in the League (2-1) that left him leader of the table, explosion of Vinicius Jr., rebirth of Marco Asensio ...

And yet, the reverse of those joys was already in sight: later on he awaits an even more demanding section of the course with even fewer troops.

Although then he did not have the detail of the extent of Lucas Vázquez's injury.

He learned that yesterday, after the medical tests that the club underwent, which determined the severity of the clash with Busquets that took him out of the classic in the 43rd minute: “He has been diagnosed with a posterior cruciate ligament sprain of the knee. left ”, say the medical report released by Madrid.

Translated to the club's calculations: Lucas Vázquez misses the remainder of the season.

Transferred to Lucas Vázquez's men: Saturday's classic could be his last game with Real Madrid, since his contract expires on June 30 (the day before his 30th birthday), he has not renewed it and the talks have been going on for weeks. they are stagnant.

The club has offered to extend the link with a slight salary increase, but he considers it insufficient, given the weight of his contribution to the team.

Since returning from his loan to Espanyol in the summer of 2015, he has never participated as much as this season, in which he has played as a winger, midfielder and as a right back.

One of the patches that have sustained the team against the accumulation of casualties, especially those of Dani Carvajal, in whose position he has even overtaken Álvaro Odriozola, the natural replacement.

Under these circumstances, Lucas Vázquez is now the eighth player with the most minutes in the squad, in which in previous years he had occupied 18th, 10th, 14th, 13th and 16th positions.

Although its importance this year is better seen when noting that, according to Opta data, it has played 75% of the possible minutes, when until now its highest participation quota had been 51.7% in the 2018 season- 19, and only in that and in the previous one, with 50.5%, had it exceeded half the minutes.

Before colliding with Busquets, Lucas Vázquez had added his seventh assist of the season, the pass with which Benzema opened the scoring from the heel.

Between those seven assists and his two goals, the Galician has participated directly in nine goals, 12.3% of the team's total.

Only in the 2017-18 season was he involved in more (13.5%), although then he always played as a winger, except against Bayern and Barça, when Zidane used him on the right side.

His contribution to the scoring production of this season is equivalent to that of that one, but this time he has played more than half of the time as a right back, from where he has been able to provoke the same threat, in addition to providing defensive security that Zidane He preferred not to trust Odriozola.

His best moment at Real Madrid.

The doubt of Fede Valverde

When he learned the prognosis of his injury, a source from the club found him "morally sunk", although shortly after the footballer already wanted to be more positive on his Instagram account: "Touched ... but never sunk.

If this club has taught me something, it is to always work and fight.

From now on giving everything to return as soon as possible and help the team in the final stage ”, he wrote.

"A single objective: to continue fighting for the League and the Champions League."

Those goals are very complicated by his fall, added to the strong blow to the sole of the foot with which Fede Valverde withdrew from the classic, and which make it a doubt for Anfield.

Also because of the tight schedule to come.

If Madrid reaches the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday, more than a month awaits them with two weekly matches, until the weekend of May 15 and 16.

The panorama is summarized by a source from the club from Valdebebas: “We are dismantling ourselves.

Bad looking so close to the shore ”.

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2021-04-12

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