Real Madrid and Anfield's Rubicon

Klopp and Vinicius, in the first leg in Valdebebas.GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

Freshly hooked on the League, at Real Madrid, however, the measure of almost all things is still the Champions League, the tournament that asks the entire club for a card, without exception.

The quarterfinal return against Liverpool at Anfield (21.00, Movistar Champions League) also appears in its best week of the course despite casualties and fatigue.

The appointment does not admit hesitations for the whites, more if possible after 3-1 of the first leg.

Passing the tie would mean his return to the European elite after two consecutive seasons far from it.

But falling, unless it happened in very special circumstances, would mean a remarkable amendment.

Arrived at this bridge, the resultadismo prevails in an institution that became great thus.

The duel is border, a Rubicon in the decisive section of a complex campaign in Valdebebas, with the team doing the rubber from the beginning and very punished by physical problems and covid.

The last to fall due to coronavirus was the injured Sergio Ramos, just like Varane seven days ago.

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Absences and fatigue, if you listen to Zidane's words, are the main threats in the merengue expedition.

After beating Barcelona on Saturday, the Frenchman assured that his team were at the limit, a serious problem because in the

sanctuary

a collision of great tonnage is sensed against a rival who brings out the best of himself in vertigo.

"We are used to this type of game, we are not going to manage our efforts," said the white coach with a grave gesture, more laconic than usual.

The great unknown is how the unstitched right-back will darn in a defense that has already lost its two starting centrals.

His natural substitute for making staff, Álvaro Odriozola, has long offered more doubts than certainties.

He also has the resource of Valverde, recovered from the strong blow he received during the classic on the sole of his right foot, to help the San Sebastian player or directly occupy that position.

In any case, any solution, one of these or others, will be a patch.

The game plan should not be far from the one displayed at Di Stéfano.

Starting from the Casemiro-Kroos-Modric trio, the goal of the whites is to anesthetize Liverpool's impulses, snatch the ball from them and look for the backs of a defense in the bones due to the injuries of Van Dijk, Matip and Gomes.

This is how the victory in the first leg was created, signed up by the best Vinicius and a good Asensio, and that is Klopp's great fear.

In the previous one, the German coach insisted in a crushing way on the need to protect his goal to have options.

“It is essential not to fit in.

Defending well will be as important as attacking well.

In Madrid, for example, we did not.

For tomorrow [for today] I cannot invent new things, we are going to use the tools of football ”, he explained.

The German, however, warned that there are situations almost impossible to counteract.

“The 1-0 [Kroos pass and Vinicius definition] was great.

Seeing a Madrid game and playing against them are two different things because they have a lot of quality ”, he added before a duel that was also capital for the English, who are far behind in their league (three points behind the Champions League places).

All this will happen in a sacred stage of football, the scene of a unique environment that the pandemic has eaten up.

Until their agonizing victory against Aston Villa last weekend, Liverpool had been coming off six consecutive defeats in the Premier, a negative record that can only be explained by the helplessness caused by the void.

Nobody in the whole

denied that the absence of public multiplies the difficulties of comeback.

Face to face, 19 European cups in an unprecedented landscape.

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