Fireworks or wet firecracker?
Author of a goal and a brilliant assist in his first two matches at Real in mid-September, Eduardo Camavinga has not been decisive since then ... but continues his apprenticeship, in the shadow of the Ballon d'Or 2018, Luka Modric.
The 19-year-old French nugget has thus remained on the bench during the last major meetings of the Madrilenians, whether during the Clasico won at Camp Nou against Barça at the end of October (1-2), or during the essential match at home against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League in early November (2-1), while the Merengue were under pressure after the first leg defeat against the Sheriff.
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Wednesday in Tiraspol, Real, semi-finalist of the previous edition (defeated 1-1, 2-0 by the future winner, Chelsea), could seal their qualification for the round of 16 if they win. And Camavinga is still likely to start as a replacement. This is the price to pay for a player transferred from Rennes to the Spanish capital in the last hours of the last summer transfer window in exchange for around 31 million euros, and who must refine his game in the shadow of icons of the club like Toni Kroos or Luka Modric. “
I was surprised, they are humble players. They put me directly at ease. They even started playing jokes on me. Even though I don't speak too much Spanish, it was fun. Luka
(Modric)
and Karim
(Benzema)
, they call me with another first name.
It's a secret, I'm not going to say it, but it means that I am already well integrated,
”he told AFP in early October in Brest, with the French hopefuls team.
Camavinga in the waiting room
But at the end of October, the first criticisms arrived in the Spanish press. The young Habs were criticized for often putting too much commitment in his defensive interventions. He already has four yellow cards in less than 400 minutes of play in La Liga, the last dating October 27 against Osasuna. Result: at the next warning, he will be suspended in the league. Thankfully, the camaraderie softens criticism and its reduced playing time. And the comments of his trainer Carlo Ancelotti too. “
There isn't much to say.
(Kroos and Modric)
play at a very high level, they are still the best midfielders in the world for me. The dynamics of these three
(with Casemiro)
always surprises me, they do things that I did not ask them but which come to them in a natural way
”, praised Ancelotti Sunday after the crushing victory of Real 4-1 in Granada, which allowed the Merengue to regain the lead of the Spanish championship.
"
They were the past of this club, they are the present, and in ten years, we will see ... We must start to think about solutions.
Even if we already have them within the club, with Camavinga,
(Fede)
Valverde and
(Antonio)
Blanco
”, slipped the Italian coach.
Although Kroos and Modric, at 31 and 36 respectively, remain Real's number 1 options in the middle, Camavinga still has his card to play.
And the words of his Italian coach foreshadow a bright future for the diamond trained in Rennes, in line with the trajectories of the German and the Croatian, who have become legends of the club.
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