The reliability of Madrid at home, tested in Granada

In what will be their tenth game of the season away from home -the eighth in the League- and, after having yielded only five points out of 21 possible in the championship, Real Madrid’s reliability away from home is put to the test this Sunday against the Granada in Los Cármenes. It will be an important test to measure the recovery of the whites after the national team stoppage, and a new test for Benzema and Vinicius, positive and decisive protagonists in this Real Madrid that has its negative side in the names of Bale and Hazard, with the Welshman again injured and the Belgian now on sick leave due to gastroenteritis.

Benzema and Vinicius threaten a Granada that is on the verge of relegation and has only won one match of the five that it has played before its fans, with former selector Robert Moreno in a very compromised situation, while Carlo Ancelotti, despite the fact that Real Madrid He has already solved too many encounters with little brilliance and a lot of suffering, he insists that “the dynamics are good.” “I think we are on the right track,” stressed this Saturday the Italian coach, whose team starts a demanding stretch of the season against Granada that will last for a month, with little rest, until the end of the year, for which Ancelotti claims ” do something with the calendar.

What Ancelotti does appreciate after the qualifying matches for the World Cup in Qatar is to play on Sunday, “to have more time to recover the Brazilians from their travels”, aware that the destabilizing Vinicius is one of his main offensive weapons and He already forms a key partnership with Benzema, and that Rodrygo is also a piece to take into account in the attack gear. There, however, although it is no longer news, Bale and Hazard will be missing again, although Ancelotti assures that he does not have any confrontation with the Welsh winger and that his wish is to recover him, “because he is an important player”. “To play for Wales Bale has to play with us,” Ancelotti commented, when it is not essential, as has been demonstrated, that he play a single minute dressed in white to defend his country.

Hazard was also with his team and this time he will be absent due to gastroenteritis, “not because of covid”, although both he and Courtois were in contact with Kevin De Bruyne, positive for coronavirus. Ancelotti acknowledges that Hazard “is not happy with his situation, which is that of a player who does not play much”, but neither can he give up the Belgian, while trying to make Asensio take advantage of his continuous losses.