Open Thread: December 2, 2020.

Hola Madridistas!

The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail or Oscnar.

Not the result we wanted!

It’s the second bad result consecutively for Zidane’s men. The consequences of it are already doing the rounds, with rumors about Zidane’s future as the coach. In the post match press-conference, Zidane said he won’t resign.

Marca reported that some people in the club think it’s time to make an important decision that could involve changing the manager. El Mundo goes along the same lines, stating some sectors in the club support a change of head coach. Further, Pochettino is the leading candidate to replace Zidane, but Florentino is also considering Raul.

The game was covered in the Immediate reaction and Player ratings articles as well as in the Managing Madrid Podcast.

Real Madrid still control their destiny in the Champions League.

Incredibly with Inter beating Borussia Munchengladbach 3-2, Real Madrid are still in control of their destiny. They need to beat the German team in the last matchday of the group stage to guarantee a place in the round of 16. They can still progress with a draw, provided Inter beat Shakhtar. A loss however will knock Madrid out of the tournament. Needless to say Real Madrid have to treat this game like a ‘final’. All four teams in group B have a chance of qualifying.

Other results from the Champions League.

Atletico Madrid failed to beat a heavily rotated Bayern team, drawing 1-1 and needing a draw or better against Salzburg to progress. Bayern meanwhile have qualified. Manchester City and Porto played out a 0-0 draw with both teams booking their place in the knockout rounds. Joining them were Liverpool who saw off Ajax 1-0. Chelsea, Sevilla, Barcelona and Juventus have already booked their place in the knockout rounds.

Real Madrid’s calendar for remainder of 2020.

The Whites first travel to face Sevilla on Saturday for the sides’ LaLiga Matchday 12 contest. Then there’s the all important game against Borussia Munchengladbach. There ’s then no let-up, with the first derby meeting of the season on Saturday 12 December (9pm), when Atletico are the visitors. Three days later, the team will play the third of a trio of consecutive games at the Di Stéfano with Athletic Bilbao providing the opposition (15 December, 10pm). That being the hard part, during the rest of the month, the side will travel to Éibar (20 December, 9pm), play host to Granada (23 December, 7.45pm) and visit Elche (29 or 30 December).