Open Thread: December 6, 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.

A massive win!

Finally, after more than one month, Los Blancos tasted victory in La Liga in the game against Sevilla. Zidane commented that he made only 1 substitution because the team’s shape was fine and he wanted to keep it that way. The coach also said that the team had a good first half, but suffered in the second half, but it’s important to know how to suffer. “It’s a team with character”, said Zidane. Lopetegui, Sevilla’s coach who has trained Real Madrid in the past, said his team dominated the second half and deserved at least one point. The game was covered in the immediate reaction and player rating articles and the Managing Madrid podcast.

Other results from La Liga and Europe.

Barcelona continue their bad form in the league, as they lost 2-1 over Cadiz. Both Cadiz goals were howlers from the Barca defence. Atletico Madrid meanwhile continued their title quest winning against Real Valladolid 2-0, with former Madrid man Marcos Llorente getting on the score sheet once again.

In the Premier League, Chelsea climbed to the top of the league standings with a 3-1 win over Leeds. Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham can regain top spot however with a win over Arsenal in today’s north London Derby. Both Manchester teams also won, with United beating West Ham 3-1 away and City beating Fulham 2-0 at home.

Bayern Munich drew 3-3 with RB Leipzig in an exciting game between the top 2 teams in the Bundesliga. While Madrid’s opponents on Wednesday, Borussia Monchengladbach drew 2-2 with Freiberg. Juventus meanwhile beat Torino 2-1 in the Derby della Mole, with a last minute winner from Bonucci. Inter overcame Bologna 3-1, while league leaders Milan play against Sampdoria today.

What’s the status of the work on the Bernabeu?

I think all Madridistas can say that they have missed watching the team play in our beloved Santiago Bernabeu. The club has released details of the work done so far on the official website. The noticeable changes so far relates to the roof where the north and south stand sections have now been dismantled. The second of these major changes relates to the demolition of the adjoining building, which housed the club’s institutional offices and the Adidas store.

There is also a brand new logistics tunnel inside the stadium according to Marca. One of the conditions laid out by the Madrid City Council to give the green light to the stadium redevelopment, was a need to create a space for logistics, maintenance and the unloading and loading of deliveries, so Real Madrid built one. Match days will also be much less congested in terms of trucks, buses and mobile television units, with all those vehicles being able to be hidden in the new car park.

Las Blancas get their biggest win of the season.

The women also played Sevilla and came away with a bigger margin of victory compared to their male counterparts. Las Blancas won comfortably in the end (5-2) despite a topsy-turvy start to the second half in which Sevilla drew level at 2-2. David Aznar’s side now climb to fourth in the table. The game was covered in both the immediate reaction and the player ratings articles.