Open Thread: December 22, 2021

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, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

It’s Matchday!

It’s another opportunity for Los Blancos to extend their lead atop La Liga, with second place Sevilla drawing against Barcelona on Tuesday night and sitting five points behind.

Athletic Club likes to turn matches at the San Mames into aggressive, rough and tumble battles.

Meanwhile we are missing eleven first team players: Alaba, Rodrygo, Modrić, Casemiro, Carvajal, Asensio, Isco, Bale, Marcelo, Lunin, and Ceballos.

Mister Ancelotti is looking at it as an opportunity for the squad to show the quality they have – the whole interview is in depth and worth reading.

It’ll be a very entertaining and tough game, at San Mamés, a place where the fans create an atmosphere I really like. We have some players missing, but it could be an opportunity to demonstrate the quality of the whole squad. We’re going to prepare for the game well and try to get the win, like always.

Here’s the squad that travelled to the Basque region city of Bilbao:

Ancelotti said (quote in the previous link) that his whole right wing is gone and he is thinking hard about what to do here. Any predictions on a starting lineup?

It is really exciting to see some new faces getting ready for the match. There’s always the possibility of someone we don’t expect getting a big opportunity for Real Madrid:

Marca has a run-down on the seven academy players who are coming along to San Mames.

Here’s 15 minutes of training on Tuesday. It looks like the squad is playing extra hard against the kids and smiling in the rondos.

There is buzz in Madrid about Peter

Report: Pedro Porro is still on Real Madrid’s radar

Kounde was shown red for his exchange with Jordi Alba

Of course, Alba hit the ground like he was shot by a sniper with a high-powered rifle. At least he didn’t peek to see if the referee was watching.