Managing Madrid Podcast: Benzema Double Bang In San Mames; The Athenea Show vs. Sporting Huelva

This episode of the Managing Madrid Podcast is brought to you by Royal Sonesta Washington DC, where you should be booking your stay when you come to the live show we’re doing in DC! Tickets here.

This episode comes in two parts.

Part One: Ahtletic Post-game, Kiyan Sobhani and Mehedi Hassan discuss:

• Was this the best possible starting XI from Carlo Ancelotti?
• Eden Hazard’s performance
• The case for Peter Federico
• Ancelotti’s post-game quotes about Hazard
• Benzema’s goals
• The Toni Kroos, Fede Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga midfield
• Camavinga’s perforamnce
• The lack of Luka Modric
• The Eder Militao / Nacho pairing
• What went wrong after Benzema’s goals?
• Subs and last minute chaos
• And more.

Part Two (52:43): Las Blancas Podcast, Om Arvind and Yash Thakur discuss:

• Contrasts between the first and second halves
• Real Madrid’s tendency to start games slowly
• The need to swap Babs and Ivana
• The strange spacing between the wide center-backs and Madrid’s transitional build-up structure
• Sporting Huelva’s key tactical mistake
• Revisiting the Esther discourse
• The proper context behind Nahikari’s struggles
• Why it’s so hard to argue that Esther is a net negative
• How Kenti’s positioning changed things for Madrid in the second half
• Athenea as the key difference maker
• Why the Esther-Nahikari partnership looked better after the break
• The advantages of utilizing Maite in an advanced role
• The performances of the subs
• Whether Madrid can realistically make a push for Champions League football
• Derbi Madrileño
• And more

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Hosts this week:

Om Arvind (@OmVAsports)

Yash Thakur (@Odriozolite)

Las Blancas (@Las_Blancas)

Kiyan Sobhani (@KiyanSo)

Mehedi Hassan (@MHassanFootball)