A Final Begins: 02 March 2023

The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Valyrian Steel, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Felipejack

It’s Matchday!

A good mind preparation for the game is Kiyan’s article about how Real Madrid could hurt Barcelona. Just to give an appetizer:

If Ancelotti opts to be the aggressor, he doesn’t have to bench both Modric and Kroos. He can start one of them and surround them with high-flying two-way midfielders to get a good balance of experience, organization, and dynamism. That’s probably the best approach. Having the organizational brainiac of a veteran all-timer would help channel the team’s energy.

By all means, Ancelotti should be the aggressor. What happened in the Super Cup was a mistake that shouldn’t be repeated. Real Madrid were predictable. They sat deep and hoped to feed Vinicius in transition. Everyone in the stadium knew it was happening.

I agree with that. I won’t be surprised, however, if Ancelotti decides, once again, for the low block. According to AS, Camaving and Modric are guaranteed to start tomorrow. Ancelotti’s doubt would be between Kroos or Tchouameni. AS expects to see Kroos with Camaving and Modric.

Ancelotti was asked about this in his presser. He said:

You’ll see tomorrow if Kroos or Modrić are left out. You need many things for these kinds of matches, such as energy, personality and control of the ball. If Kroos doesn’t start, that would be because of energy, because obviously he doesn’t lack personality or control of the ball.

We must win today

I think today is like a final that we must win. Only Mendy and Alaba are out, while Rodrygo is back in the squad. We have almost full power.

In contrast, Barcelona have several players unavailable for this game: Lewandowski, Pedri and Dembele are out. There is a report saying Christensen might be out as well, even though he is in their published squad list. The game is also at the Bernabeu and Barcelona crashed out recently from Europa League. They are in bad moment. We need to win, hopefully by 2 goals difference or more.

Modric stats over the last 6 seasons

A great picture

Hala Madrid Y Nada Más.