Scary to think if betispiss win their game before us on Tuesday they will be level on points with us. It’s squeaky bum time now like. The RSP will erupt if they pass us in the table.
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I’m not gonna lie, this was a legit attempt at a reverse-jinx. And i think Lopetegui managed the game well. But it’s his team’s habits that came back to bite him. Reap what you sow.
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I knew that, we need to add another layer next time.
I couldn’t watch the game. I’m out for Easter Sunday drinks with my mates.
Sounds like another big disappointment. To go two goals up and lose 3-2 at home just isn’t acceptable. Seems to sum up why we’re not a top-tier team. Always a losing mentality with Lope.
Top 4 now very much in the balance and big questions now do have to be asked of Lope’s management going forward.
It’s simply not good enough.
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I’m surprised more people are not in an uproar over this, but then again some people are used to it. Fans have complained for years that the big clubs get preferential treatment but it gets blatant at times, like today.
I made a sandwich at half-time resigned to the fact that Madrid would not be allowed to lose this game. Not only does Carnavinga not get booked for a second yellow, not only do they not even call it a foul but the injured player gets the yellow card before he has to leave the game.
Ancelotti co-operates by substituting Carnavinga at half-time so as not to put the referee on the spot for a second time with THAT player. Militao is allowed to elbow Rafa Mir in the back of the head so that he can’t get his head on the ball in front of the Madrid goal with Sevilla still up 2-1. Not only is the referee not going to call it but VAR ignores it as well. Both willl get the protection and the blessings from the league offices.
Torres gets fouled before the tying goal, not only is it allowed to stand but Torres gets the yellow for complaining. In the real world Sevilla played a great first half until the La Liga machinery that protects the Big Two came to the rescue. In the simulated world, Real Madrid made a great comeback, the players shamelessly celebrated and the media gushes about the “thriller” of a game, reminding me of the buzz surrounding Hulk Hogan and the world of wrestling by the people who thought wrestling was real.
My solution to this would be for the other 18 teams to face the reality of the situation, that it’s pointless to pretend that it’s a fair and level playing field when it clearly isn’t. Stop playing Charlie Brown to La Liga Lucy.
All 18 teams take an 0-4 record from their league games against the Big Two and contest the European spots for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League with the other 34 games against each other.
But make the league games against the Big Two a living nightmare for them. Hard tackles, maybe being reduced to 10 or nine men in the process. It does not matter, it’s not a fair game. You play four hard matches, dishing it out, while they play 36 games on the receiving end (they can have a Ballet of Tiki-Tak for the El Classicoes.) The Big Two will be begging for unbiased officiating to save themselves.
/end of rant
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I wonder if he can become the Cholo of Sevilla
I’m in Sevilla with my family for the match and Easter break. Just about composed myself after getting back from the stadium and a post-match drink.
Great atmosphere at RSP before and druring the game, esp until the third goal and the fanaticos behind the goal stayed even after the game to show support for the team, although I was not sure the players deserved that fully.
First 30 minutes were a dream, much more positive than in most of the games this year but then the team let Real Madrid back into the game too easily.
Of course RM would have increased their intensity and tempo anyway, but still it was worrying and disappointing to see the positive intent and sharpness disappear from our play so much in the second half. I suspect the withdrawal of Papu weakened our midfield and lost control there even more without his ability to keep possession and distribute the ball well as well as linking up between the midfield and attackers; then Acuna and Lamela went off and we lost a lot of quality and even more intensity on the pitch as well.
Oliver Torres provided some nice touches and moments, but ultimately faded and was at fault for RM move that led to decisive third goal after more poor play from below-par Augustinsson and unusually panicky mix-up from Kounde and Diego Carlos when they both stood off Benzema and tried to block his shot instead of one of them coming out to challenge him before he had the shot.
The ref was very annoying with his inconsistency, awarding free kicks for some fouls and letting go of the same ones later on, seemingly intent on giving some advantage to RM after he disallowed Vinicius’ goal which did look like a correct decision because Vini’s arm did move towards the ball to control it before his shot.
All in all, a mixed bag of a night at the stadium, tinted with disappointment at what could have been and at the probably negative instructions from Lope at halftime, with the team sitting back too much and giving all control back to Real.
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The buck stops with the manager I’m afraid. He lost us that game last night with his cowardly tactics after 2-0. It’s time to move on before we get even worse.
This is why we still can only fight for top 4 at best and the title was just a pipe dream with this current regime. Unless things change fundamentally at this club.
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Yeah Martial was a panic signing, an ambitious one tho, with a lot of faith. Which I liked. It’s a signal, of believe, and trying to aim for higher players and aim for the highest objectives. If things go well. They did a ton of work and effort to achieve his signature, shame it turned out like this. But that was the risk.
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People could say that, but I’m not of that believe. You really drawing in bad things over yourselves that way. Cowardness gets punished, and asks to be punished. I just said that before. If you know football, you know how dangerous 2-0 is. If you lean into that mentality from protecting it, it’s not gonna make it better, unless you are actually an organized unit and have treat on the counter to punish. Otherwise you are just hoping the time passes by before the final whistle that they didn’t manage to put in enough goals to win. Which again is just, pain to watch.
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The best thing to do when you have your foot on the opponents throat is to keep them under pressure. Attack is the best form of defence when playing a mighty club like Real Madrid. They were reeling after 2-0 but we backed off and made them more comfortable. Then the match turned. I’m confident with a more attack minded and braver coach we would have won that game. They other thing is it’s much more entertaining to watch if we attack more as well.
Real were tired after champions league with a few players struggling with injury or suspension but we still couldn’t capitalise. Had we trusted our offence more I think we could scored 1 or 2 more and still won even if we were more open and real scored a couple themselves.
Even with new players I don’t trust lopetegui to change. He’s to focused on the defence and you could see that with his subs and taking off papu, lamela and acuna. He holds us back as he too reliant on defence.
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I was thinking the same, no guarantee in no way of course. But my guts say with Emery we would have won something like 5-2 last night.
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Yeah I agree. I think we would have won with sampaoli and Juande ramos as well. Those 3 managers are more attack minded and would have went for it more and not let real settle as much.
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With Ramos or Sampaoli we would have kept attacking and got a third or fourth goal.
Criminal to go 2-0 up and let it slide in the way we did with defensive negative tactics.
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We should have had a third or fourth goal last night, but the players didn’t capitalize. @Mark_L and @Enrico make great points. The best way to continue to tire out your opponents is to make them defend. We didn’t do that, they feel comfortable, can take their time and of course, world-class will score if you give them 15 opportunities to do so.
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So I was told. However a search shows they have received 2 reds. Militão & Marcelo but not sure if they were in cup games.
In LaLiga competition Real Madrid has 0 red cars, and the 2nd least yellow cards.
Real Madrid often is the better team, so they don’t really have to foul as much, so that could be justified.
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But also to be fair (to fairness), they’re always pissed about something, so the fact that they were complaining months ago about Lopetegui may or may not be evidence of their sporting insight.
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Absolutely. In fact, I was complaining about the way we played since the first part of the 2019-20 season… it was quite evident.
I think we were blindly hoping that we’ll become the new Atletico Madrid with Lope… not necessarily playing well but somehow, winning matches left and right. We all tried to cheer the building of a strong winning mentality… but 3 seasons later and it never happened, unfortunately.
Now it is more about: could it possibly get worse than this with another coach? There’s always the risk, but I think that we can do much much better with the right coach, for which I trust Monchi and co. 100%.
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