After dropping two points at Almeria and losing to Juventus in the Champions League midweek, champions Real Madrid need to get back to winning ways against Malaga at home today.
The Bernabeu fans applauded Alessandro Del Piero after his brace helped Juve to a 2-0 win Wednesday — a result which leaves Real struggling to reach the last 16 — but they hope to be applauding their own players this weekend.
Real are two points behind leaders Barcelona and experienced midfielder Guti called on his team-mates to up the ante.
PHOTO: AFP
“We have to improve a lot of things defensively and offensively,” Guti said. “We are at 50 percent at the moment and we need a morale boost.”
“This squad has won two successive league titles and with the team we have we should aspire to win the championship again. We have to come out of this difficult situation together,” Guti said.
Dutch winger Arjen Robben will be out for five to six weeks after injuring his right foot in the warm-up to the Juventus game.
Barcelona, who qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League with a 1-1 draw against FC Basel on Tuesday, have won seven straight league games to lead the standings. But manager Pep Guardiola continues to apply the “take each game as it comes” mentality going into today’s home match with Valladolid.
“We are leaders with a point advantage over Villarreal and two over Real so I am happy,” Guardiola said. “We have done something right to get to the top but we can’t forget that there are 87 points to play for and it a long title race.”
An injury to key midfielder Andres Iniesta was the black spot from their Champions League outing against Basel with the Spanish international expected to be out for up to six weeks with a leg injury.
Villarreal, a point behind Barca, are the only team in the league yet to taste defeat and host Almeria tomorrow hoping to capitalize should Barca or Real slip-up.
After a spell at the summit Valencia fell to fourth with their first defeat of the season last time out — a 4-2 loss against Racing Santander — but are just two points behind Barca.
Unai Emery’s outfit travel to Getafe tomorrow and striker David Villa — already in double figures with 10 goals to his name — said the club would continue their attacking approach.
“Maybe if we were more balanced Racing would not have caught us on the counter, but our philosophy is to always attack and take the game to our opponents,” said Spain’s Euro 2008 hero.
Sevilla are three points behind Valencia in fifth with their next match at home to struggling Recreativo Huelva.
Atletico Madrid, four points adrift of Sevilla, have a great chance to close the gap tomorrow when they travel to Osasuna.
Atletico have spent the whole week complaining about Steven Gerrard’s 94th minute penalty that helped Liverpool rescue a 1-1 Champions League draw at Anfield on Tuesday.
“The linesman apologized to me. He kept saying, ‘sorry, sorry’ because he could have corrected and changed the decision, yet he didn’t,” fumed defender Mariano Pernia.
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
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