Madrid, from the fright of Juve to the challenge of Valencia

Real Madrid will look to keep their title hopes alive against a tough opponent at the Bernabéu. Ramos could return to the centre of defence, alongside Pepe.

Valencia will provide a tricky test for Real Madrid at the Bernabéu on Saturday night.

I cannot think of more interferences for the concentration of a footballer and for the peace of a coach. In the space of four days, Real Madrid will play for La Liga and the Champions League, the entire season and the immediate future. They will do it, in addition, against two opponents that frighten (just look at Nicolás Otamendi), two tough teams with outstanding objectives (Berlin and the Champions League) and with personal accounts to settle. In Turin, it was Álvaro Morata who wanted to vindicate himself (and, well, he managed to do it); today (Saturday) it will be the turn of Dani Parejo and Álvaro Negredo, and perhaps José Luis Gayà, who was wanted by Real Madrid but recently renewed his contract at Valencia.

The distractions do not finish here. Madrid will face the fixture without knowing if there will be another Liga matchday this season. It is likely that those who were photographed in support of the strike are starting to understand at this time that the stoppage will mainly harm them, because in this war there are no modest persons to be saved, but instead hierarchies to be maintained. Someone deceived them: on Friday they did not show face, they placed the body. Now the bullets whistle, and the others hide.

In the middle of the whirlwind, Carlo Ancelotti must decide the system that will defend the team’s options, his position as coach and his house in the Plaza de la Independencia (it is not a metaphor, but it could be one). On Friday he did not discard the Sergio Ramos option, despite the fiasco against Juventus. Changes are expected, however. The most natural one would be to plump for Asier Illarramendi as a partner for Toni Kroos. The most risky one would be to start Chicharito as a centre-forward, flanked by Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo, and return to the 4-3-3.

There will be changes in the full-back positions. Álvaro Arbeloa and Fabio Coentrao are the natural understudies for Dani Carvajal and Marcelo, who are possessed by a strange evil force. Ramos wasn’t the only one who left Turin wounded.

Nuno will be smug these days. He comes up against a tired team, and one with its mind in a thousand different places. Valencia’s magnificent season needs a victory like the one that they nearly achieved at the Camp Nou.