The Times - UK (2020-08-07)

the times | Friday August 7 2020 2GM 63

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It also meant that Zidane’s squad

swelled. Eden Hazard, injured just

before the first leg against City, had

time to recover. Although he has been

training a little gingerly, Hazard started

half the matches Real needed to

capture La Liga.

The principal bonus, though, was

believes that he may never play for the

club again. He has only started once

since football resumed in Spain two

months ago and The Times has learnt

that Bale asked to be excluded from the

squad because he felt Zidane had no

intention of playing him.

The pair have had numerous

clashes throughout the French-

man’s two spells in charge at the

Bernabéu and Zidane bristled as he was

repeatedly quizzed about his fractured

relationship with the player.

“This is the third question and I have

told you what happened, nothing else,”

he complained. When asked if Bale’s

future lay with Real, Zidane replied: “I

don’t know. He is a current player of

Real Madrid. That does not change

anything. He is our player. I respect

that, and him. He prefers not to play.

That’s all I can say.”

Zidane is likely to be frustrated in his

attempts to offload Bale. He almost

moved to China last summer, but Chi-

nese Super League clubs have had their

spending restricted and Bale views that

option as an unlikely destination.

The Welshman has won four

Champions League titles with Real,

scoring important goals in the victories

over Atletico Madrid and Liverpool in

the 2014 and 2018 finals respectively,

but has become a peripheral figure

since Zidane returned to the club in

March 2019.

He has made just 12 starts in La Liga

this season — completing the full 90

minutes six times — scoring two goals.

Should Bale see out the remainder of

his contract at the Bernabéu, he would

cost the club £64.4 million in wages.

Zidane revealed that Eden Hazard is

fit to play this evening despite concerns

over an ankle injury that has dogged

the Belgian ever since he completed his

£88.5 million transfer from Chelsea last

summer.

“It was hard for him to recover after

playing every two or three days earlier

in the season, but now he is fine,”

Zidane said of the 29-year-old Belgian.

Having won the Champions League

three times as Real manager, Zidane is

confident of progressing to the quarter-

finals despite trailing 2-1 after the first

leg in Madrid in February.

“We are in good shape,” Zidane, 48,

said. “We have known for a while what

we have to do.

“It will be a great football match

between two excellent sides. I think we

are ready and prepared and understand

the situation we will face up to. It’s like

a final for us, and if we make it through,

we will have three more finals.

“We learned from the first leg. We

are fully focused and we are going to

put in a good performance against

Manchester City.”

Bale has started

only once since

La Liga returned

can be kings of Europe

Bale believes

Zidane had no

intention of

playing him

Courtois’ comeback

Shots on target faced

Before

lockdown

Since

lockdown

Shots

saved

47

Save

percentage

74 .6%

Shots

saved

29

Save

percentage

87.9%

Total

63 33

Minutes per goal conceded

Clean sheet percentage

Before lockdown

Since lockdown

135

225

50%

60%

Toni Kroos remains puzzled about why

he was left out of the first leg against

Manchester City, a scarcely

precedented decision by Zinedine

Zidane before an important fixture. In

six seasons at

Real Madrid

Kroos, who

won a

Bundesliga title

under Pep

Guardiola at

Bayern Munich,

has established

himself as Real’s

most precise

long passer and

deliverer of a

dead ball. The

German scored

Real’s first goal

after the restart —

four minutes into

the win over

Eibar — to

launch the

ten-match

winning run that

earned Real the

league title, and he

appeared in every

fixture in June and

July. The World

Cup-winner will

be key at Real’s

set pieces.

3. Restoring

Kroos to role

of pass-master

Getting the ball rolling

Toni Kroos has played the first pass

in sequences that end in shots more

times than any player in La Liga this

season

T Kroos (Real Madrid)

S Busquets (Barcelona)

Casemiro (Real Madrid)

J Campaña (Levante)

Koke (Atletico Madrid)

47

40

35

34

34

continued from back

cylinders after lockdown revamp

ten. They dropped points only once the
league title was theirs.
Lockdown was kind to nobody but
there were aspects of the three-month
pause between football’s suspension
and its resumption that were helpful to
Real. They moved out of the Bernabéu
so planned construction work could
start there as promptly as safety
considerations allowed; they played
home matches at their training ground,
familiar enough to Real’s players to feel
like each contest was just another day at
the office, yet alien enough as a venue
for competitive fixtures that it
cultivated a mindset that cast the
restart as a fresh start.
“The confinement gave us a chance
to reflect,” said Sergio Ramos, the
captain, who will be in Manchester but,
having been sent off against City all
those eons ago, only as a spectator.

Marco Asensio’s reappearance. The

24-year-old Spain international, whose

coming of age was a feature of Zidane’s

first spell as Real head coach, from 2016

to 2018, had imagined his entire 2019-

20 a write-off after tearing a cruciate

knee ligament last summer.

With lockdown, he lucked out. His

rehab done by June, Asensio stepped

into competitive action for the first time

in more than a year with Real 1-0 up

against Valencia. Within 30 seconds he

had scored, with a graceful sweep of

that charmed left foot. Within 12

minutes he had set up Real’s third goal.

Asensio and Hazard are two of

several reasons why Gareth Bale was

excluded from the expedition to Man-

chester. Zidane has at least two more

preferred options to Bale to play either

side of Benzema: Vinícius, who turned

20 last month, has looked a more

grown-up, consistent version of the agi-

tated teenager who spent the aftermath

of Real-City telling anyone who cared

to listen that referees have a grudge

against Real. His compatriot, 19-year-

old Rodrygo, out of favour in February,

was regularly used in the title run-in.

Real went into the lockdown two

points behind Barcelona. When they

came out of it, Courtois, seldom shy to

throw down a gauntlet, forecast an 11-

game winning run. Ten turned out to be

enough. They have been stealthy rather

than swaggering champions, and will

be aware that, needing at least two

goals to progress against City, they

must go up a gear. Four of their past five

victories were via a single-goal margin.

“When I said we could win all our

games there were a few people laughing

at me, especially in Catalonia,”

Courtois said. “But I always believed.”

Zidane after landing in Manchester

Courtois’ comeback

Shots on target faced

Before

lockdown

Since

lockdown

Shots

saved

47

Save

percentage

74 .6%

Shots

saved

29

Save

percentage

87.9%

ToToottal

633 33

Minutes per goal conceded

Clean sheet percentage

Beforelockdown

Since lockdown

135

225

50 %

60 %

Thibaut Courtois’ second season at
Real Madrid began with uncertainty
and no clean sheets from his first five
games. By the late autumn his
position was being questioned, with
the France goalkeeper Alphonse
Areola having arrived on loan from
Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
Courtois bounced back. He finished
the league campaign with the Zamora
trophy, as the goalkeeper with La
Liga’s best defensive record, the first
Real player to collect that prize for 12
years. Before the March-to-June
shutdown, he had conceded 16 goals
in 24 games; after the restart he let in
only four in ten.

2. Courtois

back to his best

Man City v

Real Madrid

Champions League round-

of-16 second leg (agg 2-1)

Tonight, 8pm

TV: BT Sport 1

Radio: BBC 5 Live