Football Update: Real Madrid hoping to recover from boring start at La Liga under new manager Mourinho
Real Madrid started their quest of La Liga title under their new manager Jose Mourinho in the most unfashionable way. Dubbed as flat-tyre by Spanish media, a draw in the opening game leaves Real Madrid ‘already’ two points behind their traditional and arch-rivals Barcelona.
Real Madrid goalless draw against Mallorca has somewhat subdued the pre-season hype surrounding Mourinho and his team. La Liga has always been two-horse race unlike Premier League. Barcelona and Madrid have always been the main contenders for Spanish title with exception of Valencia in some seasons. Spanish football has achieved brilliant success in recent times by winning almost all the accolades, ranging from club football to national events. They were phenomenal in this year’s World Cup, where they overcame the likes of Portugal, Germany and Netherlands to win football’s most coveted prize.
With the arrival of Mourinho to Bernabeu, all eyes are on Real’s performance especially keeping into account utter dominance of La Liga by Barcelona in recent seasons. Mourinho replaced Manuel Pellegrini who unceremoniously exited Europe’s most successful club. Mourinho is expected to instil some of his charisma into the team, which has failed miserably in last few seasons despite having some prolific names in their squad. Mourinho with his typical mind games has already provoked Barcelona more than once this season. Recently he said that Barcelona often play against ten, a direct reference to referee’s favour to Spanish champion. It will be interesting to see how things fold for Mourinho in Spain. Former Porto and Inter Milan boss decided to keep his latest signings on the bench except his favourite compatriot Ricardo Carvalho. However, Ozil and Khedira, the two World Cup’s bright stars, along with Karim Benzema were used by Portuguese in the second half.
On the other hand, Barcelona is upbeat to repeat the success of their previous season. Barcelona players who played an instrumental role in Spain’s triumph in South Africa will be hoping to avenge their last season’s Champions League defeat by the hands of Mourinho’s Inter Milan. Barcelona started the new season in best possible manner as they comfortably defeated Racing. David Villa made his debut for Catalans with the goal in the match. Adriano also made his first outing when he came in place for Iniesta in second half. Similarly, Javier Mascherano will soon join Barcelona after making bitter transfer from Liverpool. Barcelona also has some young talent in form of Oriol Romeu, Dos Santos, Sergi Gomez, whereas Real Madrid is following the old strategy of employing big names instead of developing young stars.
It seems that this season will be a two-horse as other competitors failed to make any impression on the starting day of La Liga. Valencia and Sevilla both showed some promise in the pre-season but they failed to leave any impression on the opening day. Valencia has a combination of old and young players which are capable of upsetting any team on any given day and with the new signings of Roberto Soldado and Mehmet Topal, they could be a force to be reckoned with.
On the other hand, Sevilla had worst possible pre-season as their financial difficulties came into open. They also failed to keep their reputation on the field as they were relegated to Europa League after losing to Braga. They also failed to hold their lead of opening leg against Barcelona in the Supercopa.
Atletico Madrid is expected to fill the vacuum and be the 'third man' this season. They started their season by winnings UEFA Super Cup against Inter Milan and will be hoping to retain their form which took them to new horizons last season. Atletico will be hoping that Diego Forlan and Kun Aguero will translate their World Cup success for their club. With new signings in form of Diego Godin, Filipe Luis, and Fran Merida, Atletico is full geared up to make impact this season.
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