La Liga – Match Preview: Real Madrid versus Osasuna
Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho play Osasuna in their first home league match of the Spanish club football season on Saturday 11th of September, at the Santiago Bernabeau stadium. Madrid started off their Spanish league campaign with a disappointing away draw at Mallorca, a draw that was treated as a defeat by various Spanish media outlets, who have already dared to right off the Spanish giant’s league challenge as weak.
Mourinho took over as Real Madrid’s coach in the summer before the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicked off. He has been brought in from Inter Milan to break Barcelona’s hold on the La Liga title as Madrid under Manuel Pelligrini failed to win the title in the previous two years. In the 2008-2009 and the 2009-2010 season, Barcelona dominated the Spanish football league also known as La Liga.
Madrid have brought in new recruits in the summer, most of these faces have been the ones which performed remarkably well at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Mourinho and Perez have combined to sign Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Sergio Canales and Ricardo Carvalho to bolster the Real Madrid squad.
Everyone expected the Los Blancos to win their first match but the dropped points against Mallorca have left the men in white hurt and an immediate backlash is expected from them against Osasuna. Madrid’s opponents finished 12th in the 2009-2010 La Liga season but regardless of their reputation or form they will be looking to give their rivals a good fight on Saturday night in Madrid. Osasuna also drew their first La Liga match of the 2010-2011 season against Almeria, therefore they will be looking for all three points on their visit to the Madrid’s footballing cathedral i.e. Santiago Bernabeau.
The ex-Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho surely did not expect himself to be under such pressure even before the second league match of the season kicked off but such is life for every manager at Real Madrid. The self-proclaimed special one has already hinted at some of his team plans for Real’s first La Liga match after the two week international break.
Cristiano Ronaldo, world football’s most expensive player is all set to start for Madrid after recovering from his injury that kept him out of Portugal’s EURO 2012 qualification squad. Mourinho confirmed this when he told the Real Madrid’s official website that the Portuguese winger will surely start against Osasuna. Jose did admit his fear that Ronaldo might get injured again as he could be targeted with a bad tackle but then went onto say that such things are a part of football. Mourinho also revealed that Cristiano had been training regularly at Real Madrid’s training group, Valdebebas and the club’s medical staff has assured his fitness, therefore there is no “increased” risk of him getting injured as compared to the other players in the squad for Madrid.
Jose went onto say that he is aware of what plan he is going to deploy against Osasuna. He stressed the fact that he has to come up with the best available options when deciding his starting lineup. Jose, who won the treble with Inter Milan last season, also added that players have to think about a single game at a time but the coach unfortunately does not have that luxury.
Jose Mourinho also confirmed that Sergio Ramos, Carvalho, Pepe and Marcelo will play in Real Madrid’s defense on Saturday. He also affirmed that Khedira and Alonso will start in midfield for the Spanish giants. As the match is taking place at Real Madrid’s home stadium, they are the favorites to roll past Osasuna but any complacency on their part can result in an embarrassing situation as “Madridistas” can be quite unforgiving to players and coaches alike when things go wrong on the field.
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