Subtract eleven days. They will play the sprint, without truce, in 39 days between June 11 and July 19. Tomorrow the teams will be able to train fully and the League, which will publish its schedules shortly, will return in less than two weeks. With it will return their pulses, that of the title, that of entering the Champions or the descent. The new soccer He will resume his action in Spain with his old struggles. At a protocol and external level, nothing will be the same, with extreme precautionary measures and without an audience, but when the ball rolls, the one who gives first looks like he will gain a lot of advantage. There will be no time to breathe, to celebrate a victory, or to regret a defeat. A physical and psychological carousel, with regulatory innovations, such as that of the five changes. “Due to the way we play, that can harm us,” says Blaugrana coach Quique Setién.
And it is that Barça is a team used to maturing games over low heat to end up imposing their highest quality when the rival is worn out by chasing the ball. If we add to this that the Blaugrana squad does not give for great alternatives since it is short … But time has had the team to rest, to clear their minds and to return, as their protagonists indicate, with great desire. Despite the justified criticism of his game before confinement, Barça reached this hibernation as leader and with two points of advantage over Real Madrid, who lost his head when collapsing in the field of Betis.
An experienced voice
“We have eleven finals left, they will be very difficult but we really want to,” says Arturo Vidal
That allows Barça to start from pole . “These 11 games are going to be 11 finals, we are all clear that they will be very difficult. We really want to, we must think about winning and doing it in the best way ”, stated in the media of the club Arturo Vidal, who is looking for his ninth league in a row between Juventus, Bayern and Barcelona.
The deployment of the Chilean can be very useful with matches every three days. Barcelona have five games left at home and six away and Madrid backwards. In classic conditions this could be an added difficulty for the champion but taking into account, as has been seen in the Bundesliga, that the field factor has been eliminated and may even be good for Barcelona’s interests. Of course, the Whites will not play their home games at the Bernabeu, which is again under construction, but at the Alfredo di Stéfano in Valdebebas. Perhaps in this way he will mitigate the bleeding of visiting triumphs that is taking place in Germany.
Behind closed doors
Madrid have one more game at home than Barça but the field factor disappears without an audience
The games that Barça has a priori most attractive at the Camp Nou will face an Atlético in the middle of the battle to enter the Champions zone and an Espanyol who will live to the end with water around his neck. Two appointments that would have practically filled the Barcelona venue. Two encounters of those who would have caused a trail of emotions in the stands. On the other hand, Barça will not receive the environmental pressure that is so overwhelming that it usually occurs at Sánchez Pizjuán, one of the most complex exits that remains next to that of the stadium of La Cerámica de Vila-real. The absence of public can be a pearl to Madrid in the displacements it has to face in Anoeta, the San Sebastian den turned into a hotter stadium with its reforms and with a Real that was playing fable, and in San Mamés, a place that He has always made Madrid sweat. A team, that of Zidane, who will receive Valencia, Getafe and Villarreal as more prominent teams.
Barça and Madrid have in common that the two finish the championship at home. Those of Setién in Vitoria against an Alavés who may not play anything and the Madridistas in Leganés against a rival who is still fighting to save himself.
Final stretch
The teams can already train in full from tomorrow, as the last phase of set-up
The three months, which are said soon, without competition have also served to bring up other protagonists with whom no one counted. This is the case of Luis Suárez. The Uruguayan will have medical discharge in the next few days after overcoming his knee injury. He has not played since January 9 (Super Cup against Atlético) but his presence must go wonderfully for a Barça that is not overrun with troops in the vanguard, since Ansu Fati is also limping due to his knee discomfort. “For us it is very important to recover Luis and the injured because it will be two intense months with games in a row,” admitted Vidal.
If the upper part of the battle seems intense from below, much agony will be distributed. In that fight, Espanyol is immersed who has no room for maneuver. He is last, six points from Celta, which marks the salvation zone. The task of Abelardo’s men is titanic. He was confident of a blazing final stretch sheltered by his fans but will have to tackle it alone. It is true that Espanyol have scarcely signed a home victory in the entire championship but in the remainder of the tournament, direct rivals such as Leganés, Celta or Eibar, or affordable opponents such as Alavés or Levante, must come to Cornellà .
If he does not collect points in these matches, the goal of permanence will be impossible for Espanyol who must also play against Barça and Madrid. His trips to Villamarín, Coliseum de Getafe and Anoeta are not, on paper, what are said to be simple. The League is already on the horizon.
–
