Kick Off: Sunday, January 3, 2010. 22:00 CET
Reyno de Navarra, Pamplona
Unspectacular
It
wouldn’t have been a happy Christmas for the Osasuna players, who will
still have had the words of Jose Antonio Camacho ringing in their ears
after a 2-0 surrender away to Athletic Bilbao. Within 11 minutes of the
start of that fixture they trailed by a couple of goals, and one can
only imagine the carnage that may ensue should the Pamplonans afford
Real Madrid a similar start on Sunday.
Consistency of any kind
has been hard to find for the northerners, who have won only one of
their last eight fixtures. As a result Camacho’s men are loitering in
mid-table, boasting a flimsy four point cushion over the relegation
zone.
Their greatest worry this term has been scoring goals, yet
that has not stopped them allowing former Real youth product Javier
Portillo departing for Segunda Division outfit Heracles. Having
appeared just a couple of times this season in league action, his loss
will not be noticeable.
Walter Pandiani will be the man the home
side look to for goals, while a young rearguard will be given a
thorough examination by the world’s most expensively assembled group of
attacking players.
Osasuna must approach this game with the attitude that even a point would be an unexpected bonus.
Targeting A Great 2010
After
watching fierce rivals Barcelona sweep all before them in 2009, Real
Madrid have already staunchly indicated that their aim is for a trophy
laden 2010. Somewhat unsurprisingly the ever-confident Cristiano Ronaldo has been the man to lead such cries.
“Real
Madrid will be the best team of 2010. We need to have the drive and
motivation to win everything that comes our way,” he told Marca.
“Madrid needs to focus on winning the Champions League and La Liga, but
it depends on other factors like luck, the draw. But I think we are
going to win.”
And things are starting to come together for los
Blancos after a difficult start to the campaign, which saw them crash
out of the Copa del Rey at the hands of previously unheard of Alcorcon, and manage just one point from six against Milan in the Champions League.
Despite
losing the first Clasico of the season 1-0 to Barca, thereby ceding
their advantage in La Liga to the Catalan outfit, Manuel Pellegrini’s
side have bounced back in style. European progression was booked by way
of a success over Olympique de Marseille, while a hat-trick of
victories in domestic play have seen them shut the gap to the leaders
to just two points.
Los Blancos’ last couple of matches have
been especially impressive, with a fine away win over Valencia hinting
at their title credentials, which were only enhanced a week later with
a thumping 6-0 win over lowly Real Zaragoza.
With such momentum building, los Merengues will be tough to stop.
FORM GUIDE
Osasuna
LOST 2-0 (a) Athletic Bilbao (La Liga, December 20)
LOST 1-0 (h) Mallorca (La Liga, December 13)
DREW 1-1 (a) Malaga (La Liga, December 6)
WON 1-0 (a) Real Zaragoza (La Liga, November 29)
LOST 3-1 (h) Valencia (La Liga, November 22)
Real Madrid
WON 6-0 (h) Real Zaragoza (La Liga, December 19)
WON 3-2 (a) Valencia (La Liga, December 12)
WON 3-1 (a) Olympique de Marseille (Champions League, December 8)
WON 4-2 (h) Almeria (La Liga, December 5)
LOST 1-0 (a) Barcelona (La Liga, November 29)
TEAM NEWS
Osasuna
There
are a handful of injury problems for los Rojillos going into Sunday’s
encounter. Cesar Azpilicueta, Nacho Monreal and Carlos Aranda all have
problems, though all three are considered to have a good chance of
taking part.
Sergio Fernandez and Oier are out. The latter is facing three months on the sidelines.
One man who certainly won’t be featuring in the forthcoming encounter is Josexto, who is banned.
Probable Starting XI: Ricardo; Azpilicueta, Roversio, Miguel Flano, Monreal; Juanfran, Nekounam, Punal, Camunas; Pandiani, Aranda
Real Madrid
Kaka
grabbed the headlines on New Year’s Eve when he started training with
the ball again, though it is uncertain whether he will be able to
feature on Sunday. This is also the case with Rafael van der Vaart, who managed to jog on Thursday but otherwise trained individually.
Guti
and Ruud van Nistlerooy continue to build their strength in the gym,
while Mahamadou Diarra and Pepe are unavailable due to international
duty and serious injury respectively.
Probable Starting XI: Casillas; Arbeloa, Garay, Ramos, Marcelo; Alonso, Lass; Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema; Higuain
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Osasuna
Javad Nekounam
recently proclaimed that he wishes to be regarded one day as Osasuna’s
best ever player. The Iranian could go some way further to writing his
name in the history books with a match-winning performance in the
engineroom of the home side.
Real Madrid
Should he play, all eyes will be on the returning Kaka,
who missed the tail-end of 2009 due to a sportsman’s hernia. The
creative midfielder has thus far failed to live up to hefty summer
price-tag and may just have been given a jolt due to Rafael van der
Vaart’s performances while he was convalescing.
PREDICTION
Whipping
boys to the extent that Zaragoza were a fortnight ago Osasuna should
not be, but that does not mean that they will claim a positive result
against a Real Madrid team growing in swagger and cohesion. The home
side’s only hope is that los Blancos over indulged over Christmas, but
don’t count on it.
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