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Benzema, along with Mendy and Japanese academy player Takuhiro Nakai ‘Pipi’, at training in Madrid this Saturday. JAVIER SORIANO (AFP)
The deadlines have been met and Karim Benzema will be back this Sunday against Osasuna (9pm, Dazn). The Frenchman injured himself half an hour into the Champions League debut against Celtic in Glasgow a month ago – to the semitendinus muscle plus an overload in the quadriceps of his right leg – and against the Navarra side he will be the game, as he told Carlo on Saturday Ancelotti at a press conference. “He recovered and put energy into his legs,” said the Italy coach.
His crash in Scotland led Madrid down one of their most troubling chasms: surviving the 34-year-old striker’s absence. This time, however, he came out of the hole more than gracefully. The Whites’ winning streak continued (full in the nine games of the course) and in the three and a half games he missed (he also didn’t take part in the concentration with France) it was the young players who sorted out the chaos. Of the 11 goals scored during this period, seven were – directly or indirectly – scored by the new players in the dressing room: Vinicius scored two goals and two assists; Rodrygo, two goals, one assist and direct involvement in another (he missed under Valverde’s 1-0 win against Leipzig); and Valverde, three goals and one assist.
The first solution was Eden Hazard, a replacement for the Frenchman at Celtic Park and the night made the Belgian happy (scoring on an empty goal and assisting Modric on another) but it wasn’t long before he fell behind. His poor performance at home against Mallorca five days later, acting as a false nine, and Rodrygo’s good performance there in the second half confirmed the change in hierarchy now being imposed in the Valdebebas dressing room.
Benzema returns against Osasuna but Luka Modric and Lucas Vázquez will not be there. The Croatian, who returned from his national team with a waist-level overload, will be looking to reach Shakhtar next Wednesday and failing that, Ancelotti hopes to have him against Getafe in a week’s time. The midfielder played the 90 minutes of the two League of Nations duels against Denmark and Austria. For his part, the Galician should also return to the group after Osasuna with a muscle problem in his right leg.
“I don’t call selectors”
After the last selection window before the World Cup in Qatar, Carlo Ancelotti assured that there will now be rotations to spread the calendar load that awaits all teams playing in Europe: 12 appointments, one every three days. “We are at a very important moment of the season,” warned the Italian. Then, after the World Cup (which takes place from November 20th to December 18th), all dressing rooms must contend with the unprecedented circumstance of resuming competition after a commitment of this magnitude. The white coach already has an idea of that: “Afterwards we don’t know what’s coming. We think about how we deal with the players who leave. Maybe they won’t play again until mid-January [la Liga regresa el 30-31 de diciembre; el Madrid, en Zorrilla] and we must do it with those who remain. We also have to take into account that there will be players who go to the World Cup and will not play, but they will need rest. At least 10 days,” explained Carletto.
And regarding the Qatar countdown, the Whites coach was asked if, as revealed by Xavi Hernández, he called the coaches to take care of their players. “Every time I’ve spoken to them, they’ve called me to ask about the condition of the players. And that’s it. I will not call them during the selection phase,” Ancelotti explained.
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