Its El Derbi time! – Atlético pre-preview

Its El Derbi time! The first proper derby game of the season and the first one in Florentino’s new era. It’ll be Kaka’s first Madrid derby and it will be the same for Benzema, Xabi, Garay and Granero. It, though, won’t be the case for three of our new players.

The first one is Raul Albiol, who is serving a one-match ban after being sent off last week against Getafe at home. The appeal against his red card was rejected by LFP.

The second one is Alvaro Arbeloa. He has already played in an El Derbi before and is expecting a tough game against Atletico. Speaking on Real’s official website, he said:

I’ve played once against Atletico Madrid and we won 3-0. It was a tough game, they had a lot of chances and Fernando Torres had a great match. We had Ronaldo and Figo, we had three chances and scored three goals.  I’m sure it will be difficult.

It will be the first El Derbi for former Madridista Quique Sánchez Flores as the new coach of Atletico. The former Benfica, Valencia coach replaced Abel Resino last week after the latter led Atletico to a dismal start to the campaign. Arbeloa had a few words about Quique as well:

Anyone who knows Quique knows that he is a great coach, that his teams are very reliable and are very well worked. We’ve noticed that, with the little things he has brought, Atletico have improved a lot.  We will have to be very orderly and play close together because I’m sure it will be a hard game for the defence.

Kun Aguero concurs with the above thought. Talking about Agüero, Arbeloa considers their attacking players as a threat to our defense. Of course. No one can disagree. Arbeloa continued to say that in all it will be a difficult match for us.

I’m concerned about all the attacking players. They are fantastic footballers who have pace, quality, imagination and self-belief. If we are not focused then they will punish us. Defensively they have improved, and the Calderon will have a special atmosphere. It will be a difficult match for us.

The third and the biggest of them all is Cristiano Ronaldo.

Tests in Amsterdam have shown that Cristiano Ronaldo needs two more weeks of treatment on his injured ankle. Ronaldo, who has not played since aggravating the problem in Portugal’s 3-0 win over Hungary on October 10, was due to return to action around now. But Real said tests conducted on Wednesday by a doctor in Amsterdam who treated the same ankle last year had confirmed he would require another two weeks of treatment. He would return to consult the doctor, Niek van Dijk, in Amsterdam in 15 days, they added on their website.

Ronaldo is set to miss Saturday’s trip to Atletico as well as our match against Alcorcon on Tuesday at the Bernabeu. Portugal who face Bosnia in World Cup qualifier play-offs on 10th and 14th of November in Lisbon and Zenica respectively and are destined to play them without their captain. This means that Simao has some good news as well as bad news. He had said he hoped Ronaldo would miss the match at the Calderon but be fit in time for Portugal’s two-legged World Cup playoff against Bosnia later this month.

Iker Casillas claims that Cristiano Ronaldo is concerned with his injury that seems to be getting worse. Speaking to the Marca, The Saint said:

Cristiano is concerned because he thought he would recover this week, and play some minutes against Alcorcon [in the Copa del Rey second leg]. We hope now that he improves, as we need to see him back with us and scoring goals again.

Casillas went on to plead for everyone to remain calm and give Madrid more time to gel. He continued:

The team are working well. We are a new group, and we must take a little longer to integrate. It is normal for the fans to demand things, it is their right, but we must remain calm. It will be a derby with two teams in different situations. We’re not complacent. We want the three points.

Some team news now. Manuel Pellegrini has reportedly decided to include Guti in his squad to face Atletico at the Calderon on Saturday. Guti who was dropped for the games against Getafe and Milan has apparently served his time out in the cold and will be on the bench for El Derbi this weekend, according to Marca. Although he was not involved in training on Wednesday due to a slight knock, he trained with the rest of his team-mates yesterday with no ill effects. Pepe and Ezequiel Garay also returned to training, and the Real Madrid treatment room has now become virtually empty except for Ronaldo.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, now that he is fit, is considering options outside Spain. Tottenham as usual are linked with him.

Preview to follow…

Para Siempre Blanco!

Hala Madrid!!