Levante 0-2 Real Madrid

[Moze]

It's bottom versus top this weekend in La Liga as the David of Levante take on the Goliath of Real Madrid. The capital giants will be hoping that a strong showing against the crisis-hit Valencia-based side will reignite the spark in their game after a lacklustre start to 2008.

Real Crisis

"Crisis" is a word all too readily associated with Real Madrid, but they'll be glad that for once, it is their opponents who will have that tag weighing them down before a match.

Levante, anchored to the pit of the standings with a paltry eight points from 18 games, are seeing their already horrible campaign plummet from bad to worse.

A whole bag of ugly off-field dramas have now crept up to accompany their dire results on the pitch. The long running saga of unpaid wages kickstarted their woes and that has now brought an immediate knock-on effect in all departments.

Without money in their bank accounts, the players are finding it extremely difficult to give it their best on the field, and it is no surprise that some of them clearly do not want to be at the club.

Savio and Mustapha Riga were just two players who returned late from their Christmas holidays, forcing coach Gianni de Biasi to take action and freeze the duo from his already paper-thin squad for the opening three games of the year.

To top all that off, a cluster of players are now expected to leave the ailing side as their financial predicament escalates. The next nail in the coffin came earlier in the week when the club was ordered to surrender their gate receipts for Sunday's clash with Real Madrid - likely to be one of their highest collections of the season - to the courts as a result of the overdue player wages.

Last weekend's goalless draw at city rivals Valencia - their first away point of the season - may have brought some form of encouragement to the squad but to overcome all their troubles and the Spanish giants at the same time will be a tall order.

Defensive Dilemma

Financial hardship is an issue that Real Madrid will never have to worry about, but they have not been without their fair share of complications this term. Chief among them has been the squad's constant injury crisis, especially in their backline.

The setbacks have already had a telling impact on the team's performances in the new year as they struggle to emulate their vibrant displays of the end of 2007. Against Real Zaragoza last Sunday, Los Merengues were made to look second best for most of the game and they almost paid the price for their lax defending.

That goalkeeper Iker Casillas had to make nine saves in a single game, at home no less, just about demonstrated how easily their defence was breached.

Some would say that the men in white were lucky to have bagged a two-nil win, considering how they only had three shots on target in the entire game, but others will argue that that is a mark of a true championship winning side: the ability to convert chances and win games even when not playing well. And in all fairness, coach Bernd Schuster has had to make do with a makeshift backfour for almost every game this season.

In 27 competitive matches so far, only once has the German been able to call on his preferred defensive quartet of Sergio Ramos, Fabio Cannavaro, Pepe and Gabriel Heinze, although fortunately, that one instance came against Barcelona in el Clásico three weeks ago.

The reigning champions will have their character and mettle put to the test this weekend as they try top cope without two of their iron men: Mahamadou Diarra and Sergio Ramos. They will need to fine tune their act at the back before next week's derbi against goal-happy Atlético Madrid.

FORM GUIDE

Levante

Jan 09 Getafe vs Levante 3-0 (COPA DEL REY)

Jan 06 Valencia vs Levante 0-0 (LA LIGA)

Jan 03 Almería vs Levante 1-1 (COPA DEL REY)

Dec 23 Levante vs Deportivo La Coruña 0-1 (LA LIGA)

Dec 15 Espanyol vs Levante 1-0 (LA LIGA)

Real Madrid

Jan 10 Mallorca vs Real Madrid 2-1 (COPA DEL REY)

Jan 06 Real Madrid vs Real Zaragoza 2-0 (LA LIGA)

Jan 02 Real Madrid vs Alicante 2-1 (COPA DEL REY)

Dec 23 Barcelona vs Real Madrid 0-1 (LA LIGA)

Dec 19 Alicante vs Real Madrid 1-1 (COPA DEL REY)

TEAM NEWS

Levante

The Levante roster is starting to disintegrate into thin air. Latest news out of Spain has confirmed Savio's exit from the club on a free transfer, while defender Bruno Cirillo has decided to return to Reggina and goalkeeper Marco Storari back to Cagliari. Midfielder José Emilio Viqueira could be next to depart.

Injuries are also a big worry for de Biasi. David Castedo, Javi Fuego, Félix Ettien and striker Christian Riganò are all sidelined with various ailments, but midfielder Juanma should shrug off a minor niggle in his right ankle and take his place in the starting XI. Mustapha Riga finally rejoined the squad to train with his teammates after his exile and he is expected to be reinstated to the team for this clash.

Probable Starting XI (4-4-1-1): Kujovic - Descarga (c), Alvaro, Serrano, Rubiales - Juanma, Berson, Tomassi, Courtois - Riga - Geijo

Real Madrid

Captain Raúl has been added to el Real's growing injury list after he picked up a bruise in his knee in Thursday 2-1 loss to Mallorca. He has been rated as doubtful for the weekend trip to Levante but there still an outside chance that he will play. If he fails to recover in time, Gonzalo Higuaín should be favourite to take his place.

Roberto Soldado and Gabriel Heinze are both out for certain while Christoph Metzelder and Arjen Robben will have to run a late fitness check on Saturday to determine if they are fit enough to travel with the squad. Fabio Cannavaro and Júlio Baptista, however, have made full recoveries from their respective ills and will return to the line-up.

Diarra is away on international duty with Mali in the African Nations Cup while Sergio Ramos is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow last week against Zaragoza. Fernando Gago should continue to occupy the holding midfield role, while Miguel Torres and Michel Salgado will compete for the right back position. All three had a poor game in midweek but they must now rise to the challenge.

Probable Starting XI (4-3-3): Casillas (c) - Torres, Pepe, Cannavaro, Marcelo - Sneijder, Gago, Baptista - Higuaín/Raúl, van Nistelrooy, Robinho

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Levante - Mustapha Riga

The Ghanaian-born Dutchman will have to lead his team's attacking charge in Savio and Riganò's absence. His versatility to play as a midfielder or as a forward will be crucial for coach de Biasi to alternate between a defensive and an offensive formation throughout the game if the necessity arises.

Real Madrid - Iker Casillas

Levante may not be a side that strike fear into opposition defences, but with Madrid's current frailties at the back, Saint Iker will once again have to be at his sharpest to thwart any nasty surprises. The 26 year old custodian recorded his personal best of four clean sheets in a row last weekend and he'll be out to make sure he extends it to five.

PREDICTION

With hope disappearing fast into the horizon, Levante will be looking to draw inspiration from their stunning 0-1 win at the Bernabéu almost exactly a year ago. But that result must now seem like a distant memory. Los Granotes have only scored once in their last five league outings while Los Blancos have now gone four La Liga games without conceding. Another repeat of an upset looks about as unlikely as Levante's top flight survival, but the scoreline will depend very much on which Madrid side shows up on the night.

Levante 0-3 Real Madrid

[Podolski]

Ramos is suspended not injured right?

I hope Higuain plays instead of Raul. I don't want to risk him and Higuain is on really good form. Our defence is far from it's best but I think Torres is good enough to stop levante, marcelo will be attacking alot, and Pepe-Canna should be able to deal with them by themselves.

[Pennywise]

Gabriel Heinze, Arjen Robben, Roberto Soldado, Christoph Metzelder and Balboa are injured and will not be a part of the squad.

Mamadou Diarra is in Africa while both Cannavaro and Baptista have some small injures after the Mallorca match, but will for sure play. Casillas has also struggled against a virus the last days.

[Pennywise]

The startinglineup will be:

----------------Casillas--------------
Torres-Canna-Pepe-Marcelo
------------Gago----------
Sneijder--Baptista--Robinho
-------Raul--------RvN

[Podolski]

hm.. hope higuain comes on half way through then.
I hope Gago plays well, he has big shoes to fill.

[Podolski]

levante gives an early scare but casillas saves (as usual)

[Pennywise]

2-0 to Madrid now after two Van Nistelrooy goals.

Again, Madrid are playing a crappy first half and I am not impressed with the team. I hope Ramos and Robben will be fit for fight asap and that Heinze will recover much faster as expected. Madrid will miss Diarra on the midfield, no doubt about that.

Btw, second half much better by the whites.

[Podolski]

What a shit performance. Gago was ok but not as good as diarra. Torres is no match to Ramos, his final ball was always really poor and Marcelo was pathetic defending. Robinho was completely neutralised. Baptista's efforts clear off the line twice, I think we had the better chances but we were so poor and lucky to win.
I'll take the 3 points.
my ratings
casillas 8 - kept a clean sheet and pulled off impressive saves
torres 5 - made some good runs and was a threat but the final ball into the box was poor
pepe 6 - average game, he made a few mistakes but amended them
canna 7 - a good game of his I thought, made important clearances
marcelo 4 - horrible defensively and most of levantes attacks came from his side, didn't add much to attack
gago 6 - ok, not too bad defensively but is passing was off sometimes
sneijder 8 - was all over the place and imop our best player of the 1st half
baptista 7 - two good efforts could have easily been 2 goals
robinho 5 - had one good shot that's it
raul 6 - ok, did alot of running and had good movement
nistelrooy 9 - perfect pen and great goal, what more can you ask, so happy that he's renewed

subs

higuain 7 - while he played was good, and most importantly got us the pen.
guti 6 - didn't do much

[Pennywise]

You have too high grades on Sneijder, Baptist and Raul. All of them did an unapproved match.

+ They do not let in goals. The 5th match on row without goals behind Casillas
+ Gago replaced Diarra approved, but he is not the same caliber as him.
+ Van Nistelrooy continue scoring important goals

- Raul is on way down..again. A new bad performance IMO
- The midfield is too weak. Missing Robben (Guti) and Diarra
- The offensive is not that good and have to be better.
- Baptista is not good enough.

[Podolski]

Maybe on sneijder & raul. raul is on the way down again? after one match? where's your faith!

I'm sure if Baptistas too efforts had gone in your views would be different, imo they were very unlucky not to.

[Pennywise]

Raul has been very poor the last 5-6 matches. Baptista were last night Madrids most weakest player.


The grades from 1 (bad) to 10 (best) should be:

Casillas - 5

Torres - 2/3
Pepe - 5
Cannavaro - 7
Marcelo - 2/3

Baptista - 2
Sneijder - 3
Robinho - 4
Gago - 5

Van Nistelrooy - 6/7
Raul - 2/3

Drenthe, Guti and Higuain all around 3 as subs.

[Pennywise]

"Funny" is that both Heinze, Pepe, Cannavaro and Metzelder are injured
right now. All our central defenders except Sergio Ramos.

Schuster should play Salgado - Ramos - Torres - Marcelo against RCD Mallorca then. Very weak defensive line since Diarra is missing on the midfield too as busboy.

[Robinho4Ever]

So I guess we'll have our first loss at the Santiago Bernabeu after a long while, and we'll be out of the cup ....

[Pennywise]

Jupp, Schuster should also rest Robinho and RvN IMO so I guess Mallorca can at least defend to a draw and go wider.