Such is the way of life at Real Madrid, no manager is immune to the pressure of the job and Zinedine Zidane is finding out exactly what it means to be manager at the Santiago Bernabeu this season.
Los Merengues head to Seville, to take on Real Betis on Saturday night in La Liga and despite sitting second in the league table, level on points with first place Atletico Madrid, Zidane finds himself with a must win match on his hands.
The facts do not lie and although Real Madrid are unbeaten this season, they have failed to win any of their last four matches, in La Liga and the Champions League. The 2-2 draw at Borussia Dortmund was a decent result but it’s the draws in La Liga which have given cause for concern, with dropped points at home to Villarreal and Eibar and at Las Palmas. Combine that with the latest injury news, with Sergio Ramos unlikely to play, in addition to Luka Modric, Marcelo and Casemiro and suddenly, this becomes a difficult fixture for Real Madrid.
Real Betis have struggled at times this season but remain unbeaten at home, having drawn two and won one of their three La Liga games at the Estadio Benito Villamarin this season. Scoring goals has become a bit of a problem of late for Gus Poyet’s team and they have only found the back of the net once, in their last three La Liga games. Poyet will be hoping his veteran striker, Ruben Castro, can make a return to the sort of goal scoring form which saw him net a brace at both Barcelona and Valencia, earlier in the season. Perhaps Castro is saving his best performances for the big games and the Spaniard will be looking forward to facing a Real Madrid defence, without its leader, Sergio Ramos.
Despite the number of absentees in midfield, Real Madrid can still call upon Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Alvaro Morata in attack. Only six teams in La Liga have a worse defensive record than Real Betis and Zidane will be hoping to prey on their vulnerability at the back and the Frenchman will believe, even if Real Betis were to score against his team, Real Madrid will have enough to outscore the home team and win the match.
It has been a strange start to the season in La Liga, with Barcelona having already lost two matches and Real Madrid struggling, against teams they would expect to dispatch, with minimum of fuss. Real Betis are a team Real Madrid are expected to defeat but all they could muster from the match in Seville last season, was a 1-1 draw and If there is one thing we have learnt from La Liga so far this campaign, it’s to expect the unexpected.
Real Madrid come into this match as favourites, of that there is little doubt but with several first team players injured, Real Betis will fancy their chances, of at least taking a point.