Real Madrid 6 – Dinamo Zagreb 2 : Champions League Matchday 5 – Sahin finally gets his first start..and not much else..

by von Doom

In yet another genius move by UEFA (aka el Platinato or alternatively UEFArsa) the once great Champions League pool stages have been sufficiently declawed by Platini’s slavish whoring out of the world’s premier club competition out to the almighty TV dollar  that one can safely say that the Champions League no longer starts in July, but rather starts in February once the knock-out rounds begin.

aka el Platinato… or… We. Are. Whores.

The TV executives, it seems, cannot run the risk of having the forces of probability create a Group (or Groups) of Death and run the risk of knocking out one of the big football cash cows in order to have a Shakthar Donetsk (or hell even a Deportivo La Coruna) make a deep run into the tournament.  Screw the fans!  Screw interesting football games that mean something in the pool stages !  To that end, UEFA has accomodated its TV overlords by tweaking the pool competition to the point that it is all but assured that the grand majority (if not all) of the G-14 teams will comprise the final sixteen, year in year out.

(Note:  G-14:  Real Madrid, Farsa, Liverpool, Man Utd., Juve, AC Milan, Inter,  Olympique Marseille, PSG, Bayern Munich, B. Dortmund, Ajax, PSV, FC Porto)

That leaves us with lopsided beatdowns like the one we witnessed this afternoon at the Bernabeu, and a Group Stage phase that looks like a tramite  lacking any real drama, that clogs up the calendar. Consider that Real Madrid up to this point has yet to concede a goal in Champions League play, outscoring their opponents 10-0 before today’s game. Ex-Madridista Davor Suker’s  Dinamo Zagreb was so thoroughly outclassed by Real Madrid this afternoon that this could scarcely be called a football match.. it looked more like a “foosball” game played between a master and a drunk college student.

The only real note of importance for this match were the tactical tweaks Mou displayed to the fans at the Bernabeu and, of course, the lopsided score line. Of course, of particular note was the debut of Nuri Sahin as a starter. Mou started the game with a lineup that one could call a “Real Madrid A2”  running a 4-4-2 doble pivote.

This is how deep Real Madrid is – 3 of their best on the bench – and they still went Beastmode Vikingo berserker on those croatas

Adan (GK)

Lass – Varane – Ramos – Coentrao

Xabi  – Sahin

                                                               Callejon                                Ozil

Benze-crack    El Pipita

I don’t think the Dinamo Zagreb match really showed us whether this Xabi – Sahin doble pivote could work as the defending was so poor on Zagreb’s part and Sahin played tentatively, partly because he hasn’t played all that much competitive football in the past 5 months, but on the plus side he did not lose many balls. I hope Mou gives it another go in a Liga match, perhaps, where it will receive a much sterner test.

Oh yeah, the match.. so anyway.. here are the boring details… 3 goals in the first eight minutes. (Benze-CRACK  2′ ,  Callejon 6′ and Pipita Higuain 8′)  Game. Set. Match.

BENZE-CRACK ! Starts the party…

Callejon, inspired by Mou’s “Caballito” in the Valencia game, responds in kind for the 2-0

A 4th in the twentieth minute by Ozil and then the they shut it down into cruise control mode.

Ozil !!! This kid is so CULT. He will go down as one of Real Madrid’s most beloved players….now if only he would keep up with his Spanish lessons..

Even with the lackadaisical pace, el Madrid forgave another three clear goals in the 28th, 32nd, and 37th minutes respectively.

The second half offered up more of the same – Mou did a triple switch and took out Xabi, Ozil, and Ramos and brought in  Granero, Altintop, and Albiol, respectively. Different players, same result.  Callejon got his second of the game to make it 5-0 in the 49th…

Callejon gets his second of the night.. I think I liked the high spikes better…

and Benzema followed suit for his second of the night in the 66th to make it 6-0.

..man love… so touching.

Not much else to say.. a goal by Beciraj in the 81st to salvage some Croatian pride, and Benzema doing his best Pele in “Escape to Victory” impression in the 83rd, unfortunately he shot it wide over el larguero... however, for you young ones look at the video below and check it out..  All in all, if Benze-CRACK was taking this game seriously, instead of as the glorified scrimmage match it became, he could have scored 6 or 7 goals.

..all in a day’s work for this stone-cold gangsta….

A garbage time goal in the 90th by Tomecak off an utter Madrid defensive FAIL made the score 6-2 to massage what could have been a 12-0 beating if Madrid hadn’t shut it down after the 20th minute.  Strangely enough, I do not think Mourinho will be totally pleased with this performance. I do think he will rip on his players for allowing 2 goals, largely to their own lack of intensity and disinterest in the game at hand, to a Zagreb team that had no business being on the pitch this night.

In any case, this is more encouraging stuff from los merengues who run their winning streak to 12 games in all competitions and now turn their attentions to the Madrid derbi against el Patetico on Saturday and look to be on a run of epic form heading into their showdown with el Farsa on December 10th.

To those of you reading this in the States,  have a Happy Thanksgiving and we’ll catch you soon!

!HALA MADRID!

Valencia 2 – Real Madrid 3, Game Recap – Karma likes merengues….

By El Maestro and von Doom

Games like this are why soccer is the greatest sport on earth. Although it wasn’t a brilliant game, Madrid left it all out on the field against a Valencia side who fought to make a statement that they can compete for the La Liga title. The game started with Valencia coming out biting the first five minutes trying to make things uncomfortable, but then eased up and sat back as Madrid began to play with the possession of the ball.  Real Madrid came out with a trivote in the center of the midfield with el senor (Xabi) in the “4” running the attack and Lass and Khedira lined up on the right and left respectively.    Faced with Valencia’s relentless pressure to start the game Real Madrid struggled to break through the Che defense, the wave of pressure culminating in a Dani Parejo header in the 7th minute that was ably blocked by Sergio Ramos with his head.   Just devastating stuff.   After this sequence, it seemed that Real Madrid got its bearings and Xabi started to put his seal on the match, effectively taking over the match for the remainder of the first half with Lass and Khedira ably nullifying the Valencia midfield.

Lass was especially devastating in the first half, showing an offensive dimension that is rarely seen from the French enforcer.  He had a penetrating run in the 11th minute across the center of the field into the box which drew two defenders and was followed by a sublime pass to CR7 who was left open and shot true but was blocked by Diego Alves, only to be followed by an absolute rocket by Benze-crack off the rebound that sailed just wide of the left post.  The sequence was reminiscent of that epic run up the wing and into the box by Redondo against Man U in the 2000 Champions League where he split two defenders deep in the opposing box to feed Baul for the wide open goal.

Jordi Alba "Get OFF Me ! " - Lass is a true "box to box" terminator.

Benze-crack who was a threat the entire time he was on the pitch finally opened the scoring after a quickly taken foul by el senor (Xabi) in the 20th minute, in  a play that was reminiscent of a back door cut in a pick-up basketball game.  The GOLAZO was absolutely sick with a right leg control to left leg shot on the run and in a seemingly simultaneous movement.  Genius aside, the Xabi and Benze-crack combination literally caught the Valencia (defense), the announcers, and the ESPN camera-men with their pants down.

..my goal was really that dope...

After the Benze-crack gem, Valencia was seemingly rattled, and the rest of the 1^st half was dominated by Real Madrid.  Unfortunately Benzema’s goal was the only goal we would see, although he did feed CR7 with a marvelous pass in the 41st  minute that could have been the 0-2.

Valencia coach Unai Emery must have said something in that vestuario because the 2^nd half on the other hand showed a more dominant Valencia, who created a few opportunities, and had Real Madrid on the ropes for the first fifteen minutes of the second half.  The game took on a brutal turn as the referee Teixeira Vitienes handed out something like 8 yellow cards in that span.  Valencia definitely came to play in the second half.  It looked like Valencia was beginning to take control of the game, until the 70th minute when CR7 got free in the midfield and took off like a rocket toward goal, his shot deflected off Rami into touch to create a Real Madrid corner opportunity.  Ozil’s cross into the area then allowed Real Madrid to extend the score line after Ozil’s beautiful corner was wonderfully headed by Ramos to make it 0-2.

Que? Que? Who is the best central in Spain? ME! That's who!!

Unfortunately it was an ex Madridista (Soldado) who would make things interesting by scoring a wonderful goal just a few minutes later to make it 1-2. Coincidently, that score line would also last a few minutes, after a divided ball between Ronaldo and Alves was won by “la maquina” who scored a magnificent world-class goal from a tight angle with Albelda in his face.

La Maquina blowing past Diego Alves on route to scoring the third goal...

CR7's goal was so dope.. MOU just lost it and did this to poor Callejon.. !Hala Madrid!

The key to the Valencia resurgence in the second half was the entrance of  Valencia’s Pablo Hernandez into the game in the 73rd minute in substitution of the ineffective Feghouli. Hernandez was instrumental in both Soldado goals, in the first goal splitting the defenders that allowed Soldado to crank it home with an absolute cannon blast and for the second when Hernandez penetrated the trivote line and combined with Soldado, who took advantage of Sergio Ramos’ defensive despiste to make it 2-3 with more than 8 minutes to play plus stoppage time. With a rising Valencia side, Real Madrid had to give it all to defend that 2-3 lead and leave Mestalla with three valuable points.

Since no Real Madrid match is complete without a little controversy, this match’s edition came with a minute to play on a sequence where Soldado’s shot off the Tino Costa cross should have probably been called a penalty.  Valencia claimed a handball in the box by Higuain, but the referee decided the ball did not touch his arm. Valencia players went absolutely bonkers, mobbing Teixiera Vitienes  about the handball in the hopes of getting the penalty opportunity that could have tied the game, but it was not to be.  As you can see, however,  the images seem to indicate that the ball hit the chest of Higuain.

Chest-ball or hand-ball? You decide...

Seriously, it’s too close to call.  But three points is three points and we’ll take it.  Karma smiles kindly on Real Madrid (finally!), no penalty is called and Real Madrid is able to hang on to victory after a vicious Valencia onslaught.  This victory allows Real Madrid to stay atop the league table with a mind-boggling 31 points after 12 matches and riding an 11 match winning streak in all competitions.  The other good point about this victory is that it also silences those critics who believed Madrid had not beaten any big name opponent up to the date.

Consider that this Real Madrid is on full blown BEASTMODE.

!ASI! !ASI! !ASI GANA EL MADRID !

They are currently on pace to score 99 points out of a possible 114 points in La Liga.. 3 more than the record-setting Farsa side of 2009 who scored 96 points in Liga.   They are also on pace to score 134 GOALS with only 29 against.. Ladies and gentlemen.. those are some straight JUGGERNAUT numbers.

Key Players

Defense (Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, and substitute Albiol): With stood Valencia’s attack.

Lass: Strong in containing Valencia’s midfield and brilliant in attack.

Xabi: The brains of the team.

CR7: Brilliant performance, brilliant goal.

Benzema: All he needs is one to score.

Valencianista Props

! Soldado Seleccion Ya !

In further proof that Vicente del Bosque is an absolutely clueless muppet, for some inexplicable reason Soldado has not been called up to the Seleccion.  Instead we are made to suffer with Torres’ ineffectiveness and del Bosque’s moronic insistence in not playing with a true nueve.  If there was ever doubt that this dude is a bonafide CRACK STUD, it was disspelled on Saturday.  SOLDADO IS THE REAL DEAL.   He scored three goals (one called back in the 90th minute on an offside) and basically went postal on the Madrid defense.  Now just consider what this guy could do paired with Llorente or Iniesta in La Roja… the options and possibilities are mind-boggling.   Needless to say I am a fan, and hope that his shockingly good run of form is recognized with a call up to the National Team to be included in the Euro 2012 squad.  God knows they could use him.    Seriously  Marques, what the F—K are you waiting for?

El revulsivo que necesita La Coja se llama.... SOLDADO !

Derbi Madrileno  – or is it really a “Derbi” if you always win?

Next week Real Madrid will take on city rival Atletico de Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu. This season Atletico have been, as usual, unpredictable. Every season begins the same way for Atletico; they sign big name players, do well in the preseason, blow out the first few easy opponents on the schedule which causes fans and journalists heads to blow up like balloons. Then they face a top-notch opponent, get blown out, reality sets in, and then the roller coaster begins. In fact, Atletico is so unpredictable that instead of using the phrase “life is like a box of chocolates” people just say, “life is like el Atletico de Madrid”. Still, just because Atletico is unpredictable doesn’t mean only bad things happen to them, lets not forget in 2010 Atletico won the Europa League and the European Supercup. But those glory days seem like a long, long, long time ago.   Atletico can surprise people both good and bad, but usually bad. Real Madrid will be no different and playing against the eternal rival will be an extra sense of motivation for the players. Mourinho told his players this week not to believe the hype that has surrounded the team and that they have not won anything. That’s the exact mentality Madrid players should have to approach this game because if for one second they believe in this and in Atletico’s unpredictability then they could easily see themselves down in the game. Mourinho will not allow this to effect his players and will make sure they are fully ready to take on Atletico. Of course no derbi is predictable and usually it’s in these games where the strangest things happen. Like in every city derbi, both Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid will be looking to win not just to get three points, but for bragging rights, although let’s be honest – El Maestro was in diapers the last time el Patetico won a Madrid derby.   In any case, the winner gets the opportunity to gloat at the rival and the loser will have to wait almost five months to get another opportunity to win.

With that said we think we speak for all Madridistas when I say,

!A POR LOS COLCHONEROS!

!HALA MADRID!            

Lo Que Dice Zizou… The Gap Has Been Closed…

by von Doom

A curious article appeared in yesterday’s edition of MARCA.

Pimposity. Respect.

Zidane, who is normally a quiet sort comes out and says that not only has the gap between Real Madrid and Farsa been closed, but Madrid has surpassed Farsa.  Even cooler Zidane drops that he is thinking about coaching.   Zidane as a MOU protege?    Wow.. that’s like having superpowers and s–t.

Este Madrid es una apisonadora.

So. F–‘in.  True.  The proof will come on December 10th.

HALA MADRID !

Virus FIFA (or is it Del Bosque?) : England 1 – La Coja 0 – Moral Victories Don’t Count in the Win Column…

by von Doom

El Maestro and I sat down to watch last Saturday’s game with the expectation of watching a pretty solid matchup.  England v. Spain is (well, at least on paper) one of the those “prestige” matchups that leap out of any fixture list.  En-gurrr-laaaand , Albion, Blighty, the birthplace of soccer and all that jazz vs. The World F–‘in Champs!   Wembley !  Sounds great right?

Clash of the Titans (?) .. err..not so much…

As if.  The fact of the matter is that England, these days, lives more on past glories than on actual strength… it seems as if the Three Lions are spoken of in more “theoretical terms” by Soccer Geeks the world over as in  “damn, look at that lineup.. these guys are all studs at club level.. Premier League, man.. it’s the best in the world..”   but then reality sets in and they say.. “so why do they play like such shite…. ???  What.  The.  F–K ! ”    As you can see,  England as a team, fail to live up to expectation, quite often spectacularly.   England is now  Master and Commander of the Throne of Chokers, once so ably occupied by their Spanish rivals, but since vacated after their BEASTMODE run of  back-to-back EUROCOPA and MUNDIAL.

Xabi Alonso, in a recent interview he gave to The Guardian (read it here )  surmised that the problem with England was that it was a great collection of individual talent, but that they did not play well as a team.  The other telling observation by Madrid’s field marshal is that England places too high a regard on “tackling” and the “long ball” when it would be better served by focusing on technique, technique, technique.  Here, here, Xabi future Messiah, manager, and President at Real Sociedad, we whole-heartedly agree.   Ideally we would prefer a little of both.. for reasons we will soon elucidate on.

I bring this up because it provides a neat little segue to the problem of having too much technique. Too much technique is boring.  Too much technique is kind of effeminate.. Too much technique lacks cojones, !la puta hostia!.   What we saw from Spain was yet more of the same.. tiki-taka ad infinitum.. passing drills in the midfield and one, maybe two excursions past the 3/4 line.  75,000,000 % possession.  1 shot on goal.  Wow. Brilliant.

Faced with this level of obnoxiousness we expected England, being coached by Fabio Capello, and all, to play to their strengths, that is Defense – with a capital D, and on that account, Capello’s men did not disappoint.  To be quite honest, they can scarecely be accused of playing football.  Capello pretty much lined up with an 8-2-0 formation (and that’s being charitable), completely gave up the midfield and hoped for a miracle on a set play.   And guess what?  He got it.  England’s one clear opportunity was enough to win the game.

“Si.. Del Bosque e la mia puttana..”

As to the rest of the match, yawn, we could debate about Villa and Cesc crapping their collective pants,  how if Casillas or Valdes (OK well maybe not Valdes) were in goal that ball never even makes the crossbar and Lampard is not there to poach the header.   But whatever.. England sucked less than we did.  They win.  They rejoice.  Chapeau and jolly good show, old chap.  We fly off to Costa Rica.. the Spanish press goes into full blown damage control PR to protect their beloved Marques from the ever growing legion of hordes back in Spain (and around the world) who are increasingly calling for his head on a pike.

“No Need To Be Alarmed”

Accident my ass.

Bulls–t.  We are very Alarmed.  One thing is becoming very clear to us.  Del Bosque is a god-awful coach.  It is becoming clear that Spain won the World Cup despite Del Bosque not because of him.  They won because they were just that much better than everyone else.  In fact, Del Bosque doesn’t actually Coach..like an Aragones or Mou, to be quite honest, we don’t know what he does – other than sit on the bench impassively…. it seems clear to us, however, that he is running Guardiola’s Farsa scheme and trying to plug in the missing Farsistas with players from other teams.   For this team he tried to use Man City pimp  David Silva as a “falso nueve”  (i.e. fake Messi).. but guess what?  SILVA IS NOT MESSI.   Farsa without Messi =  La Coja.     The results of all this “tiki” and no “taka” (as provided in Farsa by el puto enano) is the string of 1-0 victories you had in the World Cup run, the default defensive strategy of giving up the midfield, stacking the box, hope for a quick counter to catch Spain flat flooted and hope for the best.. has now become an effective counter to Spain largely because DEL BOSQUE IS UNABLE TO MAKE ANY ADJUSTMENTS.

Seriously, how f–‘in hard could this be?  This drives us bonkers to no end.  Spain is basically a one-dimensional, one trick pony now.  It’s gotten so bad under Del Bosque that even a completely incompetent muppet like Avram Grant or Carlos Quieroz (aka el pone-conos de Ferguson) could figure out a way to beat this team.

The fact of the matter is that Spain under Del Bosque play in the middle of the field exclusively and use of the wingers to bring the ball up is almost a non-thought.. the England game was a perfect opportunity to open the wings to take advantage of the speed of Mata and to bring in Llorente who at 6’5″ would have given the English defense a rather interesting defensive proposition… instead they continue with the tired old trope of stupefyingly boring ball-control and an insistence of tiki-taka up the middle and hope for a goal.  As we have seen, this s–t doesn’t work all that well against the big boys..

To prove the point – look at the following stats compiled by El Pais.. in the games (and losses) against Argentina, Portugal, Italy, and England – they are rather compelling.

The stats say this: “tiki-taka” is for wankers who like to lose..

As you can see, in all four games Spain dominated statistically, although one can say by looking at the games on TV that they got straight steamrolled by Argentina and Portugal and found ways to lose at Italy and England.  The Spanish press tries to cover it up with the “oh, it’s just a friendly.. they don’t get up for those.. it’s OK.. at least we are faithful to our style.”

Well.. it’s not OK.  Spain are the World Champions..and their style SUCKS! ..  all these losses just telegraph to the world that this team is soft, beatable, and helmed by a man who has less intensity than a sloth.   Unless, things change.. and pronto.. things are not looking good for the European Championships.. as it stands now any half way decent team with fast wingers (read: Germany and Holland) who can push the ball up with tall physical strikers  is going to feed these boys their units to them.  I wish the FEF had the balls to just fire Del Bosque now and go with someone who will, you know, actually change the scheme a bit instead of trying to fit round pegs into a (very) square hole.   Just the fact that he keeps picking a dud like Torres over studs like Llorente and Soldado merits his firing alone.

“Frankly, we played well…” Right. Keep telling yourself that..

The age of tiki-taka is slowly fading.. thank goodness for that.. It seems that Del Bosque will be the last one to find out, and I just hope it does not take the finest generation of footballing talent ever produced by Spain down with it…

Up next a trans-atlantic trip for a meaningless game to play Costa Rica.. true to form Spain will blow these minnows out of the water 15-0… My question ?  What the hell is the point of this game?  Are the FEF wankers in the Villarato such whores now?  Flying 22 hours over the course of three days with Liga games coming up on the weekend – this should be interesting…

DEL BOSQUE DIMISION !   A POR EL REGRESO DE ARAGONES !

Real Madrid vs. Osasuna Recap

By El Maestro

Sunday was a day of firsts for Real Madrid. First time they played a game in the Santiago Bernabeu at noon, first game Nuri Sahin played since signing for Madrid, and the first time this season Real Madrid score 7 goals in one game. It’s clear time is no issue for los blancos who dominated Osasuna throughout the entire game. It took Real Madrid time though to open the scoring as Osasuna sat back to soak up the constant pressure that was coming their way, but once they got the first goal everyone new something big was going to happen. In fact, besides Osasunsa’s controversial goal, Madrid played this game almost to perfection. Hat trick by Cristiano, double by Benzecrack, golazo by Higuain, and even Pepe joined the party with a wonderful header that made it 2-1. An outstanding performance that keeps Real Madrid on top of the league table and with Farsa’s draw in San Mames  extends the lead by three points.

Plantilla Notes: Ramos, Ozil, Xabi, & CR7.

Ramos: To end with the controversy, Ramos de central.

Ozil: Mourinho really is the master motivated. Just a week ago many were wondering what was wrong, now they can’t get enough of him.

Xabi: The most underrated player in world soccer. No team is complete without someone like him.

CR7: If Xabi is the most underrated player, Cristiano is the second. 13 goals in Liga, 3 in the Champions League, 7 assists, and already 4 hat tricks in the first ten weeks of the season. La Maquina Total.  

The only downside to the game was Di Maria who had to be carried off the pitch in the first three minutes of the 2^nd half after suffering hamstring problems. According to recent reports the diagnosis is a muscle tear in the left hamstring, which will keep him sidelined for almost a month. Di Maria has been one of the best players in form for this team and was having a fantastic game providing 3 assists, but his absents isn’t something that should concern us. The focus for Di Maria is to be ready for the Clasico on December 11, but in the meantime this gives Mourinho an opportunity to play with the lineup. From my point of view and I’m sure many could agree with me, Mou can use up to three different formations with five possible starting lineups.

Option number one: continue with a 4-2-3-1 and do a straight swap Callejon for Di Maria. This change would give Callejon minutes and an opportunity to prove himself. Mourinho could also do what he did earlier in the season by moving Ozil to the right and putting Kaka behind the lone striker. Another possibility is to leave Coentrao at left back, move Marcelo up to left wing, and switch CR7 to the right.

Option number two: Go to a 4-4-2 and start with Benzema and Higuain. This formation has brought a lot of success since Benzema joined the club, but it could be possible Mou passes on this knowing he doesn’t like to start with both and if one gets hurt there are no replacements. One advantage this formation presents is it would give Mourinho the opportunity to bring up a canterano, such as Joselu or Morata, to fill in as a third forward.

Option number three: With Sahin’s return, switch to a 4-3-3. Put Sahin in the midfield with Khedira and Xabi and up top start with CR7 and Ozil on the sides and Benzema or Higuain in the middle. When Sahin first signed, there were talks Mourinho could go with this formation to include the Turkish-German and now with Di Maria out it could be something he highly considers.

La Polemica (The Controversy):

Despite the win, my only problem was the goal scored by Osasuna. When Mourinho was asked about this in the post game press conference, he didn’t question the officials call but says he doesn’t like the different opinions each referee has. This annoys me as well because what I want to know is what are the exact rules on these plays. Lets not forget that almost a month ago, Real Madrid pulled this exact play against Lyon which concluded in a goal but was called back and cost Xabi a yellow card. Critics will say they are two different competitions, but La Liga is a competition inside the European union, which means the same rules apply. Plays like this always happen and calls have tended to go both ways, but it’s a rule that is confusing even amongst referees and should be clarified.

Next Match:

La Liga now takes another break, as players’ head out for international duties. When La Liga kicks up again, Real Madrid will take on Valencia in Mestalla. Valencia has been a roller coaster team this season going through good and bad moments such as snatching an important point against Farsa or losing to Bayern Leverkusen after leading 0-1. In the last five trips, Real Madrid are 4-0-1 and last season dismantled Valencia 3-6, but going to la tierra de la paella is never an easy journey and when Madrid comes into town Mestalla becomes a hostile environment. The International break also doesn’t play in their favor as players may return more fatigued and the ones not selected could lose a beat. Mourinho is well aware of this and will be sure to have his players ready when they all reunite. Valencia is never an easy opponent and especially not in Mestalla, but if Real Madrid play the same way that has allowed them to win 10 straight games, the winning streak will extend to 11.