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BARCELON, Spain: After being humbled by a recently promoted club and a Ukrainian side playing with reserves, Real Madrid face a trip to Camp Nou.
Barcelona host Madrid on Saturday in the first clasico under new coach Ronald Koeman. And even though Barcelona are undergoing a rebuilding process after they ended last season without a trophy, Madrid come to the clash with even more doubts.
Madrid have been outplayed at home by the modest Cadiz and a Shakhtar Donetsk that was without several starters due to a coronavirus outbreak among the squad.
In both losses, Madrid were sluggish and disorganized in defense, leaving opponents time and space to successfully launch counterattacks. Barcelona’s attack of Lionel Messi and Philippe Coutinho and the young legs of Ansu Fati, Francisco Trincao and Ousmane Dembele will have taken notice.
Madrid were stunned 1-0 last Saturday by a Cadiz packed with several players who spent their careers in the second division until last month. During that loss, coach Zinedine Zidane said he would not have been surprised if Madrid had gone into halftime down by two or three goals.
That is exactly what happened on Wednesday when Shakhtar won 3-2 in their Champions League opener after a Madrid backline fell apart without Sergio Ramos, who was resting after hurting his left knee against Cadiz.
Madrid hope to have their captain back against Barcelona.
Zidane has tried to absorb the blame for the embarrassing defeats.
“I’m responsible. As the first half was negative for my side, it means I did something wrong,” Zidane said after the loss to Shakhtar.
“I feel for the players because they have helped me win a lot of things. It was a bad game and they don’t deserve it. But that’s football. You have to keep going and think that if today is gray, tomorrow will be sunny.”
But his squad is under pressure, both veterans and newcomers.
Against Shakhtar, Raphael Varane should have been its defensive leader with Ramos out. But Varane showed the same fragile defending that was behind his two errors that led to goals in Madrid’s exit to Manchester City in the Champions League in August.
Caught behind a Shakhtar player, Varane’s lunge to poke away the ball put it into his own net, making it 2-0.
Marcelo and Eder Militao were unable to stop goals from Tetê in the 29th minute and Manor Solomon in the 42nd.
Down 3-0 at halftime, Luka Modric and Vinícius Júnior pulled two goals back, but with half an hour remaining the team could not culminate the comeback.
“When we don’t play well under pressure, everyone suffers. We found it difficult at the back,” Varane said. “It’s a difficult time for the team, but we’ve got a very important game (Barcelona) and we’re focused on winning.”