Sports

Real Madrid seeks record world crown

December 15, 2017

ABU DHABI — Real Madrid can cap its most successful year ever with victory in the Club World Cup final against Brazilian side Gremio Saturday, which would see it become the first team to successfully defend the trophy and end 2017 with five titles.

Defeat, however, would be the latest of a series of setbacks in a haphazard last few months for Zinedine Zidane’s side, which is fourth in La Liga, trailing leader Barcelona by eight points in the standings.

At times, it has looked a shadow of the team that swept to Champions League and Liga glory last season and crushed Manchester United and Barca to win the European and Spanish Super Cups.

No South American side has managed to beat its European counterparts in the Club World Cup since Gremio’s compatriots Corinthians stunned Chelsea with victory in 2012, although an upset is not entirely out of the question in Abu Dhabi.

Real only narrowly avoided a catastrophic defeat to Abu Dhabi side Al Jazira, which took a remarkable 1-0 lead at halftime in a chaotic, action-packed semifinal which the double European champion eventually won 2-1.

The Spanish side dominated the game but, not for the first time this season, showed remarkable profligacy in front of goal until Cristiano Ronaldo equalized in the second half and Gareth Bale hit a late winner 30 seconds after coming off the bench.

Real is sure to face an even sterner test from Gremio, although the Brazilians also had to battle their way through their semifinal, overcoming Mexicans Pachuca 1-0 after extra-time.

Gremio’s coach Renato Portaluppi won the Intercontinental Cup (the forerunner to the Club World Cup) with the club as a player and underlined his reputation for courting controversy by recently proclaiming he was a better player than Real’s Ronaldo.

The Portuguese, who was recently named the world player of the year for a joint-record fifth time, became the top scorer in the history of Club World Cup by netting for the sixth time in three separate tournament appearances.

The previous record of five was jointly held by Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Cesar Delgado.

Real was given an almighty scare in last year’s final, falling behind Japanese side Kashima Antlers before eventually winning 4-2 in extra-time with the help of a Ronaldo hat trick and Zidane said he expected another difficult final.

“I don’t know the Brazilian league well but I watched their semifinal and they are a good team and we will have to lift our standard of play against them,” Zidane said after the nervy win Wednesday.

“It will be a complicated game because there’s no such thing as an easy game, as we proved against Al Jazira.”

‘Give away’ Bale — Maradona

Diego Maradona says he has a solution to Real Madrid’s scarcity of goals this season — sign France teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe from Paris St Germain and give Gareth Bale away for free.

Real’s record signing Bale has endured another nightmare season with injuries but fired the European champion into the Club World Cup final Wednesday by striking the winner.

Argentina’s former World Cup winning captain said things might have been different had president Florentino Perez heeded his advice.

“I told Florentino to sign Mbappe but he told me had Cristiano Ronaldo,” Maradona said in an interview with AS.

Asked where signing Mbappe would leave Bale, Maradona said: “They should sell Bale, they should give him away. I expect Florentino wouldn’t, but maybe he can do a deal, and let Bale go to AC Milan or Inter (Milan).

“They have to sign Mbappe, for me he’s the next big thing, he could overtake many players.”

Maradona, who inspired Argentina to win the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, also said Lionel Messi could take a leaf out of his book when it comes to rallying the national team at next year’s tournament in Russia.

“Messi is not capable of giving a team talk to 20 guys and motivating them like I did,” Maradona said of Argentina’s captain and all-time top scorer, who has never won a major international trophy despite reaching four finals.

“He would just say ‘What do you want to ask me?’ and they would ask him all the questions.” — Agencies


December 15, 2017
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