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Madrid, Spain | THE INDEPENDENT | Real Madrid aim to continue their recovery, while Athletic Club Bilbao coach Gaizka Garitano needs to good result to help save his job when the two sides meet in a rescheduled La Liga tie in Valdebebas on Tuesday evening.
Real Madrid go into the game, which has been brought forward due to the two sides’ Supercup Commitments in January, after an excellent week which saw them beat Sevilla, Borussia Monchengladbach and Atletico Madrid.
Those wins have lifted the pressure on coach Zinedine Zidane and kept them in the running for both the Champions League and La Liga.
Zidane’s side showed an ability to react when the pressure was on after defeats to Alaves and Shakhtar Donetsk. The coach will now hope they can keep their concentration against a rival struggling for consistency this campaign.
Athletic travel to Madrid on the back of a 2-2 draw in Valencia in which they outplayed their rivals for most of the game, but paid the price for two individual errors in defense.
Garitano’s side create fewer chances than any other team in La Liga and the coach has been accused of being over-conservative in his team selections and substitutions. The visiting coach has twice been close to the sack himself this season, only for the team to respond with wins at just the right time.
The fixture calendar hasn’t been kind to Athletic, who have another league match at home to Huesca on Friday and with little recovery time for his team, Garitano will have to decide whether he reserves some key players in Madrid for another vital match against a more accessible rival just three days later.
That could see Unai Nunez and Mikel Balenziaga and Raul Garcia all start along with winger Jon Morcillo and perhaps Oscar de Marcos.
Zidane will be without the suspended Casemiro, who has been vital to his side’s recovery over the past week and the Brazilian will probably be replaced by Fede Valverde, who is back after his shin injury. However, with his side not playing again until Sunday’s visit to Eibar, Zidane is unlikely to make many changes to a winning formula and his main task is to ensure there is no overconfidence.
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