Real Madrid vs. Getafe: Team News, Predicted Lineups, Live Stream, TV Info
Sometimes you just have to laugh. Well, provided you're on the outside of it, you can.
On Friday, following two days that bordered on comedy, Real Madrid had anxiously awaited their fate but at the same time would have known what was coming.
Two days earlier, Denis Cheryshev had played and scored in the Copa del Rey against Cadiz, which was great. Except for the fact he was suspended. It meant Madrid won on the night, but they didn't really; Cadiz appealed and the matter went to the Spanish Federation, but Madrid were always going to fight it.
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"This is not about looking for someone to take the blame," said club director Emilio Butragueno later, only to then explain who else there might be to blame.
The following day, president Florentino Perez called a press conference. In it, the essence of his message was: We didn't know so it doesn't count. Sitting somewhere, AS editor Alfredo Relano will have felt justified in his stance on Perez: "It's always somebody else's fault," he'd written of the president's approach back in May.
So then Friday arrived. The decision from the federation was slow in coming, but when it finally did, it was a predictable one: Real Madrid had been knocked out of the cup. The news erupted on Twitter, and almost simultaneously, so did images of a trouser-less Cristiano Ronaldo advertising his latest underwear range, the timing impeccable.
You couldn't write this stuff.
Yet you also couldn't be blamed if you'd forgotten that, amid all of this, there's actually a game to play against Getafe on Saturday. That's if anybody cares, of course.
And do they? It's hard to know.
Indeed, right now this is a club that's treading toward being more about drama than it is about football.
In this calendar year alone, Madrid have sacked a Champions League-winning manager, made a hash of Iker Casillas' departure and suffered the embarrassment of the "fax-machine" saga surrounding David De Gea.
They've also seen Karim Benzema become involved in a blackmail scandal, Perez has blamed the media for the club's problems, they've been thrashed by Barcelona while hand-cuffing themselves, a rift between the players and medical staff persists, and barely a day passes without speculation on Rafa Benitez's relationship with his players.
Then this week happened.
In the capital, Marca called it "a ludicrous five months." In Catalonia, Sport gleefully dubbed it "Annus Horribilis." But it was somewhere else where all of this was described best.
"Real have grown so accustomed to their reputation as something of a circus in recent years that you sense an element of the club almost revels in it," wrote ESPN FC's Rory Smith. "They are the world's most expensively assembled soap opera."
Certainly, if Madrid had their own television series, the latest episode would probably be called "Cadizazo"—the name given to this week's events by Marca.
One can only wonder what Saturday's instalment featuring the visit of Getafe might entail.
Match Details
Date: Saturday, December 5
Time: 3 p.m. GMT/10 a.m. EST/4 p.m. local
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
TV Info: Sky Sports (UK—delayed broadcast), beIN Sports (U.S.)
Live Stream: Sky Go (UK), beIN Sports CONNECT (U.S.)
Form Lines
| W: 3-1 vs. Cadiz | L: 0-2 vs. Rayo Vallecano |
| W: 2-0 vs. Eibar | W: 2-0 vs. Villarreal |
| W: 4-3 vs. Shakhtar Donetsk | D: 1-1 vs. Rayo Vallecano |
| L: 0-4 vs. Barcelona | L: 1-3 vs. Eibar |
| L: 2-3 vs. Sevilla | L: 0-2 vs. Barcelona |
| W: 1-0 vs. Paris Saint-Germain | L: 0-5 vs. Sevilla |
Team News
For Real Madrid, in defence Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane and Daniel Carvajal all remain sidelined with injury, while the recovering Marcelo has also been left out of Benitez's 19-man squad that contains only four defenders in Pepe, Nacho, Alvaro Arbeloa and Danilo.
No prizes for guessing the back four, then.
Elsewhere, meanwhile, a host of star names return after sitting out the midweek trip to Cadiz to strengthen the squad. In midfield, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos come back in (though Isco is still suspended), while Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema will slot back into the attack.
For Getafe, midfielder Juan Rodriguez will be unavailable for this one after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season last time out against Villarreal. The veteran's absence leaves a significant hole to fill for manager Fran Escriba, who has used Rodriguez alongside Mehdi Lacen for almost the entire season.
Escriba will also have a decision to make at the heart of his defence, where Alexis, Cala and Atletico Madrid loanee Emiliano Velazquez have been shuffled around in recent weeks.
In attack, however, Getafe are expected to stick with their familiar four-man combination of Angel Lafita, Victor Rodriguez, Pablo Sarabia and Alvaro Vazquez.
Predicted Lineups
In the Spotlight
Saturday marks his return. Well, in a sense it does.
In the record books, Karim Benzema officially made his return from injury late last month against Barcelona, but then, that wasn't really a return. Half-fit and most probably distracted, the Frenchman wasn't even close to ready and shouldn't have started.
Since, he hasn't.
As such, Saturday's meeting with Getafe might stand as the occasion when Real Madrid get Benzema back. The fit one. The real one. The 100 percent authentic version.
And it's imperative that they do.
In the striker's extended absence, Madrid's forward setup has struggled to the point where one wonders if Benzema might be its most critical member for establishing fluency and balance. "He is a vital player for us, he has an abundance of quality and he helps his teammates play better," said Benitez on Friday. "He will feature and may start the game."
Real Madrid will just need to hope his head is in the right place.
Odds (via Odds Shark)
Real Madrid: 1-9
Draw: 7-1
Getafe: 16-1
