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Barcelona vs Real Madrid en vivo | Barcelona vs Real Madrid Live Stream | La Liga en vivo

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So much for the proposed new closed shop of the European Premier League.

One Spanish newspaper branded Real Madrid’s 3-2 home defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk as “embarrassing” but for many invested onlookers, Wednesday’s disastrous start to the Champions League group stage campaign highlights the state of flux that shrouds the 13-time European champions.

The result came five days after Zinedine Zidane’s men lost 1-0 to newly-promoted Cadiz at the Alfredo Di Stefano, Real’s training ground which currently doubles at their venue for home fixtures while the club make significant developments to the Bernabeu.

Now, they face their biggest game of the season. An early visit to the Nou Camp always promised to be a defining fixture but with Ronald Koeman at the start of another Barcelona transition, both sides appear a pale imitation of the powerhouses of bygone years.

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The Spanish papers can be unforgiving, but those damning headlines were not without validation. Gallingly, Shakhtar were without 10 first-team players due to Covid-19, but the Ukrainians found themselves 3-0 up at half-time.

“It was an embarrassing defeat,” Spanish football expert Alvaro Montero told Sky Sports. “Nobody really saw this happening. Zidane was hoping to use some fringe players – for example, Marcelo and Ferland Mendy on the right side of the defence as well as changes in the midfield – because he was thinking about El Clasico.

 

“Real are the Spanish champions in La Liga last year, and while Shakhtar are a good team, being without 10 players for a long trip from Ukraine, and players who would’ve been in the starting XI, it’s an embarrassing situation. It adds to another one only last Saturday when they lost to Cadiz in Madrid.”

It was the first time that Real have lost three consecutive matches in the Champions League – and in European competition since September 1986 – while it’s the first time ever that they lost their opening group stage fixture.

Zidane, who was without the injured Eden Hazard and started with Karim Benzema on the bench, took over an hour to appear in his post-match press conference after his team’s humbling.

When he finally emerged, he told reporters: “We were lacking a bit of everything today but worst of all we were lacking confidence. It’s difficult to think of what to say when you concede three goals in the first half. We made a mistake with their first goal and from then on it was very difficult.

“I’m left with a very bad feeling because of everything that happened tonight. It’s a bad game, a bad night but I’m the coach and I’m the one who has to find solutions. I didn’t find them tonight and it’s a very difficult moment for the players.”

Montero believes the Frenchman will be feeling the heat after two setbacks in a week.

“He’s under pressure,” he continued. “We have to remember that the club president Florentino Perez usually goes to the dressing room and he did so yesterday for three minutes to try to give the players and the head coach some good feelings and vibes because the situation is extremely bad for Zidane.

“The next two games are extremely important for Real with the second Champions League group stage game against Borussia Monchengladbach coming just days after El Clasico. That game they simply cannot lose as it would put them in a really difficult position to qualify for the knockout round.

“Zidane is under pressure, and many people both in the press and among the fans are talking already about two possibilities to replace him: Raul Gonzalez, the former player, who is now coaching the second team Real Madrid Castilla and Mauricio Pochettino.

“They have to react as a loss on Saturday is not only a setback for themselves but a major boost for their title rivals.”

Zidane still has credit in the bank among some supporters having led the club to three successive Champions League titles, in addition to last season’s domestic honour. But, crucially, the patience of board members has been tested by recent results, undermining the club hierarchy’s confidence in him.

Real are in line to benefit from the return of their inspirational leader this weekend. Sergio Ramos, who was withdrawn at half-time in the defeat to Cadiz, is back in training having missed the midweek debacle. Remarkably, Madrid have lost seven of their last eight Champions League matches in which he has not featured.

Real’s first league title in three years was built around having a tight defence, with Ramos at the heart of a proud record of just four goals conceded in 10 La Liga games post-lockdown before being crowned champions.

“We’re going to turn up there on Saturday and we’re going to be prepared,” Zidane has vowed.

“We have to change things. I feel awful for the players, who have won so many things for me and don’t deserve this. But this is football, one day everything is grey and the next the sun comes out. Sometimes it’s very difficult and tonight is one of those times.”

The lack of a crowd and atmosphere appears to have hampered Real, but they will hope it plays in their favour at an empty Nou Camp.

With seven points from their opening four La Liga games, it comes as a surprise to see Barcelona currently ninth in the table, albeit with two games in hand over several sides above them. A victory on Saturday would kick-start the Koeman era.

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The Dutchman could be without several key individuals. Marc-Andre ter Stegen is yet to feature this season having undergone a knee operation in August, while Samuel Umtiti is a major doubt as he battles to be declared fit following his own knee problems.

Jordi Alba has been sidelined since tearing his hamstring in the 1-1 draw with Sevilla before the international break. Madrid have seldom relied so much on the collective with so few players capable of making the difference alone, but in Lionel Messi, Barcelona know they have one the great game-changers.

Pique was sent off against Ferencvaros in the Champions League on Tuesday
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Gerard Pique was sent off against Ferencvaros in the Champions League
The inconsistencies already under Koeman illustrate that this remains the onset of a work in progress; one week sweeping aside Villarreal 4-0, stumbling to defeat at Getafe the next. Koeman is still trying to mould his group back into a competitive and confident outfit in the aftermath of one of the club’s worst defeats in its history, the 8-2 capitulation against Bayern Munich back in August.

The hosts will of course take confidence from their midweek 5-1 win over Ferencvaros. Every victory in the competition will be greeted with open arms given the club’s current financial predicament. The €570,000 win bonus comes in the same week the process of introducing a wage cut on players and staff was formally announced.

Of slight concern will be the form of Messi, who has scored only five goals from open play since the restart in June. Antoine Griezmann has flattered to deceive ever since he arrived in July 2019, while youngsters Pedri, Ansu Fati and Sergino Dest continue to be integrated alongside those with greater experience.

Griezmann leapt to Fati's defence after the report by ABC
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Ansu Fati is in line to feature for Barcelona after his goal in the midweek win
“One or two months ago, people felt Messi was at war with the club,” Montero said. “Of course, his relationship with board members and president Josep Maria Bartomeu is not as good as it should be, and Messi didn’t play well in the defeat to Getafe.

“He has played 90 minutes in all four of their previous La Liga games, and it’s not the best Lionel Messi but the situation is much better than it was two or three months ago.”

Following the first of this season’s encounters with Real, we will have a far better understanding of where Koeman is at in his evolution.

Follow Barcelona vs Real Madrid with our dedicated live blog across Sky Sports’ digital platforms from 2pm on Saturday and on Gillette Soccer Saturday.

 

AFL Grand Final Richmond vs Geelong Live Stream

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A decade after Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale was ridiculed for the club’s bold plan to win three premierships by 2020 and boost membership numbers to 75,000, the Tigers are now on the cusp of greatness.

Having already smashed its ambitious membership target by more than 25,000, Richmond enters Saturday night’s historic grand final under lights at the Gabba with the chance to fulfill that once-derided premiership ambition by securing a third flag in the space of four seasons.

To do so would elevate Damien Hardwick’s side into the esteemed company.

In this millennium, Brisbane (2001-2003) and Hawthorn (2013-2015) both won three consecutive premierships to earn their place among the AFL’s greatest sides.

Geelong won three flags across a five-year span from 2007 to 2011 to also assert its claims as one of football’s most formidable line-ups; a record Richmond can top with victory over the Cats in this weekend’s showpiece.

Saturday night’s match will be the first time since 1967 that the Tigers and Cats have met in a grand final, and only the third time they have played each other in a season decider.

In 1967, Richmond — coached by the legendary Tom Hafey — won a thrilling clash by nine points in front of 109,000 spectators at the MCG. The victory gave rise to the club’s last sustained period of success with three more premierships won across the following seven seasons.

Less than a third of that crowd will fill the Gabba on Saturday night but I’m expecting a similarly tight contest and a superb spectacle.

Richmond thoroughly outplayed Geelong when the two sides met in round 17 in Carrara and while the margin on the scoreboard was only 26 points, the Tigers were dominant with 22 scoring shots to 11 while holding Geelong to its lowest score since 2001.

The Cats’ typically precise and composed ball movement was stifled by the opposition’s manic pressure in what former Geelong captain Cameron Ling described as a “smack-down” on ABC Grandstand.

The nature of the loss shook the Cats. They had been in sparkling form prior, but followed up the defeat with an underwhelming performance against Sydney in round 18 and they were well below their best in a 16-point loss to Port Adelaide in the qualifying final.

But any scars of round 17 now appear to have healed, with Geelong playing with supreme confidence and clinical efficiency in convincing wins over Collingwood and Brisbane in its past two finals clashes.

Richmond and Geelong may deploy contrasting styles of ball movement — elements of chaos versus control — but their line-ups boast several similarities.

Geelong’s Tom Hawkins shouts in celebration in front of Brisbane’s Mitch Robinson.
Shutting down Cats spearhead Tom Hawkins will be a priority for the Tigers.(AAP: Dave Hunt)
The Tigers and Cats possess powerful key forwards in Tom Lynch and Tom Hawkins. Both sides have significant midfield depth, and well-organised, miserly defences. They also have star players with match-winning qualities.

Gary Ablett was superb for Geelong against the Lions in the preliminary final, and how fitting it would be to see him end his glittering career with a third premiership medallion.

Ablett has been a champion player, the best I’ve witnessed.

Patrick Dangerfield was outstanding against the Magpies and — while less influential against Brisbane — he will take some quelling in his first grand final as he chases one of the few prizes in football to elude him.

Richmond star Dustin Martin, who has already won everything in football, has spent a lot of time forward this season — just like Dangerfield — and is sure to be a huge factor in determining the outcome.

Martin, who won the Norm Smith Medal in Richmond’s 2017 and 2019 grand final wins, is the consummate big-occasion player. If the Cats keep him quiet, I can see them winning the match but Richmond will deservedly start the favourite.

 

Senior coaches face significant pressure
In recent years, we have increasingly seen AFL players putting their hands up to reveal they have been struggling with mental health issues in an alarming trend that coincides with an unprecedented level of scrutiny.

Every miniscule detail of every minute of every match can be analysed, dissected and critiqued by a veracious and never-ending news cycle.

The arrival of social media has also created a cesspit for unqualified opinion, a medium dangerously irresistible for a generation of people too concerned with what others think of them.

In a climate of growing concern over player welfare, the mental demands and pressures faced by AFL coaches is comparatively unspoken of.

But while the player is one link in the chain that determines the success of a football club, the coach is the cog upon which everything revolves around. They are expected to be the embodiment of strength — seemingly unbreakable — and the one with all the solutions to all the problems.

If the team is underperforming, the coach wears the criticism and is ultimately held accountable.

Mick Malthouse, who coached a record 718 AFL/VFL matches, offered a clear insight into the emotional impact of coaching a few years back when he told me that long after his decorated career came to an end he woke up one morning and realised he had slept through the night for the first time in 30 years.

On Friday, North Melbourne released the unfortunate news — rather oddly buried deep in a statement to members — that its coach Rhyce Shaw had stepped away from football to deal with personal issues.

This was not a surprise as Shaw’s difficulties had been respectfully kept quiet by the media for weeks and nor was it surprising given the warning signs have been there for some time that the pressures faced by senior coaches are becoming unsustainable.

The North Melbourne AFL coach looks at a Kangaroos training session.
North Melbourne coach Rhyce Shaw is taking time away from the AFL.(AAP: Julian Smith)
Late last year in his first sit-down interview after being sacked as coach of Carlton, Brendon Bolton told me the role was all-consuming.

“It owns you being a senior coach … it becomes your lifestyle, it’s not a job, it’s a state of being,” Bolton said.

“I think there needs to be appreciation of what senior coaching is all about. It’s not just the game plan and working with players — it’s far broader.

“They’ve got 50 players that they treat like sons … on top of that they’ve got about 15 coaches that they’re really invested in and their staff broader, so all of a sudden coaches take on 100 people, let alone their own family and themselves.”

Retired Richmond premiership player and highly respected long-time football administrator, Neil Balme, agrees senior coaches need balance and — most importantly — appropriate levels of support.

“Just coaching the team is very, very difficult but a lot of it is how good your club is, how much support you give him, how much you help him because if you want the coach to be everything, he’s going to go mad,” Balme told ABC Grandstand.

North Melbourne has recently taken steps to bolster its coaching ranks with the addition of former premiership player John Blakey and an approach made to former Melbourne and Sydney coach Paul Roos.

At this stage, it is unclear whether Shaw will one day return to Arden Street as senior coach or in another capacity.

First and foremost, let’s hope he is on the road to recovery and that his unfortunate situation helps to shine a light on the pressures of coaching.