BARCELONA: After dominating the Spanish league last season, defending champion Real Madrid was supposed to brush aside its lesser domestic rivals in this campaign and focus on winning a coveted 10th Champions League trophy.
But after losing its second league match 1-0 at Sevilla on Saturday, Madrid is reeling only two days before facing Manchester City in the Champions League.
A short-handed Barcelona, meanwhile, routed Getafe 4-1 as Lionel Messi went on with half an hour to play and added to Adriano’s opener with a pair of goals before David Villa netted to keep them perfect in league play.
Coach Jose Mourinho says he “doesn’t have a team,” forward Cristiano Ronaldo is “sad,” and the entire club is wondering what has so quickly gone so wrong.
Through four rounds, Madrid has just one win to go with a draw and a pair of losses and already trails pacesetter Barcelona by eight points as it languishes in the middle of the standings.
Mourinho has to find a quick turnaround as Madrid plays English titleholder Manchester City on Tuesday in their Champions league opener, a game that it can ill afford to lose in a challenging group that includes German champion Borussia Dortmund and Dutch team Ajax.
“We didn’t expect to have this start,” said Madrid club spokesman and former star Emilio Butragueno. “(Eight points) are a lot of points. We have a very important game tomorrow. It’s critical.” In his first two seasons at Madrid, Mourinho rarely blamed his players for a bad result. But he has been openly critical of his squad from week one when it slipped to a home draw with Valencia.
After its loss at Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium on Saturday he was brutal in his judgment of his team’s effort, saying that for many of his players “football is not a priority.” “I am worried because since the beginning of the season we have only played well in the Spanish Supercup (vs. Barcelona), but nothing else,” said Mourinho, whose team hadn’t dropped this many points until week 15 last season.
“More than being worried about the points, what worries me at this moment is that I don’t have a team.” Madrid-friendly Spanish sports daily Marca’s cover on Sunday read: “Eight points from Barca in week four, Mou declares a state of alarm in Madrid.” Barcelona, meanwhile, remained perfect through four games after Lionel Messi scored a brace to take his league-leading tally to six goals in its 4-1 rout at Getafe on Saturday.
“The gap (with Madrid) is surprising,” said Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets on Sunday. “But there is still a long way to go.” Mourinho said Madrid’s poor form predated Ronaldo’s enigmatic comments two weeks ago that he wasn’t happy with the Spanish club, sparking speculation that he was seeking a better contract or even a move to another team.
“This game wasn’t very different from the other games,” Mourinho said after the defeat in Seville. “Therefore I don’t think it has any relation with the rumor of the last two weeks.” Either way, Ronaldo was key to Madrid’s title fight last season with a club-record 46 league goals. So far this season he has scored two, both coming against the modest Granada at home when he showed his displeasure with the club by not celebrating his goals.
To Mourinho’s chagrin, Madrid has proven to be particularly vulnerable on set pieces, despite having physical defenders like Sergio Ramos and Pepe along with imposing midfielders in Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso.
Madrid left Sevilla midfielder Piotr Trochowski unmarked to blast a corner kick into the top of the net two minutes into Saturday’s match, and then failed to mount a comeback. In previous rounds, Madrid conceded goals off set pieces in its 1-1 draw with Valencia and its 2-1 loss at Getafe.
“The problem is the attitude from minute one,” a perplexed Mourinho said. “We cannot work more on set pieces. Every player knows his role, the opponent he has to mark, the zone he has to cover, and yet we concede a goal just a minute into the game. It is an image of a team without focus or a willingness to suffer.” Ramos did not dare contradict his coach’s opinion.
“(Mourinho) is the best at seeing football. It is true that the moment has arrived to look at what we can improve and what things we need to change,” he said. “It is time to change our attitude.”
Madrid in real mess after second league loss
Madrid in real mess after second league loss
Rampant Sabalenka sweeps past Jovic into Australian Open semifinals
MELBOURNE: Relentless top seed Aryna Sabalenka muscled past American teenager Iva Jovic and into the Australian Open semifinals Tuesday to accelerate her bid for a third Melbourne title.
The Belarusian powered home 6-3, 6-0 in blazing heat to set up a clash with either third seed Coco Gauff or 12th seed Elina Svitolina.
It booked the 27-year-old a 14th career Grand Slam semifinal and fourth in a row at the season-opening major.
Sabalenka has won twice in Melbourne, in 2023 and 2024, and seemed destined for another crown last year but was upset in the final by Madison Keys.
Keys’ title defense is over, beaten in the fourth round by Jessica Pegula.
“These teenagers have been testing me in the last couple of rounds,” said Sabalenka, who is on a 10-match win streak after victory at the lead-up Brisbane International.
“It was a tough match. Don’t look at the score, it wasn’t easy at all. She played incredible tennis. Pushed me to to one step better level. And I’m super happy with the win.”
The match was played under an open roof on Rod Laver Arena with the tournament Heat Stress Scale yet to reach the level where it could be closed.
Temperatures are forecast to hit a blistering 45C with a peak of 38C reached during the match.
Defeat brought an end to a breakthrough tournament for 18-year-old Jovic, the youngest player in the women’s top 100 and seeded 29.
She stunned seventh seed and two-time Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini and blitzed past experienced Yulia Putintseva for the loss of just one game to announce herself to the world.
But Sabalenka was a bridge too far.
The world number one safely held serve to lay down a marker, blasting an ace to set up game point and an unreturnable serve to win it.
Jovic made some early errors and sent the ball long on break point to surrender her serve and fall 2-0 behind.
Sabalenka held to pile on the pressure before Jovic fended off a break point on her next serve to get on the scoreboard.
But despite some long rallies as she got into the match and three break points as Sabalenka served for the set, the top seed’s brute force proved too much.
Sabalenka then broke her immediately to assert control of set two and Jovic was spent, with another break for 3-0 then a double fault to slump 5-0 down, signalling the end.
