Battered Real should be wary of Leganes

Published on: 24 January 2018

La Liga is a battleground dominated by Davids who occasionally, sometimes spectacularly, take down one of the handful of Goliaths. They often succeed with just the single shot -- a hard-won break right between the eyes of a financial behemoth whose own gaze may be distracted by adversaries operating on a more level playing field.

Real Madrid find themselves in that quandary as a season-defining date with Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain looms large on the horizon. Injuries and fatigue have begun to take their toll among Spain's top flight teams as the fixtures pile up after the winter break, particularly for those involved in the latter stages of the Copa del Rey. Condensed into five weeks of action from the last 16 stage to the semifinals, the domestic cup is a trial of endurance. Lower division sides are usually conspicuous by their absence in the last eight -- the "miracle of Mirandes" a noteworthy and thoroughly enjoyable exception in recent years -- and even the mighty can be knocked onto their backsides unexpectedly.

Barcelona discovered as much when Espanyol brought their season-long unbeaten run in all competitions to a halt in the first leg of the Catalan Copa derby. The lure of an attainable triumph can lead underdogs to achieve extraordinary things while heroes are elevated from the unlikeliest of sources -- Murcia's Victor Curto is still has a decent shot at finishing as the competition's top scorer.

Leganes going toe-to-toe with the reigning European and Liga champions is like David arriving for his legendary duel with his arms tied behind his back. The southern Madrid side have the 18th most-valuable squad in Primera and only Levante, Girona, Las Palmas and Getafe are prevented from spending less overall this season in line with Liga-imposed salary limits.

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Relying heavily on youth development, free transfers and the loan system, Leganes have made money on just one transfer in 2017-18, receiving €117,000 from AEK Athens for defensive midfielder Erik Moran. The Cucumber Growers' record signing, Dimitris Siovas, arrived last summer from Olympiacos for €2.75m and remains one of only nine players to have arrived for a fee in the 21st century.

Few teams that exhibit just how great the financial divide is in modern football have done so much, with so little, for so long. Yet, in only their second-ever season in the top flight, Leganes sit nine points off the drop zone and 10 adrift of Zinedine Zidane's Madrid, a feat made even more remarkable by a first Copa quarterfinal appearance in the club's 89-year history.

The Real boss faces the opposite dilemma. With a squad so rich in talent, Zidane will have no excuse if Madrid fails to reach the semifinals for a second consecutive season. One competition is already forfeit and the prospect of defeat at the hands of PSG is a potentially terminal indictment of the Frenchman's management of his side in 2017-18.

It remains to be seen if the 7-1 thrashing of Deportivo last weekend was the beginning of a renaissance or merely a brief upward turn, a flicker on the otherwise flat line of Madrid's title defence. Transfer issues continue to bubble under the surface of everything Zidane does at the Bernabeu but his stance is clear: From now until the end of the season he will live or die by what he has at his disposal.

Against Leganes, a side who rank in the top five in La Liga in terms of fouls, Zidane must decide whether to retain his faith in his backups or risk further damage to his first-choice personnel with three weeks to go until PSG arrive in the Spanish capital. Sergio Ramos is available after recovering from a calf problem but unlikely to feature on Wednesday with the trip to Mestalla at the weekend in mind, while Zidane will also be without Jesus Vallejo and Dani Ceballos, who is out with an ankle sprain.

Cristiano Ronaldo is nursing a nasty cut below his eye after getting a boot in the face in the win over Depor and has not yet featured in the cup this season. Other seniors may be drafted in to shore up a Plan B that has conceded four in two Copa return legs against lower-tier opposition at the Bernabeu. The Real boss will be hoping his squad keeps its scoring touch against an outfit who have conceded fewer than only Barca, Atletico and his own side in the league this season.

A one-goal advantage is no guarantee of progress at this stage of the Copa, where a bulging wallet doesn't always add up to as much of an advantage as it does over the course of a Liga season. Leganes earned their shot in the first leg and will do their utmost to take it.

Source: espn.co.uk

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