MADRID, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Under pressure after failing to
impress in pre-season, Real Madrid kick-off their defence of
the league title against reinvigorated city rivals Atletico
Madrid on Saturday.
Having sacked championship-winning coach Fabio Capello and
brought in Bernd Schuster and a string of new players, Real
have looked ragged and disorganised in recent games.
The club held a crisis meeting following Sunday's crushing
5-3 defeat at home to Sevilla in the Spanish Super Cup and
almost immediately spent 48 million euros on Argentine defender
Gabriel Heinze and Dutch winger Arjen Robben.
The flurry of transfer activity at the club smacks of panic
buying, but with 120 million euros ($162.7 million) worth of
new players at their disposal they will still be expected to
produce the goods in the season opener.
Atletico are upbeat after their new-look side produced some
of the best football seen at the Calderon in recent years when
they over-ran Serbian side Vojvodina in the UEFA Cup last week.
The pessimism following the departure of Fernando Torres
has vanished after a series of promising displays by the new
strike pairing of Diego Forlan and Argentine youngster Sergio
Aguero.
'With the attacking players we have we could cause uproar
at the Bernabeu,' club president Enrique Cerezo told sports
daily Marca this week. 'But we have to make a huge effort,
fight all the way and hope that things go our way.'
Atletico fans, however, have witnessed enough false dawns.
The 'rojiblancos' have been overawed by Real in recent
years and have not beaten their neighbours in the league since
October 1999 when they won 3-1 at the Bernabeu.
On Sunday, Barcelona will get a chance to parade their new
signings Thierry Henry, Eric Abidal, Yaya Toure and Gabriel
Milito at Racing Santander, the only side in the Primera Liga
yet to spend any money on new players in the close season.
The question on everyone's lips is which of their
'Fantastic Four' forwards of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Lionel
Messi and Henry will start on the bench. The former Arsenal
player appears the favourite.
Amongst the other feature games, in-form Sevilla host
Michael Laudrup's Getafe in a repeat of last season's King's
Cup final amid the furore surrounding the Tottenham Hotspur
offer to coach Juande Ramos and the future of want-away right
back Daniel Alves.
Valencia, another favourite for a top four spot, are at
home to regional rivals Villarreal, who ended last season on an
eight-match winning run.
