Fantastic four looking ordinary

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This article was published 28/02/2020 (2349 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They are four of the biggest clubs in Europe and on Sunday they’ll contest two of the continent’s most famous derbies.

Real Madrid and Barcelona, Juventus and Inter Milan; El Clasico and Derby d’Italia; La Liga and Serie A. Both matches would be, and always are, compelling with or without title implications, but what makes the pair of them even more fascinating than usual is that none of the participants are playing particularly well.

Real Madrid, who will host El Clasico (Sunday, 2 p.m., beIN Sports), are coming off a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League. They took the lead in that match, courtesy of Isco, but then completely unravelled in the space of five minutes late in the second half when Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne scored for the guests and Sergio Ramos was shown a red card.

Only four days prior they lost 1-0 at Levante, and six days before that they drew 2-2 with Celta Vigo. As a result they now find themselves second in the Spanish top flight for the first time since mid-January. Eden Hazard’s latest injury complicates matters for manager Zinedine Zidane, who, to be fair, has created a few problems for himself with the isolation of Gareth Bale and recent benchings of Toni Kroos. Through much of 2019-20 Madrid seemed to be able to get the results needed to remain at or near the top of the table, but recent performances have revealed a squad with shortcoming in each third of the pitch.

Barcelona, who leapfrogged Madrid into first place with last weekend’s 5-0 drubbing of Eibar, were lucky to have left Naples with a 1-1 Champions League draw on Tuesday. Napoli, quite simply, let them off the hook.

With just a single La Liga defeat since November and the chance to move five points clear of Madrid on Sunday, it’s tempting to look at Barcelona’s campaign to date as a success, albeit an underwhelming one. And that’s exactly what they want everyone to think. But the fact is the performances of Lionel Messi have helped obscure what would otherwise be glaring weaknesses in team, and a January coaching change gave the impression that the club were still committed to playing a high-pressing, possession-oriented brand of football.

The fact is that they haven’t played effectively in this style since the exits of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, and the all-world influence of Messi has only papered over the cracks. Messi, himself, has been unusually outspoken in criticizing club management of late. Still, he has the ability to win El Clasico and La Liga almost single-handedly.

All that said, neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona are good enough to turn a victory on Sunday into a meaningful title charge. The next few months will be less a race of thoroughbreds than a turtle derby.

Over in Italy, what might have been a showdown of the country’s top two sides was complicated last month by Inter Milan’s 2-1 loss to streaking Lazio, who now sit between first-place Juventus and the Nerazzurri. The Serie A schedule has also been affected by the COVID-19 virus, which resulted in the postponements of a handful of matches last weekend — among them Inter-Sampdoria — and the Derby d’Italia (Sunday, 1:45 p.m., DAZN) will be played behind closed doors as a precaution.

This might suit Juventus just fine, what with the growing criticism of manager Mauricio Sarri that only intensified following the Bianconeri’s 1-0 defeat to Lyon in the Champions League. “Sarri-ball,” which stresses uncompromising possession, doesn’t seem to work particularly well with the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, and Sarri is being pressured to favour a more flexible, direct approach that would better suit the Portugal forward. He won’t flinch, even if recent losses at Napoli and Hellas Verona would seem to suggest he should.

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What the Lyon debacle also exposed was a weakness in midfield, as demonstrated by the feeble displays of Miralem Pjanic and Rodrigo Bentancur. Inter boss Antonio Conte will no doubt fancy the match-up in the centre of the park, where he’ll deploy Marcelo Brozovic, Nicolo Barella and one of Matias Vecino and Christian Eriksen. He can also count on in-form striker Romelu Lukaku, although fellow attacker Lautaro Martinez has gone seven matches without a goal.

And that, in a nutshell is Inter’s problem: they can’t produce a complete performance. Several of their players might be doing well enough to deliver a victory, but there’s inevitably one or two making the sort of gaffes that can undo a title challenge.

The Derby d’Italia, like the Clasico, will not secure a championship for the winners. These might be some of the biggest, most successful clubs in Europe, but their shortcomings make these matches nondecisive and the run-ins anything but certain. 

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