What’s that? Another friendly? Yep. Real Madrid host Fiorentina in the Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu 2017 (The Bernabéu Trophy). Here’s what this match is all about.
El Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu is a trophy Madrid give out every season as an award for a pre-season friendly, in honor of Madrid’s legendary ex-President, Santiago Bernabéu.
It used to be played between four teams, but is now only played between two. In 2014, it was cancelled altogether because of a scheduling conflict with the European Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. Florentino Perez must have worked something out, and feels confident in hosting this year, despite still playing in both of those competitions.
Real Madrid has (obviously) won the trophy more than any other club, a total of 26 times, according to As. Bayern Munich comes in second, having won the trophy three times.
Will Madrid take this game seriously at all? Depends what you mean.
Zinedine Zidane showed last season that he could make wholesale rotations and play a batch of young squad players in the middle of a La Liga title hunt and still take matches seriously. So, yes, Madrid could take this match seriously. But that doesn’t mean that Zidane is going to risk any of his major squad players. I expect a squad composed almost entirely of young squad players.
There are players like Marcos Llorente, Dani Ceballos, newly promoted Achraf Hakimi, and Theo Hernandez who are all begging for minutes. This match would give Zidane another chance to see them do their thing, and determine how he wants to use them going forward. It could give Llorente one last chance to prove he shouldn’t be loaned out, as seems likely to happen.
The one exception to Zidane’s youth-forward policy may be the inclusion of Cristiano Ronaldo in the lineup. Ronaldo has been forced to the sideline after his sending off in the Spanish Supercopa final first leg. But, because those rules don’t apply to a friendly, Ronaldo is expected to play the entire match to keep him match fit.
As for Fiorentina, they’re not in a great spot right now. They were dominated by Inter in their season opener. And the folks over at the SB Nation Fiorentina blog Viola Nation seem pretty down on their chances to get the better of Madrid, if their interview with Managing Madrid is anything to go by:
"I can’t see a way that this patchwork defense can slow down a nuclear attack, so I see an easy path to 4 goals for [Real Madrid], minimum."
One interesting wrinkle about Fiorentina: Diego Simeone’s son was just signed as a striker for them this season. Maybe the elder Simeone will head down to the other side of Madrid for a while to check out his progeny at work.
Prediction: Real Madrid 5-2 Fiorentina.
Next: A complete update on the Kylian Mbappé saga