•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Madrid. Sevilla will seek to maintain its excellent record against Real Madrid when it travels to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, while Atletico Madrid will be looking to find some consistency when it visits Zaragoza in the Spanish league over the weekend.

Fourth-place Sevilla has fallen 18 points off league leader Barcelona after looking like a title contender early in the season.

However, the Andalusians have won seven of their last 11 games against Madrid. The most recent match was in the league in October, when Madrid lost 2-1 at the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium, its first defeat of the season.

Last season’s 4-3 victory for Sevilla at the Bernabeu accelerated the departure of Madrid coach Bernd Schuster.

“We’ve seen some of their games when they haven’t played that well but they have won,” Sevilla’s Renato said. “The key is to take our chances because they don’t let you off the hook; they have one or two chances and they score. We have to attack and hurt them.”

Madrid is on a six-game winning run in the league during which it has scored 22 goals and conceded four, leaving it on 59 points, two behind Barcelona. That streak has seen Madrid play mainly against mediocre opposition, and during that time Manuel Pellegrini’s men also stumbled to a 1-0 loss at Lyon in the Champions League.

With Madrid’s Spanish players making up much of the national team, they will be in high spirits following Wednesday’s 2-0 win against France in a World Cup warm-up in Paris. Madrid defender Sergio Ramos scored Spain’s second goal.

Sevilla has been in erratic form since Christmas. Despite reaching the final of the Copa del Rey, it has been vulnerable in the league, looking jaded from its Champions League commitments in a goalless draw with Athletic Bilbao recently.

The form of fellow Copa del Rey finalist Atletico Madrid has been even more mystifying. Quique Sanchez Flores’s side has crashed to defeats to Malaga and Almeria, yet victory against Barcelona and last weekend’s 4-1 rout of Valencia suggested the corner might have been turned.

“The team is good. We’re playing well, we’re organized and the good results give you confidence to go out and play better,” defender Tomas Ujfalusi said.

That seems to be the case when Atletico’s first-choice strikers, Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan, are playing. Forlan has 12 league goals and Aguero nine and the team looks a different prospect when both are available, as they are expected to be against Zaragoza.

Atletico is 11th in the standings on 30 points. Zaragoza, 17th on 24 points, is looking for an upset at its Romareda stadium on Sunday.

Zaragoza has only recently climbed out of the relegation zone although after last weekend’s impressive 2-0 win at Getafe, coach Jose Aurelio Gay is optimistic, describing it as a “fantastic game.”

“There’s a lot of time to go and I hope we keep improving,” he said.

Leader Barcelona visits 13th-place Almeria on Saturday seeking to build on home wins against Racing Santander and Malaga, following its only league loss of the season so far, to Atletico.


Associated Press