Zenit visit of Real Madrid

The backdrop of Zenit Saint Petersburg - Real Madrid match at Santiago Bernabéu will certainly have a unique feel to it given both clubs fates in European competition are sealed. With Real Madrid heading to the next stage of the Champions League and Zenit Saint Petersburg falling out to the UEFA Cup, the suspense of the match is eliminated and I’m not expecting the most intense of situations.

However that doesn’t the match won’t be of interest as for loyal supporters of los Blancos all attention will be paid to Juande Ramos who must be the luckiest man in the world to find himself in-charge of the biggest club in the world after doing such a foul job at Tottenham. His shambolic treatment of players, training regimes and dietary approach might not have made itself into the blogging world but within player and coaching ranks, it will live in infamy as one of the worst coaching situations in anyones memory and the best thing that can be said is thankfully he is out of London before Tottenham were in the Championship. Presumably he has learned from his errors or Real Madrid will sink to the lower depths of La Liga table and need to be bailed out just as Tottenham has.

Those warm and fuzzy comments aside, Real Madrid’s spot in the Champions League is assured and presumably Ramos is looking ahead to the El Clásico against Barcelona this weekend. His is dealing with a large grouping of injuries including the loss of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Mahamadou Diarra for the year as well Gabriel Heinze, Pepe, Rubén de la Red, Wesley Sneijder and Miguel Torres unavailable for the match.

On the opposite side of the pitch, loyal Zenit supporters can look forward to the return of Dick Advocaat to Petrovsky next year although for many members of the club, this could be their final match before hitting the transfer market. Of special note this will be Vladislav Radimov’s final match. The thirty-three year-old Russian international will conclude his career and enter the front office as team director.

I will report on the match as it concludes.