Real Madrid vs. Sevilla preview 🍿 Who will Jose Mourinho start in Vini Jr.’s absence? | ESPN FC
Real Madrid vs Sevilla preview plus Mourinho's Roma and Tebas-Real Madrid row
The show previews Real Madrid vs Sevilla, discusses Mourinho's situation at Roma, and covers Javier Tebas's Nazi-comparison row with Real Madrid. It concludes that Mourinho may stay a while, Tebas is unlikely to be removed, and Real Madrid's appeal over Vinicius Jr.'s four-game ban has been rejected.
- Real Madrid's last two wins were not convincing — They won both games after the international break but did not look convincing.
- Mourinho's partnership with Roma could continue for a while — He has had similar spells at Roma: the team may not play well in the league or Europe but still advances and wins trophies, and the fans and ownership back him; much depends on his relationship with the owner and whether European results fall away.
- Tebas showed poor judgment by using a Nazi comparison against Real Madrid — Even if he wanted to criticize Real Madrid and Real Madrid TV's pressure tactics over officiating, comparing them to Goebbels or Nazi methods is wrong unless you have very good reason and are willing to go all the way; he could have made the point differently.
- Tebas will not be removed, at most censured — The CSD may look into it, but he does not think it can dismiss Tebas; Tebas is La Liga president and Spanish FA vice president, and the La Liga job is elected, which he won in a landslide with almost every first- and second-division club backing him; if they only censure him or ask for clarification/apology, he stays.
- This will only increase tension between La Liga and Real Madrid — Tebas and the league's biggest club are already at loggerheads, and any censure or investigation will ramp up the pressure and enmity.
The ESPN FC crew discuss Real Madrid’s season thus far and preview their LALIGA matchup with Sevilla on Sunday. ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN ESPNFC
Transcript
Real Madrid will be welcoming to the Bernabo the team that are four points behind them in the table as you look at how things are going for both sides this season. As for Real Madrid, they've won their last two games back from the international break, but it's not been so convincing. We're going to welcome in Gabrielle Marotti now to talk more about Real Madrid. Don Hutcherson still with us. Gab, you followed Mourinho for a long time. How long do you think this is going to continue to work Mourinho and Real Madrid as a partnership this time around? >> I mean, look, uh, we we've been here uh in in similar situations. I'm thinking back to to when he was at Roma where he was in the situation where, um, the team weren't necessarily playing well in La Liga. They weren't playing particularly well in Europe, but they were advancing and would end up winning. Uh they won the conference league one year, of course reaches to the uh uh Europa League final. Uh the following year um a lot of the fans were with him because he was able to galvanize them and the club ownership loved having a full stadium. So I think a lot of this is going to depend on his relationship with with Florentino obviously um but also at what point does this start re do the results not come in Europe? um they haven't had performances, if you will, in the Champions League against Inter Roma. But guess what? Uh they had two incredible comeback wins. So um I I think this is could go on this could actually go on a while, frankly. >> Now obviously that's the drama on the field with Jose Mourinho. However, for Real Madrid and Javier Tebas, there seems to be more drama off the field once again. Gab, what's going on? Yeah. So, um, Javier Tebas, who, you know, kind of never waste an opportunity to troll a little bit and and weigh in, he was, uh, reacting to, uh, an an article that appeared in an online publication, El Debate, which, you know, kind of took a very pro- Real Madrid, um, look at at some of the officiating, some of the same themes that we've had from, uh, from Real Madrid TV. Um, basically questioning the officiating in La Liga and whatnot. also questioning um the Negra case and um you know why uh the Spanish FA hadn't looked into it and the reason is of course um that uh they couldn't inquire because um it was beyond the statute of limitations uh although the UEFA inquiry is still ongoing as is uh the one the the the criminal or or the civil inquiry in the Spanish courts. Um but anyway, he reacted to this by saying, "Oh, you know, this is kind of an example of the tactics that we see uh from Real Madrid and from Real Madrid TV and some commentators out there. Uh tactics that are reminiscent of of Ysef Gobles. Uh for those who don't know, Yseph Gobles was the propagandist uh for uh for Hitler and for the German government. um you know during the during the Nazi era, Debbas did go out of his way to say, of course, I'm not saying Real Madrid's methods are, you know, like those of Nazis or the Real Madrid fans. Um but basic rule number one, it's really never a good idea to compare somebody uh to uh to the Nazis or Nazi methods unless you're really willing to go all the way and they give you very good reason. Uh, Real Madrid fired back, asked for his resignation. Um, and you know, we've been here before. We know there's they're at loggerheads. You do wonder though about Tabus' judgment. You could have made the same point um in many different ways without bringing up Ysef Gobles. >> Yes. So, to that point, Gab, will we expect to see any type of punishment? >> I mean, Davus isn't going to punish himself, right? There's there's a there's an early report uh a which is the uh national news agency in Spain reporting that um essentially uh the acronym is CSD is it's sort of the um and sort of a cross between the the Spanish Olympic Committee and the Spanish Ministry for Sport. They're evaluating whether they should open an investigation in this if they could somehow censure uh Tabas. I don't think they have the power to uh uh to dismiss him. Of course, he's the head of the league. is also the vice president of the Spanish FA. Um, as far as being head of La Liga, that is an elected position and he won that in a landslide. I think he got every single vote from the first and second division clubs. Bar one, no prizes for guessing who did not vote for him. Uh, Spanish FA may be a different matter. Um, but but it's a it's a thorny question. Um, and you know, if they just sort of censure him uh and ask him for a clarification, apology, you know, Tebas is gonna stay is going to stay exactly where he is. All this is just it just ramps up the pressure I think even further in La Liga and the Emity between the guy who runs the league and um the league's biggest club. >> Yeah, no doubt. And as for Real Madrid, their appeal for Vinnie Junior's four-game ban has been rejected against Sevilla and the next three including Eláico. All of these games this weekend available as always on the ESPN app. Real Madrid against Sevilla is also available on ABC. Hey, hey, hey.