Sports
Pressure on Madrid’s Perez, Benitez after Clasico tout
Madris: FC Barcelona’s crushing 4-0 win in a Clasico football match over arch rivals Real Madrid here in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium has sent shockwaves through the Spanish press, which reflected both the champions’ brilliance and the home team’s deep problems.
The 4-0 scoreline, which came thanks to two goals from Luis Suarez, plus goals from Neymar and Andres Iniesta on Saturday, hardly reflected Barcelona’s display in which they totally dominated from start to finish, reports Xinhua.
That allowed the pro-Barcelona dailies Diario Sport and El Mundo Deportivo to celebrate their side. Diario wrote “Barcelona destroy Real Madrid”, while El Mundo Deportivo said the game was “A Symphony from Barcelona and a chorus of boos for Real Madrid.”
The Real Madrid papers focused on the damage the result had done to the club president, Florentino Perez: “A hammering for Florentino,” headlined AS, whose editor Alfredo Relano highlighted “the Bernabeu turns against the Directors’ box.”
“The fans know that you can fool a lot of people a lot of the time and some people all of the time, but you can’t fool everyone all of the time,” wrote Relano, whose paper also focuses on the problems faced by coach Rafael Benitez with a project “which was born dead”.
Daily Marca highlighted the calls for Perez to resign, saying: “The Bernabeu wants heads to roll”, and even ran a poll asking its online readers “Who is to blame?”
While Perez is under clear pressure, the paper has declared “Benitez has been sentenced”. The coach who was only appointed in June is on borrowed tim, it added.
“All that needs to be done is for the date to be named, but the decision has already been taken,” said the paper.
It raised another question: “If Florentino Perez decided to sack the popular Carlo Ancelotti and then offer the job as Real Madrid coach to Benitez, shouldn’t he carry the blame?”
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.