Eduardo Camavinga tried the Champions League qualifiers last year as an agitator of desperate situations, and has grown to be able to act against Liverpool as a placater of other people’s despair. As Fede Valverde was, he has become a kind of essential wild card for Carlo Ancelotti. He wants him on the field even though he’s out of position, even though his performance is flawed at times, and even dangerous. For the Italian, everything he does well erases the shocks, the verse disorders out of position, like when he has placed him on the left side. For example on Saturday against Espanyol, when they beat him back and it was 0-1. “The fact that he plays so well makes mistakes forgotten,” said the coach the day before.
He has started 15 of the last 16 games, sometimes in defense, sometimes as a center, sometimes for a while in each task. He always very close to the essential core. “He’s having a very good time, and he’s taking advantage of it,” praised the Italian.
Ancelotti has found in the French the bellows that Valverde used to be. A power unit that has surpassed even his compatriot Aurélien Tchouameni in the order of play, who arrived in the summer for 80 million euros and immediately found that it seemed that, without opposition, he had inherited the position of the émigré Casemiro.
But against Liverpool Tchouameni saw from the bench how Camavinga officiated as a pivot. The same as in the recent Cup classic. In the eyes of Ancelotti, he has already overcome the tactical difficulties that the position posed for him. He also has the impulsiveness that led him to chain yellow cards in several first halfs under control. Tchouameni has found competition that he did not suspect in a young man who against Liverpool began to be fundamental in the escape plan devised by Madrid to avoid the predictable initial squeeze from Klopp’s team.
The Frenchman floated between Kroos and Modric in a choreography with the appearance of improvisation that in a way recorded the dance of the mythical midfield of the Croatian team, where Kovacic and Brozovic accompany the Real Madrid player linking 10 distraction and control maneuvers. Camavinga always found a small clearing in the center of the Liverpool forest, or cleared it so that Modric would appear behind it.
Without the ball, he has calibrated his intuition for the robbery without incurring the foul. I also smell to transform recovery into instant danger. Several of his slashes in the central area, which he diligently swept away, were in the area in two blinks. He has given the pass from oriented control that works as a dribble to the directed steal that surpasses rivals.
The Frenchman vibrated accompanied as never before by the group. In the first half hour, when it seemed that Madrid was the one who needed to come back, attack by attack, shot by shot, the second most dangerous shot was from Camavinga. to the stringer
Vinicius was only closer to the goal when he finished off a header from Rüdiger just a few feet from Alisson. The goalkeeper raised his right arm driven by something like lighting and threw the ball out.
But the movement that ends up jumping Liverpool’s bolt begins again in Camavinga, who filters a tense pass through the center to Benzema, who had previously explained the secret to him. “As the center backs are more open, there is always an opportunity in the center,” he said. Van Dijk steals it at the control, but Vinicius does not forgive even the leftovers. He lunges for the ball, and from the ground he leaves it for Benzema to push and score. What followed set off another alarm with the Camp Nou classic four days away. He broke into a run to celebrate, and after a couple of steps he had to stop, limping on his right foot. “A strong blow to the tibia,” he explained. “Sunday I’m sure.”
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