Santander vs Real Madrid preview - Marcelo expects Madrid riposte

Posted Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by PA

Real Madrid defender Marcelo admits his side can ill afford to drop points like they did against Levante at the weekend if they are to end Barcelona's reign as Primera Division champions.

After claiming big wins in their opening two fixtures, Madrid were brought crashing back to earth on Sunday when they were beaten 1-0 at Levante - a side they defeated 8-0 in the Copa del Rey last season.

That loss left Jose Mourinho's men three points behind joint leaders Valencia and Real Betis heading into Wednesday's trip to Racing Santander, and one point behind three-time defending champions Barca.

Madrid finished four points behind Barca last season after failing to win at the likes of Deportivo La Coruna, Osasuna, Almeria and Levante - two of which clubs were relegated - and Marcelo knows they need to do better in those sorts of games.

"Against these types of teams, like Levante, and at grounds like these we slip up too much," said the Brazil international.

"The worst thing is that these points are those which at the end of the season make the difference."

"To lose games like the Levante one hurts a lot, because those are the ones we should be winning, although as we saw, anything can happen."

Madrid looked in control against Levante before they lost midfielder Sami Khedira to a red card just before half-time, the German international being shown a second yellow card for shoving over an opponent during a multi-player fracas.

Marcelo said in AS: "The sending-off was key, but we need to learn from what happened. We have to know how to always win with 10 players because I'm sure that in other games we are going to finish with a man less."

Now Madrid will be looking to get back on track against Santander, with Marcelo adding: "There's a lot of the season ahead of us and we need to analyse what we did badly and then think of the next game. We didn't beat Levante and it's very important to win in Santander."

Racing have had a disappointing start to the campaign with just one point picked up from their opening three games.

On Sunday the Cantabrian side were thumped 4-0 at Atletico Madrid, the second time Racing have shipped four goals this season having gone down 4-3 at Valencia on the opening day.

The fixture list has not been the kindest to Racing so far, and it does not get any easier with the visit of Madrid.

Looking ahead to that match, Racing coach Hector Cuper admits it will not be easy but is not ruling out an upset.

"To beat them it's not enough to play like a good team, you need to play like a great team," he said.

"It's always possible to get the three points, because in life there are very few impossible things."