Real Madrid target second trophy of the season, a silver lining for disappointed fans

Castilla are dreaming again after too long in the shadows. The forced arrival in January of Julián López de Lerma Barahona, brought in to replace the “promoted” Arbeloa, has ended up being a resounding success. After an uncertain start, the Extremaduran coach has managed to put together a team that excites, thanks to its tremendous competitive spirit, built on strengthening the huge amount of talent already there and the quality arriving from the Juvenil side that has just conquered Europe in style in Lausanne.

The solid win in Talavera last Saturday strengthened Real Madrid’s reserve team’s place in the playoff zone, something that has cruelly eluded Castilla in recent years, with the exception of that game against Eldense on June 25, 2023, when the Whites were on the verge of promotion to the Second Division before a childish error by Aranda ruined all the dreams of the Valdebebas youngsters.

But everything has changed. Over the past two months, López de Lerma has managed to forge a balanced team, solid at the back and devastating in attack. In fact, the four remaining games in their group as they try to seal the dream of reaching the playoffs will be against theoretically manageable opponents, all of them placed in the lower half of the table.

Unionistas de Salamanca, always a combative and difficult rival, visit the Di Stéfano on Saturday. A week later comes a trip to the coach’s home region to face Cacereño, before Arenas visit Valdebebas in the penultimate round. The finale will be at Deportivo Guadalajara’s Pedro Escartín, where the home side could be fighting desperately to stay up.

Castilla’s momentum is rising and, after the sad role played by the first team this season, only the academy has brought smiles back to the Bernabéu faithful. In addition to winning the Youth League, Castilla will face Dinamo Zagreb tomorrow in Woking, England, in the semifinals of the reserve-team Champions League at The Laithwaite Community Stadium, which can be seen on RMTV. If they win, the reserve side would be just 90 minutes away from a second European title of the season.

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