Real Madrid face Deportivo Alavés on Tuesday after a punishing month that has left them without a win in April and staring at the thin edge of their title hopes. The Spanish champions were knocked out by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals, then lost 2-1 to Mallorca and drew 1-1 with Girona in La Liga.
That run has left Madrid nine points behind league leaders Barcelona with seven gameweeks still to play, and Álvaro Arbeloa’s blunt assessment was that they still have “seven games to win.” It is a simple equation, but one with almost no margin left in it.
The backdrop makes the size of the task clear. Madrid’s domestic season has been defined by poor league results after European matches, and after Barcelona slipped up with defeat to Girona in February, Madrid responded with back-to-back defeats to Osasuna and Getafe while focused on a Champions play-off against Benfica. Last month brought a 3-2 win in the Madrid derby, but it did not change the broader shape of the campaign.
Alavés arrive with a very different kind of urgency. They were 17th in La Liga, fighting to avoid relegation, but they were also unbeaten in their last four outings and had scored ten goals in that span. Quique Sánchez Flores had taken over as the club’s new head coach, and his side had shown enough attacking form to make them awkward opponents at exactly the wrong moment for Madrid.
That is the tension hanging over this meeting: one side trying to salvage a season that was being described as on the brink of ending without major honors, the other trying to stay afloat. Barring a collapse from Barcelona, Madrid looked set to finish the campaign empty-handed, and every missed chance in the league only tightened the grip on that outcome.
Madrid do not need a reminder of what is at stake. They need results, and they need them immediately. Against Alavés, anything less than that keeps the pressure on, and leaves the title race looking like a race they have already nearly run out of track to win.
