Madrid, Dec 12 (AFP) Real Madrid can round off the mostsuccessful year in the club's already glorious history byclaiming a fifth trophy in 2017 at the Club World Cup in AbuDhabi this week.
They won La Liga, the Champions League, UEFA and SpanishSuper Cup in a thrilling fashion after hitting top form in afour-month spell between April and August, but since then theEuropean champions have faded, understandably fatigued by aheavy schedule.
Madrid trail Barca by eight points at the top of La Ligaand finished second to Tottenham Hotspur in their ChampionsLeague group, which proved costly as they were paired withfree-spending Paris Saint-Germain in a blockbuster last 16 tieon Monday.
However, traces of the Madrid that swept aside the likesof Bayern Munich, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Manchester Unitedand Barcelona in the spring and summer were back as Real hitfive past Sevilla before half-time in a 5-0 rout on Saturday.
Until then Madrid had lacked the same killer instinct aslast season with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema scoring acombined total of just six times in La Liga, while Gareth Balehas made just one brief appearance as a substitute sinceSeptember.
"We are improving in every sense," said Zidane afterthrashing Sevilla. "If you play well, you will create morechances. We created plenty of chances."Ronaldo scored twice at the weekend to celebrate pickingup his fifth Ballon d'Or in style and his return to form istimely, as Madrid face Barcelona in their final game of theyear on December 23 once their work in the Middle East thisweek is done.
"It is a reward just to be here," said Madrid captainSergio Ramos. "We have the opportunity to defend our title.
"We are preparing with plenty of desire and excitement.
After a great game against Sevilla we are very motivated andour confidence is very high." - Tactical switch - ===================Real's return to form coincided with a change of tacticsfrom Zidane as the pace of Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez onthe wings produced an instant impact.
However, if the Spanish duo are to keep their places thenthe French coach has to bench two of his preferred midfielddiamond of Casemiro, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Isco.
After missing out at the weekend, Casemiro and Isco areexpected to feature on Wednesday when Real take on local sideAl Jazira, who have already dealt with Oceania's Auckland Cityand Asian champions Urawa Red Diamonds to reach the last four.
"We don't just play as Jazira now, we play for the UAE,"Al Jazira coach Ali Mabkhout told FIFA.com.
"We know Real Madrid are one of the best teams in theworld and this is incentive for all the players."Yet, after the scare of falling behind to Kashima Antlersin last year's final before a Ronaldo hat-trick won thecompetition in extra-time, Zidane warned against complacencyand thinking ahead to a potential final with Brazilian giantsGremio on Saturday.
The newly crowned South American champions take onMexican side Pachuca in the other semi-final on Friday.
"Everyone thinks the game on Wednesday will be easy, butit won't," added Zidane.
"We need to think about Wednesday and doing things rightto try and win this trophy once again." AFP KHSKHS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.