After winning a remarkable 22-matches in a row, Real Madrid have now lost their last two, but manager Carlo Ancelotti insists there is no need to panic.
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During their winning run, Madrid surged to the top of the Spanish Liga table, qualified from their UEFA Champions League group, and won the Club World Cup in Morocco.
However, given how tight the top of the standings are in Spain, Madrid’s 2-1 reverse to Valencia cut their lead down to one point, while the 2-0 defeat to city rivals Atletico in the Copa del Rey last-16 stage leaves Ancelotti’s men on the verge of an early exit.
Real Madrid, who also lost 4-2 to AC Milan in a glamour friendly in Dubai last month, have the chance to get back to winning ways on Saturday when they host Espnayol at the Santiago Bernabeu.
And coach Ancelotti is confident the reigning Champions League holders will return to winning ways.
“Criticism is normal because we won 22 games and now it is normal to seek explanations,” the 55-year-old Italian said.
“But I do not see a serious problem and I am not worried, because I know the team well and I know the commitment they have.
“After the (winning) streak and the holidays, we have not been in a good mental conditions, but physically we are in excellent shape.
“The group is now eager to recover. After the holidays we have dropped but we are keen to win again.”
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The team
Videographer: Jear Velasquez
Photography: Romeo Perez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Models: Meti and Clinton at MMG
Video assistant: Zanong Maget
Social media: Fatima Al Mahmoud
