MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid will have to stick to its improvised back line when it tries to hold on to its narrow lead in La Liga this weekend.
Madrid visits Osasuna on Saturday with a one-point lead over Atletico Madrid and a two-point advantage over Barcelona.
Depleted of defenders, coach Carlo Ancelotti fielded a back line that played together for the first time on Tuesday and won at Manchester City 3-2 in the first leg of the Champions League playoffs.
Ferland Mendy, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Raúl Asencio and Federico Valverde are expected to start in defense again this weekend.
Ancelotti doesn't have much choice. Injuries have robbed him of central defenders Éder Militão, Antonio Rüdiger and David Alaba and right backs Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez.
But the coach was pleasantly surprised by how well this new back line held up at Man City.
Tchouaméni is a midfielder plugged into the central defense and Valverde is also out of position at right back. Like Tchouaméni, Asencio is a B team player, who turned 22 on Thursday.
“The back four had never played together, not even in training,” Ancelotti said this week.
“They were absolutely fantastic. Tchouaméni has come in for a lot of criticism but he was incredible. Asencio’s maturity continues to surprise people and Valverde and Mendy were fantastic. We’ve been able to bring something really positive out of an emergency situation.”
Ancelotti said the whole team has put in the extra effort to help defensively and keep the squad well balanced.
“I always says that defending is about the attitude of the whole team," Ancelotti said. "We defended well as a unit (against City). The team delivered a well-rehearsed defensive display.”
The injuries have prevented Ancelotti from rotating the squad and resting players ahead of the decisive Champions League second leg at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium next week.
“We need Rüdiger and Alaba for the return leg and I think they’ll be available,” Ancelotti said.
In La Liga, Madrid is coming off a 1-1 draw at home against Atletico. Barcelona took advantage of that result to close the gap on the Madrid rivals.
The Catalan club, unbeaten this year with nine wins and two draws, will host sixth-placed Rayo Vallecano on Monday.
Atletico handed Barcelona its last loss in December, and will host mid-table Celta Vigo on Saturday. Diego Simeone's team has only one defeat — 1-0 at Leganes inJanuary — in its last 22 games across all tournaments.
Elsewhere, fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao visits Espanyol, and fifth-placed Villarreal hosts Valencia. Sevilla is at last-placed Valladolid and Real Betis hosts Real Sociedad.
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Manchester City's Erling Haaland, right, battles for the ball with Real Madrid's Federico Valverde and Real Madrid's Dani Ceballos during the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Real Madrid's Raul Asencio gestures during the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Real Madrid's head coach Carlo Ancelotti grimaces before the start of the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.
Removed from office last April, Yoon faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.
Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court.
The Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February. Experts say the court likely will sentence him to life in prison. South Korea hasn't executed anyone since 1997.
Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday's hearing. He has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”
Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.
On the night of Yoon's martial law declaration, thousands of people rushed to the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation in dramatic scenes. Enough lawmakers, including even those in Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.
Observers described Yoon’s action as political suicide. Parliament impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.
It was a spectacular downfall for Yoon, a former star prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.
Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon's impeachment bid, became president by winning a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho’s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.
Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.
Yoon’s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country’s political divide. In January last year, he became the country’s first sitting president to be detained.
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside of Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
FILE - Then South Korea's ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool, File)
