Postgame Q&A: Real Madrid vs. Granada

Hello fellow Madridistas! First things first: on behalf of the Madridismo team, all our best wishes to you for this new year. May it keep you and your loved ones healthy and happy, and may it bring us many trophies! For this first Q&A of 2012, Apakshit and I discussed last night's Liga match in which Real Madrid faced Granada. Tanuj also joined us for the second half of the Q&A. And you'll get to hear Javi's voice a little in the beginning as well. As usual, our experts had to agree to disagree a little, especially on Callejón's performance and who to name man of the match. After we discussed yesterday's game at length, we also went into preview mode about next Tuesday's Copa del Rey game where Real Madrid will travel to Málaga. Here is the list of topics that we dealt with:

• General feeling about the game
• Cristiano's performance and attitude [I credited Carito -@RMadridGirl- with a tweet that actually came from Anita -@Anita_O. Sorry about that gals!]
• A few surprises in the lineup
• Is Özil back?
• The combination Higuaín + Benzema
• Xabi Alonso's performance
• Khedira's performance
• Our defense and who's "to blame" on Mikel Rico's goal
• Albiol benched, Arbeloa not called: why and how Lass and Varane performed
• The subs: Callejón late for the sub (!), Özil/Kaká, Higuaín/Altintop (???!!!)
• Callejón's performance
• Benzema's injury: what happened? Will he play on Tuesday?
• Man of the match
• What kind of match to expect on Tuesday's Copa del Rey match?
• As far as the first leg vs. Málaga is concerned, would you say Mourinho made the right subs or that he started with the wrong XI? [A question inspired by Bas' tweet! -@footballstrat]
• Which lineup to expect?

We hope you'll enjoy this first Q&A of the year. And hopefully on Wednesday we'll be back with a joyful Q&A as well, and the perspective of 2 Clásicos coming soon! You can find the podcast in mp3 format and also on iTunes or our Youtube channel, whatever suits you best! ¡Hala Madrid!