Pepe will see dream fulfilled: to play at Calderón on Tuesday

Pepe suffered a lot on February 7. That afternoon he was able to see, from the plasma television in his house, the painful and embarrassing 4-0 league defeat at the Calderón.

The painful rib injury that he had sustained three weeks earlier against the same opponents (in the return leg of the last 16 of the Copa) forced him to watch that humiliating defeat from outside.

But Pepe suffered it as if he had been on the pitch. He was among those who took the lead in front of the group in the improvised crisis meeting that took place at Valdebebas 48 hours later: “We are Madrid and this cannot happen to us again. We have to take pride for our fans.” Those messages were heard clear in the dressing room, the dressing room that sees Pepe as one of its undisputed leaders.

Fate was about to come into play once again for the imposing Portuguese centre-back. In the move that culminated with Luis Suárez’s goal at the Camp Nou, Pepe forced himself to try to prevent the Uruguayan’s shot and he sustained a problem in his right thigh, which prevented him from playing for Portugal against Serbia. Since then he has worked in the mornings and the afternoons with one objective: to arrive in top condition for the Champions League derby at the Calderón. The work has lead to a reward. He will be given minutes against Eibar on Saturday and will start against Diego Simeone’s side next week. Bad news for Fernando Torres, Antoine Griezmann and company. Pepe has returned.

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