- Controversy: Areola's sleeves cut in the face of Sergio Ramos
- Opinion: Zidane repeats the script of her League
- Narration: So we live the game
- LaLiga: This is the classification
In four days, Real Madrid had to move from the European pomp of the Bernabéu and the pedigree of the PSG to an iron mine called Mendizorroza in which any mission requires a pick, shovel and work overalls. The challenge was solved by the Zidane team without brightness but effectively, extracting the maximum performance to its reduced offensive production to add the three points in one of the most complicated fields of the League, statistics in hand. [Narration and statistics: 1-2]
The role of Sergio Ramos , hero and white villain in just 12 minutes, inevitably fell, which went from his goal to the penalty he committed on Joselu , a passport that Alavés used to momentarily tie the duel. Carvajal was the one who placed the final touch to a meeting that Madrid will only remember the three points, because nothing else deserves more space in his memory.
There were in the eleven holder of Real Madrid eight players who played the Lisbon final five seasons ago. Next to them was Isco , first substitute that day, and two novels, Militao and Areola , which Zidane decided to reward this Saturday at Mendizorroza to the detriment of Courtois . It was an alignment of 29 years on average, while on the bench awaited all the lads. Apart from the French goalkeeper, none of Zidane's substitutes were over 24 years old.
It was the old Madrid who went out to Mendizorroza to avenge the affront of last year, in turn the Madrid of opportunities, because Hazard's absence due to injury allowed the cohabitation of Isco and Bale , two stars of yesterday needed to light up tomorrow . The Malaga had a presence and game between the lines, no matter how close to his best version. The Welshman, on the other hand, was again taciturn, anchored to the right wing as if the rest of the field did not exist, accepting inconsequence as a way of seeing time pass.
Rocky and backlash
It is true that the approach of the party was not exactly ideal for its characteristics. Asier Garitano's teams do not cheat, they are rocky structures in defense and dynamic against kickback. This Alavés is not opposed to the opponent who drives the ball, provided he does so far from his goal. And to that Madrid was dedicated throughout the first half, to chain an infinite succession of passes that did not end anywhere. Only Casemiro , in a distant shot, put Pacheco in real trouble before the break.
The good news for Madrid was that Alavés did not test Areola either. He barely tried on a handful of occasions, especially with balls at the back of a Marcelo who seemed to be allergic to the grass in the midfield in which he defended the white team. Thus he managed, for example, to reach Aleix Vidal to the Areola area at seven minutes. He raised his hand and asked for a penalty, but the referee showed him yellow by simulation. Surely it was neither one thing nor the other.
The case is that the meeting was pestoso and lacking grace until Sergio Ramos scored the first goal seven minutes after starting the second half. It was an imperial header of the captain, taking advantage of a lateral lack of exquisite execution by Kroos , who pretended to clean his boot just in front of the stands where Madrid fans were displaced to Vitoria.
Madrid had done the most difficult, but stayed there. In the following minutes, he allowed the Alavés to react and get on his beards, thanks in part to Burke's entrance, which brought him a lot of dynamism and albiazul verticality. What was going to punish Madrid, however, was going to be a penalty from its captain. Ramos, a hero 10 minutes earlier, released Joselu's arm when he had no need to do so and allowed Lucas Pérez to draw from eleven meters.
To culminate the only 20 minutes of passion the game had, Madrid scored what would be the last goal of the duel, the one that gave it the victory. Modric focused from the right, Isco nodded, Pacheco stopped her with his body as he could but could not prevent Carvajal from pushing the ball towards the bottom of his goal.
Since then, minute 70, until the end, the initiative went to Alavés, which signed an impotence exercise. Only in a succession of corners in the final minutes he thought he was able to achieve the draw. The closest one was Manu García , but what was a goal last year was an Areola stop.
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