Rulli stops Real Madrid

• Albiol On the action with Vinicius: "If I had hit him, I'd make him bleed for sure"

• Direct Narration and Statistics

A great Gero Rulli stopped a Real Madrid team that also lacked a bit of luck to break the series of draws -five already- that they have accumulated in their last visits to the Estadio de la Cerámica.

After a first half in which Villarreal was superior to a gray version of the leader, the reaction of

's team after the break came close to giving them victory.

The Argentine goalkeeper prevented it with up to four saving interventions and the crossbar, denying

glory in discount (0-0).

Ancelotti must have thought that if there was a place where he could give

another chance, it was the Estadio de la Cerámica.

After all, it was where the Welshman made his debut with Real Madrid, also scoring his first goal dressed in white, although he has done that for a long time.

The Italian coach decided that he would be the one to play the long-awaited

, placing him as a reference upstairs, where he was missing for many minutes.

The first news of his presence came after half an hour, when he decided to go back a few meters to get rid of the shadow of the central defenders and shoot from the edge without finding a goal.

However, it was Bale who had the best and only chance in the first half of a very flat Real Madrid in attack beyond the unsuccessful attempts of

, well tied down by

.

sent long for the Welshman's run, who was met with a providential hand from

after bringing the ball down with a delicious troll.

Danjuma stick

It was one of the few that the white team generated, who had enough to endure the attacks of a Villarreal that, at times, came to lock up their rival in the area.

The one who suffered the most was

, unable to stop

.

was chosen to act up front in

's absence and his was the best chance for the Castellón team, in a double shot that between Alaba and the post aborted.

It was not the only novelty for

in the eleven, where

appeared to act as second point and

for the injured

.

The midfielder was the protagonist of one of the controversial actions of the duel, after receiving Asensio's studs on the ankle in an action that the referee settled with a yellow card.

The VAR abstained, as it had done in a Vinicius fall against

inside the area.

Real Madrid was a very different team after the break, when they accumulated reasons to have taken the victory.

Villarreal lost the midfield and the Whites took advantage of it to go on the offensive with an overwhelming quarter of an hour in which Rulli had to multiply.

After just deflecting a couple of Bale's shots, the first of which ended up off the crossbar, he also saved a one-on-one with Vinicius, enabled by Valverde after an error by Parejo when the ball came out.

Already in the addition, the crossbar sided with the yellows again, spitting out Jovic's Vaseline.

's subsequent shot from under the sticks

when the Whites were almost on the verge of victory.

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