AMD called the weapons of mass destruction they never found in Iraq. Madrid, on the other hand, have discovered it unexpectedly without having to look in the new hypogeum of the Bernabéu. With an AMD you can be calm even if you lose units, and that is what has happened to Madrid, massacred by adversity, in the form of injuries, since the beginning of the season. If Alaba's is important, as his frightened face showed after dancing on one of his kneecaps, Madrid, now without Militao, face a dilemma: sign or not sign in the winter transfer window. As he thinks about it, he pushes the button on an AMD that is also an ACM to lie down, because Bellingham doesn't just kill, he also builds. The Englishman displays a mobility and punch that exhaust comparisons, and he also gets angry. We're going to need more perspective to be able to appreciate this footballer who looks like many and doesn't look like anyone else.

The Englishman took Villarreal to the canvas for the first time with an action that characterizes him. He went to space where he knows that those who think like him, the privileged, will find him. Modric did it with a gesture of his foot that was like putting on a teaspoon of caviar. The Croatian was back in line up alongside Kroos, although the arrangement with four midfielders allows Modric to play closer to the box, which is where his wisdom and technique is most threatening, and not just because of the last goal. Bellingham was where he should have been, at the end of the parabola, to head and beat Jorgensen, who was very forced but with a not very hard hand.

BAENA AND GERARD MORENO

Even if it wasn't the knockout goal, the truth is that Villarreal were already groggy. If there's one thing a team that has three coaches in a third of the season, it's doubts. At the Bernabéu they mean death threats. For now, it doesn't look like Marcelino's team. Only a coach who has little confidence in what he has, keeps two lame players on the field, Álex Baena and Gerard Moreno. Both were unlucky in the disputes and were affected to the point that Villarreal played a good part of the first period with the two best players of their team as extras. Baena's footballing growth has been remarkable since the cakes with Valverde in the bowels of the Bernabéu, but in this return he did not have the opportunity to show it.

'Comandante' Morales is the only proof of life that Marcelino can take advantage of, whether in Zamora or at the Bernabéu, but there are places where that is not enough, because Madrid's dominance was overwhelming. Dynamic, he exploited the inside game with Modric, Bellingham, Rodrygo and Brahim, and progressed down the right flank, where Lucas Vázquez emulated the absent Carvajal. The full-back was involved in many of the things that happened in the match, at the start of the offensive action of Bellingham's goal, in the pass inside the area to Rodrygo to score the second goal and even in the involuntary stomp that left Baena out of action. His and that of Nacho, Alaba's replacement, are examples of what a substitute should bring to the table, now that Madrid need them more than ever.

Lunin earns it

So is Brahim on paper, but injuries to Vinicius and Camavinga have left him with the cape. He has decided to take advantage of it, with dynamism and work, such as the pressure and vigilance he made on Parejo, and with a goal, not just any goal, but after driving and making a tackle in the area and shooting into the net. Brahim is not alone. Also Lunin, again in the starting line-up, because Ancelotti uses a sense of justice. He's earned it. The respectable applaud him. He likes Lunin in the parish.

Brahim put an end to the ephemeral revolution of the 'comandante', launched into space by Terrats, an interesting academy player, and unleashed Madrid, voracious in front of the other person's area, voracious as a leader has to be, no matter who is missing. Voracious, as well as the surprising and admirable Girona. It's your turn.

  • football
  • Real Madrid
  • Luka Modric
  • Villarreal CF