Benzema and James back in action
MADRID. Atlético remains Real Madrids arch-rivals. Even under Zinédine Zidane, the Blancos were unable to break through the defensive wall of their city rivals and are losing ground in the battle for second place. In a tough and very physical match, it was ultimately Antoine Griezmann who made the decision.
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Zidane chose a surprisingly offensive line-up in his first derby. Karim Benzema returned to the starting eleven as expected after recovering from back problems and James Rodríguez was also allowed to try his luck from the start, pushing Mateo Kovačić back to the bench after his mixed performance in Málaga. Since Marcelo also had to miss out due to injury, Danilo played as left-back.. In the usual 4-3-3, the following starting formation went into the race:Navas – Danilo, Varane, Ramos, Carvajal – Modrić, Kroos, Isco – James, Benzema, Ronaldo.
Only standards create danger
Real began the match extremely aggressively and Cristiano Ronaldo fired the first warning shot after just a few seconds. The plan seemed clear: to prevent Atlético from developing through aggressive tackling and to tear gaps in the opposing defence through the usual possession game. Atlético initially seemed a little surprised by the brave performance of the Blancos, but after ten minutes they found more control of the match and dared to make their first attacks. "Colchoneros" stood compactly as usual and acted from a well-organized defense, which is why a set piece had to be used after a good quarter of an hour to create the first threat to Jan Oblak's goal. Toni Kroos took a free kick from the half-field and Raphaël Varane headed the ball on, but the ball went past the far post.
Otherwise, the action on the pitch was relatively uneventful. The guests had little to offer offensively, apart from a half-chance from Fernando Torres, and Real often failed to make the final decisive pass. So it was again a free kick that caused a murmur in the Bernabéu. This time Ronaldo tried it directly from the half-left position, but Oblak guessed correctly and punched the ball out of the danger zone. With a bit of luck, Karim Benzema then got to the second ball, but narrowly missed. However, there was still little to come out of the game, as the "Rojiblancos" As usual, they put in a lot of effort and allowed little to nothing. After 40 minutes, Diego Simeone's team also announced offensive ambitions, but Keylor Navas was on the spot when Antoine Griezmann shot from distance. As neither team had a brilliant idea to offer afterwards, the match went into the catacombs with a fair goalless draw.
Mayoral comes, Griezmann scores
The second half had a big surprise in store right at the start: Benzema was unable to continue and Zidane threw youngster Borja Mayoral in at the deep end, who was now to play alongside Isco and Ronaldo. And the latter also inaugurated the second half after just two minutes, but the Portuguese missed by a few centimeters from a somewhat tight angle after a beautiful pass from Luka Modrić. The goal, however, was to be scored by the visitors. Griezmann strolled through the midfield without much resistance and saw Filipe Luis running alongside him on the completely exposed right flank, who passed the ball back beautifully to the Frenchman and beat Navas with a shot into the near corner (53').
The surprising lead naturally played into Atlético's hands, as they were now able to retreat even more and wait for counterattacks. And the Merengues? They still had little to offer. They still had over 70 percent possession, but Kroos and his comrades couldn't do much with it. Almost every attack ended with an almost helpless cross from the half-field, which was easy prey for Godín and Gímenez. On the other side, the“Mattress Maker” was far more effective when it came to creating chances, but Saúl missed the chance to decide the game from five meters because Navas cleverly narrowed the angle.
Real increased the pace again in the last 20 minutes and finally had chances. But both Ronaldo and Mayoral were unable to overcome Oblak. On both occasions, however, it was only a minor disruption from Real's point of view, and Atlético managed to calm the game down again and gain more defensive control. A harmless header from Ronaldo, a shot from Danilo from a tight angle - but that was basically it. Since there were no further goals after three minutes of stoppage time, the score was XNUMX.Although “Lucky Punch” wanted to do more, the score remained 1-0 for the visitors, which means the third derby home defeat in a row.
Second place is also moving further away
The renewed defeat in the duel with the city rivals has now put second place in the table a long way away. The gap to Atlético is now four points, and we don't even need to start with the possible twelve to Barcelona after this matchday. The Royal team does not have much time to process the new setback, however, as the next away match against UD Levante is already on Wednesday.(21 pm, inREAL TOTAL-live ticker)
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