Features
Three talking points ahead of Real Betis vs Real Madrid | La Liga
Real Madrid faced relegation-threatened Deportivo Alaves midweek in La Liga and took all three points to stay alive in the competition.
Days later, they now face a team that is seemingly set to qualify for European football once again. Now up against an opponent on the other end of the table, Los Blancos will face a slightly more uphill challenge.
Real Betis have not been perfect under Manuel Pellegrini, but they have managed to win 12 and draw 13 of their 32 league games this season.
The last time the two teams met, Real Madrid put five goals past Los Verdiblancos. Real Betis enter the game against Alvaro Arbeloa’s side with one win in six games, and it will be interesting to see how the battle plays out.
Madrid Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Real Betis vs Real Madrid.
The final long trip
While it is true that Real Madrid’s season has not been promising in any way, it is clear that they have struggled more away from home than playing at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Given the team’s performances, even the Bernabeu has been hostile to the men in white at times this season, but most of their big defeats this campaign have come on the road.
Their first defeat of the campaign was against Atletico Madrid on the road, and they then went on to lose to Liverpool, drop points against Rayo Vallecano, Elche, and Girona in a span of a month.
Later in the season, Los Blancos lost to Albacete away from home, to Benfica in Lisbon, and to Osasuna in Pamplona. Most recently, they lost to Mallorca and Bayern Munich in their two latest games on the road.
The clash against Real Betis tomorrow, once again, is away from home and will be held at Estadio de La Cartuja. More importantly, it marks the beginning of a run of three games on the road which will culminate in El Clasico at the Spotify Camp Nou.
How Real Madrid manage their results in this final long tour away from the Spanish capital, needless to say, will have a significant bearing on the title race.
Two more setbacks
Earlier today, Real Madrid confirmed hamstring injuries to two key stars, signalling that their season has come to an end which comes as a massive blow to Alvaro Arbeloa’s plans.
The first of the two players ruled out is Eder Militao who simply cannot catch a break with fitness setbacks at this point in his career.
Having just recently returned to the dynamics from a long-term blow, the Brazilian is now out until the end of the season and will not be available in central defence. Antonio Rudiger and Dean Huijsen, thus, are likely to start in the department.
The second and bigger blow is that of Arda Guler who also suffered a hamstring blow and is expected to remain out until the end of the campaign.
In the case of the Turkish star, however, the player has been a key part of the team all season and a regular starter. Replacing him, in that sense, is more complicated and it remains to be seen what midfield combination Arbeloa opts for.
All signs, as it stands, point to Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde, Thiago Piatarch, and Jude Bellingham starting on the night.
A glimmer of hope
Barcelona took all three points over Celta Vigo in the previous match, maintaining their nine-point lead at the top with just six games to go in La Liga.
In that sense, it appears quite complicated for Real Madrid to keep hopes of a comeback alive in the competition, especially given the form Hansi Flick’s side have been in domestically.
One event in their game against Celta Vigo, however, hands Los Blancos just a glimmer of hope for a miracle – the injury to Lamine Yamal.
Having suffered a hamstring blow himself, the Spaniard is out for the rest of the season and will not feature in any of Barcelona’s remaining games including El Clasico.
Not having their talisman and creator-in-chief against Real Madrid, Barcelona become a slightly easier target for Arbeloa’s side to defeat in the upcoming Clasico to cut short the deficit.
Concurrently, however, Yamal’s absence plays an equally important role in weakening Barcelona’s overall chances in the other five games in the season as well, especially given how important he has been to them all season.
With Raphinha and Yamal both likely to be unavailable for the next few games and the latter ruled out for the rest of the season, Barcelona become slightly more likely to drop points along the way.
Should Real Madrid keep winning, a turnaround may not be as far-fetched as it initially appeared.
Features
Clean sheet at last, Vinicius’ moment of madness | Three takeaways from Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal
Real Madrid took all three points against Villarreal on Saturday night to get back on track after the international break, and thus ensured they did not continue sinking after the defeat at the Madrid derby.
Jose Mourinho made some bold decisions in his starting XI as he benched Vinicius Jr., playing Yan Diomande on the left-flank and Arda Guler on the right flank.
The dynamics worked out decently well, and it was eventually the new record signing who scored for the club to hand them the lead and the win.
Compared to performances before the international break, there was an improvement in terms of Real Madrid’s level, but the team are still far off from where they must be to make a strong case to be title contenders.
Madrid Universal brings you three takeaways from Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal.
The struggle continues
All of Real Madrid’s season so far has been of struggles and difficult wins, and the same theme continued last night as the team returned from the international break.
Los Blancos have failed to look convincing for a long time now, and they did not dominate Villarreal in any capacity last night as well.
Continuing with the same theme of winning by narrow margins and scraping past the finish line, they registered yet another 1-0 win that did not leave anyone convinced.
Yan Diomande’s goal was the only positive takeaway from the night, and even that was made possible only after a narrow offside decision went in their favor. With the firepower they have, struggling to create chances to such an extent seems inexcusable.
With a difficult month ahead, last night’s game did not give fans any reason to believe matters have changed after the international break. At this rate, the coming month could be a bleak one for Los Blancos.
Vinicius’ moment of madness
Of all the events that transpired at the Santiago Bernabeu last night, the most memorable one was the incident involving Vinicius Jr.’s goal, and embarrassingly so.
Having seemingly scored a great goal ten minutes after Diomande’s opener, the Brazilian star was on his way to celebrate the achievement, but what unfolded thereafter was embarrassing.
The VAR found an incident of Vinicius pulling the hair of a Villarreal player for no apparent reason in the build-up to the goal, and at this point there can be no arguments defending the player’s behavior.
As one of the biggest names of one of Europe’s biggest clubs, there has to be a sense of responsibility in one’s role – something Vinicius simply does not seem to have. What he did last night was simply inexcusable.
A lot can be said about VAR’s selective interference, but what cannot be argued is that what Vinicius did last night was a clear red card offense.
He will now miss El Clasico and will serve at least a two-game suspension. Whether that is a boon or a bane for Real Madrid, at this point, remains unknown and only time will tell.
A clean sheet at last
Ahead of last night’s win over Villarreal, Real Madrid had only overseen one clean sheet in eight games across competitions.
In that sense, simply keeping the opposition from scoring last night was an achievement in itself for Los Blancos, and it could not have come at a better time.
Real Madrid entered the game without many of their regular defenders available, especially with Dean Huijsen suspended and Eder Militao and Raul Asencio out through injury.
Ibrahima Konate and Antonio Rudiger, thus, started in central defense on the night and both did phenomenally well for Los Blancos. They were joined by Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold, both of whom complemented the duo well.
The right-back was a relatively weak link defensively, but Konate and Rudiger were spot-on with their reading of the game to keep the Villarreal attack from scoring. They both did eventually pick up yellow cards, but Villarreal finished the game without a single big chance created.
Finding defensive stability, which is the cornerstone of Mourinho’s project, is massive for the manager, and he will be pleased to have a new working formula.
What happens after Huijsen’s return, however, remains to be seen, as the manager may well like to hand the new duo some more chances to prove their consistency.
