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Real Madrid recorded their tenth consecutive league victory on an away trip to Espanyol. This result, combined with Barcelona's inability to hold onto a two-goal lead at Atlético Madrid the following evening, puts Real four points behind the leaders. It's hard to believe that this difference was twelve points a mere three weeks ago.
And yet, while much credit has to be given to Juande for turning the team around defensively (3 goals conceded in the last 11 matches), there is still much work to do to make Real Madrid the well-oiled machine in attack that the individual quality of its players would suggest.
The first half saw both sides "abuse" the midfield to the exclusion of both areas. Sneijder, who hasn't had the best of seasons, did not really perform well as playmaker, wasting innumerable passes to his colleagues up front, with Huntelaar looking especially isolated. Fortunately for the visitors, Lass swept up most of Espanyol's attacks, turning in another impressive display.
What Lass could not mop up, Pepe and Cannavaro did, with Casillas making the odd miraculous save that no longer gets headlines (he was much criticised early in the season for a few uncharacteristic mistakes).
Juande changed tack in the second half, bringing Guti in for the ineffectual Sneijder and Marcelo in for Higuaín to try to give the squad some balance and some width. Raúl tracked back to help out in midfield and the changes injected a little more urgency to Real's play.
Nevertheless, it was a whole 67 minutes before the deadlock was finally broken, as Guti was brought down outside the Espanyol area. The veteran Real Madrid midfielder, who recently announced he will leave the club in 2011 at the latest, slotted a perfect free kick into the top left hand corner of Espanyol's goal.
Five minutes later, Raúl effectively finished off the game as he timed his run perfectly to latch onto a half-mishit Marcelo cross and put the ball beyond goalkeeper Kameni.
As in midweek, the team who made the least number of errors won the game. Unlike then, this time that team was Real Madrid.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Imperfect Ten
Monday, 6 October 2008
Raúl brace not enough to beat Espanyol
Espanyol put paid to Real Madrid's run of six consecutive victories in September and stole a point from the Bernabéu. The Barcelona club won the battle in midfield and frustrated most Real Madrid attacks with solid defensive work.
For their part, the Real Madrid back four did not have their best night. Heinze's clumsy challenge on Espanyol captain Raúl Tamudo resulted in a penalty, which Tamudo then expertly put away for Espanyol's first.
The lack of width in the Real Madrid midfield probably persuaded Sergio Ramos to join in the attack. His beautifully weighted cross was met by Raúl as he broke away from his marker. The captain has clearly benefited from being rested in midweek and is clearly most comfortable playing at home.
The equaliser did not seem to give Real Madrid any additional impetus. Poor defending from Heinze allowed Román Martínez to get the ball across Casillas' goal for Luis Garcia to put the Catalans ahead once more.
Deep in injury time in the first half, Raúl came once again to the rescue. The Real Madrid captain showed a clever bit of skill, taking advantage of a muddle in the Espanyol area to shift the ball quickly between his feet and put the ball beyond keeper Kameni. This makes a total of 16 goals that Raúl has scored against Espanyol in the Spanish league. Together with Valencia, Espanyol is the club that Raúl has scored most goals against.
The second half gave us more of the same, and, although Schuster brought Robben on for Van der Vaart to give his side some much needed width, the Dutchman only lasted 20 minutes before limping off with a pulled hamstring (though on Monday it was reported to be unlikely to be serious). Wesley Sneijder returned briefly from his preseason injury, but is clearly not yet fully match fit.
There were possible penalties at either end, and Van Nistelrooy could have grabbed a winner, but Kameni's reflexes saved his side. Diarra has been getting progressively better and was probably Real's best player in midfield. On the other hand, the Real Madrid forwards, other than Raúl, showed none of the accuracy which has been characterising the side in recent games. Higuaín was especially selfish, shooting several times from outside the box with little danger.
With the draw, Real Madrid drops to fifth in the table, just behind Barcelona on goal difference, who clearly stated their intentions this season with a thumping 6-1 demolition of Liga hopefuls Atlético Madrid (Real's next opponents on October 18th).
Monday, 18 December 2006
Keeping up the pressure
Real Madrid and Sevilla turned up the pressure on an absent Barcelona, in Tokyo for the World Club Championship, by winning their respective away ties against Recreativo and Espanyol. Real had more possession than usual in the first half, but neither side had many scoring chances as the battle was played out in the midfield. It was early in the second half, that van Nistelrooy received a wondrous through ball from Guti and clinically slotted in his ninth league goal.
All was going well for the Madrid side until five minutes later, when Cannavaro was mistakenly sent off for handling the ball. Replays showed he was clearly struck by the ball in the face, but his protestations were to no avail and he received his marching orders. In theory he should receive a one-match ban for the sending off, but it is likely this will be appealed successfully. Any option of creative play from Real vanished, as Capello brought Robinho off for Mejía and later on Reyes came off for Diarra. This effectively stopped any play down the wings, but also meant that Espanyol struggled to add to their tally of 10 games without loss by crashing over and over into the wall created by the Real midfield and defence.
Match report
