With half a sick squad and another half confident, which is sometimes worse, Madrid hit a yellow wall. The game hung on a goal and he did not get it. Ancelotti’s team, which has been great with the greats, he suffers if he does not run and Cádiz did not allow it. Álvaro Cervera’s men play what they know without being reproached for. They repeated plan and success against a Madrid lacking in fantasy and precision on steep terrain. Hazard played the entire game and left some information that his could be remedied.
The COVID outbreak became a kind of planetary conjunction that returned Hazard to the world of the living. Before the massive contagion in the squad, the last thing that was known about him was a gastroenteritis that stopped him three games and caused people to talk. But without injury, Ancelotti was hiding him in the back of the closet, in the queue of applicants for the only position on which he admits the debate. Another thing is that the vacancy falls like a glove, which is not the case. As it is what there is and Ancelotti did not want to give Cádiz a band, he put Lucas Vázquez as a kilometer right back. That gave the Belgian some freedom of action, who woken up with the minutes.
In Ancelotti’s head it was that Cádiz is not to be attacked but to be expected. To expect exaggeratedly, with ten forced (or condemned) to defend and Choco Lozano as a leading explorer. It is better for you if someone else takes the first step, the second and the third. That explains why his only two victories have come home. His plan was to avoid a Madrid on the run by reducing the useful surface of the game and not making a mistake when starting the ball. The first time he did it, Vinicius was on the verge of planting himself before Ledesma. So he corrected himself immediately and prepared a very unkind match for Madrid.
Casemiro, on the edge of the red
Cádiz was yellow fever for Ancelotti’s team. He doubled the guard on the wings, especially Vinicius, surrounded Benzema, did not want the rival to get into the area and even played with some impatience for Madrid. The first to jump was Casemiro, who deserved the red for a tackle from behind to an Ivan Alejo on the run. The yellow, light punishment, will prevent him from playing in Bilbao. Álvaro Cervera took Madrid to the terrain that least suited him, to that of the lateral center, which is never the first option. There is not a drop of grace in this Cádiz. He believes that this is done with order and without concert. The less he spends in a match, the better for him. The point is to do few things, but well.
That and the distant shots were the only occurrences of Madrid before the break. Nun pinches, although two distant zapatatas, by Mendy and Valverde, the latter with stretched plastic from Ledesma, were close to hitting the target. Madrid must start considering the day after Modric, who blanks games like this because he is the only midfielder in the squad capable of jumping lines. And in the middle of that tactical mash, Hazard, whose stealth in the game borders on invisibility. Not an overflow, not a shot, not a filtered pass until the beginning of the second half. So he did escape the extreme surveillance of Cádiz without completing a death pass or a header after Kroos’s excellent dispatch. Some good moments that can take him out of his current status as a player of the lot. And these don’t fit into top-tier teams. Even less with his salary.
Madrid went to rest with worse spirits than they entered. His 82% possession was wet paper. That is the success of Cádiz, confusing the adversary until he loses faith and patience. It’s not telegenic, but it works sometimes.
Negredo forgives
A more imaginative Madrid returned from the booth in its attempt to get out of the labyrinth, already convinced that it would only be possible with the short game until reaching the area, where everything had to be resolved. Vinicius began to escape from his cage, Benzema made room for himself in the game, Hazard took out some details of that precise game between the lines that brought him to Madrid. All very spaced, without the continuity that a siege is supposed to be.
Twenty minutes from the end, Ancelotti pulled Jovic. Where before there was a ghost, now there is a plan B. With the Serbian, Madrid reconfigured in a 4-2-4 that in theory would make him wider and more threatening in the air game. Also more vulnerable. The change of drawing brought Cádiz’s first chance, a good one against Sobrino, badly finished off by Negredo.
From there, Cádiz had no more order than to hang from the crossbar. Everything happened already in your area. Alaba went to the left looking for a crack where there was none. Madrid began to light up when there was no time. Ledesma rejected a shot from Kroos, Fali and Cala put their heads into everything that rained, Jovic did not hit either his head or his foot, Benzema asked for a penalty that could be but whose intensity did not give the VAR to raise his hand . Nothing worked. So the advantage dwindles. Not with his traditional rivals (Atlético and Barcelona), but he is forced to look south.