In this season of advance and rewind, the Champions catches Madrid working. He dispatched a phantom Valencia with an outstanding match in authority and not so much in auction. Without a top scorer, he has gotten used to solve from outside the area, which is to climb the games on the north slope, but His attitude proved that in Carnival he is not going to get out of this League either and that his reputation as a good persecutor is intact. For some reason to explain, Zidane always cuts the red wire one second before the explosion.
Valencia has six leagues, eight cups, six European titles and two appearances in the Champions League finals, but now, Lim by means of, they eat at another table. He has lost, hopefully circumstantially, that aristocratic air that always distinguished him in Spanish football. Now he rolls in the peloton, in the best of cases, after an extreme emptying of a squad that a year and a half ago won a Cup against Barça. Now, and save yourselves Gayà, Carlos Soler and whoever can, It looks like a bunch of equipment, closer to danger than glory. As such he behaved in Valdebebas: a group locked behind, without an answer, abandoned to their fate, treating Madrid as if it were not from their League. Or as if your League is outrageously lower.
Madrid wanted to rehearse the Bergamo eleven with real fire, that group to which the club entrusts the mission of maintaining the lighting throughout the season. And the fact is that the seven casualties of the team affect more the possible than the probable (Ramos and Hazard, who is still a blank canvas, on the sidelines) after the returns of Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez. Zidane did not dare with both at the same time and that except for Vinicius, a removable figure. More removes than put with the French technician. But this time his stay at eleven will be extended because before the first half hour Carvajal broke again for the fourth time in the course.
Carvajal's injury
A real setback, because the strength of the winger gives Madrid wings. In it the play of the first goal began, although Benzema He put almost everything. Panic spread when in the first minute Correia involuntarily stepped on the Frenchman's ankle. He limped for a little while and then made a creative goal, that is, out of nowhere. He received near a corner of the area, looked up and with a hip blow he drew a perfect thread to the opposite post that was unattainable for Jaume. He is definitely an amphibian player: he survives magnificently in and out of the area. So his vigilance requires covering so much territory that many of the white team's rivals do not give much.
Before his goal, the game was already Madrid's. In this long transition, the heroic generation is far ahead of the uncertain generation. Modric, Casemiro and Kroos took over the game from that quiet position that annuls the opponent but it has few pretensions in the foreign area. In fact, before Benzema's spell, only one shot, from Casemiro, was registered, low and centered, which Jaume saved in a strange maneuver with one foot.
Kroos sentence
Valencia, from tightening his belt so much, has lost the waist of a wasp: a center of the field without weight and without depth. He is still unable to find out when Guedes was lost, justly relieved at halftime. And it is that Valencia did not leave a mark on the opponent's field. It had no substance or danger. It was a hottie for Madrid, which in another time would have torn him apart. Now fangs are missing. Now it is more artillery than infantry. He cannonade from outside the area with some frequency but steps on it little. This is how the second goal also came, in one of those low shots from Kroos that catch the goalkeeper against hand even if they come from far away. His right hand lowered the blind to the game and the spirit of Valencia.
Still playing well below their range, Valencia had a certain outburst of dignity in the opening minutes of the second half. Maxi sent a distant shoe that demanded for the first time Courtois, but one thing is the will and another the ability. That attempt uncovered its retreat and a Madrid highly regarded with energy efficiency sneaked in a few times. Mendy had a goal disallowed for a heel. As against Getafe, he appeared there in a ram starter. Engine does not lack to climb so high.
Arribas ahead of Isco
Then Zidane repeated the message: Arribas by delane de Isco, this time without fitting the half truth wielded against Getafe that he had only trained on the eve of the match. The boy debuted the duel with a shot in the afternoon line, from outside the area. That cheek has gotten him here.
Given the naivety of Valencia, Zidane withdrew Benzema and Modric, two very main, when the distance was not yet insurmountable. There was no threat ahead. There was not during the entire meeting. His was not a minor version but a post-nuclear one.
Changes
Lucas Vazquez (27 ', Carvajal), Gameiro (45 ', Manu Vallejo), Yunus Musah (45 ', Gonçalo Guedes), Christian Oliva (63 ', Carlos Soler), Lee Kang-In (63 ', Wass), Sergio Arribas (70 ', Marco Asensio), Mariano (78 ', Benzema), Isco (78 ', Modric), Patrick Cutrone (82 ', Maxi Gómez)
Goals
1-0, 11 ': Benzema, 2-0, 41 ': Kroos
Cards
Referee: José María Sánchez Martínez
VAR Referee: Mario Melero López
Gonçalo Guedes (26 ', Yellow) Uros Racic (43 ', Yellow) Thierry Correia (45 ', Yellow