A hole opens for Lucas

Lucas Vázquez is determined to make a place for himself in this Real Madrid, although that means throwing back 30 meters and renouncing the pleasures of attack in favor of defensive rigor. At the Camp Nou, the Galician began as an emergency solution for Zidane for the right back and ended up as a true alternative for the position, especially now that injuries are primed with that part of the white eleven.

And that was not the first option for Zizou. The coach, faced with the casualties of Carvajal and Odriozola, the two natural right-backs, did what was expected and chose Nacho for the position. The converted center-back took part in the 0-1 play, with a good leaked ball for Benzema, although he suffered a great deal to contain Jordi Alba and saw the yellow card in the 36th minute. He came to the meeting with some discomfort in his right thigh that in the final stretch of the first half became much more evident, which forced Zidane to shake the tree to prevent Nacho from ending up being beaten, expelled or both. In minute 42, he gave way to Lucas Vázquez.

Brilliant at the Camp Nou

His second part was anthological: 25 good passes of 28 in total (89%), 14 of 15 in Barcelona territory (93%), five of ten won duels, seven losses, four recoveries and, above all, two assists that did not end as goal assists thanks to Neto. In practically consecutive actions, first Lucas Vázquez served a low ball to Kroos to make it 1-3, but the goalkeeper culé denied the German twice; and then put a measured center to the far post where Ramos clinched with his left foot, running into Neto again. Two first-rate actions in which Curtis' showed that he can combine tactical rigor and some offensive fantasy. The best discovery at the best time for Zinedine Zidane.

With hardly any time to celebrate, Madrid heads to Germany on Monday to face Borussia Mönchengladbach on Tuesday, on the second day of the group stage of the Champions League. Despite being only the second game, Madrid is already in urgent need after the defeat at home against Shakhtar Donetsk in the first match (2-3); Despite being at home and also in Germany (historically difficult territory for whites), Madrid are forced to win to score their first three points. Nacho's injury in the Clásico complicated the task a priori, but the Camp Nou duel has discovered Lucas Vázquez as a more than competent option to start on Tuesday.

Competition in attack

Lucas stayed at Real Madrid this summer despite being aware that his options to play regularly were not too many in the face of the enormous competition in the white attack: Odegaard, Isco, Asensio, Rodrygo, Vinicius, Hazard, Benzema, Jovic … Among those players there are recent signings worth more than 200 million euros, a sign for the Galician. But the final stretch of last year already anticipated the idea that swarmed through Zizou's head: Vázquez acted as the starting side in two of the last four days, against Alavés (2-0) and Leganés (2-2). I've done it occasionally in the past: Benítez already placed him a couple of times in that position in 2015-16 (among other places, in the famous 1-3 in Cádiz which ended with Madrid disqualified from the Cup); Zidane also pulled him as a winger in 2017-18, in heavyweight games against Bayern and Barça to tie up results in the second half.

The situation is different now, Lucas Vázquez is Zidane's first option for the right back at Gladbach's home. The other would be Eder Militao, but Zidane already made it clear in the final stretch of the 2019-20 season that he wants the Brazilian only in the axis of the rear. Madrid's visit to Betis last year (last game before confinement by the coronavirus) ended in defeat by 1-2 for whites with Militao in the right lane; since then, the Marseille coach has not lined him up there again, despite the fact that in Porto he specialized to be able to enter Pepe in the eleven as a central defender.