Athletic-Real Madrid Modric pays for the first Cup

Ancelotti already has his first title of his second stage, the smallest, but you have to start somewhere. Madrid came out super champion of Arabia without removing Vinicius or Benzema, with a game more intelligent than beautiful, with the heart rate monitor in hand, as recommended by the age of its main players. The most important, Modric, an MVP who gets younger every day better. Ancelotti’s team knew how to adapt to the low-activity match proposed by Athletic to show that also in this field, in which you think a lot and run little, it is a better team.

It takes a lot of fuel to play in Athletic, whose plan leaves you exhausted from the first glance. He grabs his backpack to go press the opponent’s area and if it doesn’t work (Madrid has midfielders who are very expert in jumping all kinds of borders), he falls back at full speed in accordion operation to reduce spaces. And when he steals back, he releases the greyhounds again. And so over and over again. The thing is between squeezing your ass back and stretching your legs in front. A beating not always well paid. The self-imposed inbreeding that reduces its market to a minimum forces it into this extreme game. Also San Mamés, although 6,000 kilometers from the Cathedral and with Arabia dressed exaggeratedly in white, it costs more. It was shown in Riyadh.

However, the first attack from Madrid stopped, forced by history, past and recent, to occupy the center of the stage. Marcelino sacrificed Nico Williams so that Berenguer doubled, with De Marcos, the surveillance on Vinicius. The right flank was not so protected and Rodrygo sneaked in there, the last to arrive and who presumes that he is facing a great opportunity. His conditions are far above his daring, but he had one of his most proactive days. He is not far from Vinicius in speed, but he is more afraid of screwing up. Not everyone is able to withstand the storms of the day after so well.

Always Modric

Madrid was what the League says in three quarters of the field: he did not fall into ambushes, minimized losses, opened the game well and gave some air to the circulation. The last stretch was something else. Let’s recognize that there is nothing more difficult in football than opening a safe, but the team has been caught out of habit. He has been running too many games and it is hard for him to stop and think.

All his first occasions had a minor tone: a long shot from Benzema, a very forced header from Militao after Unai Simón went out for grapes, and two attempts without real danger from Casemiro, both solved photogenically by the Athletic goalkeeper. Unai Simón is a changeable goalkeeper, with impossible saves or errors like the one in the semi-finals, in which João Félix’s header ran so slowly that one can speak of a goal in installments.

Marcelino’s team did not get that far. Muniain deactivated by Lucas Vázquez, he looked for Iñaki Williams, who is paid a pittance for the kilometer traveled, and gave him little help. Too much work for a single footballer, no matter how slothful he may be. The rest was applied in the resistance waiting for the stopped ball to be his guardian angel. The opposite happened. In full calm Rodrygo traced a diagonal from the right, took four Athletic players stuck and finished opening a gap for Modric, who put in an unstoppable right hand thread. Two similar shots, although with the left, sent them to the crossbar against Getafe and Valencia. This time it was enough for him to correct the aiming point by half a meter. The same half meter that, on the downside, would have given Sancet the equalizer, another with dancer’s feet in the box. There you have the Athletic striker for years.

Benzema, the black beast

Canceled plan A, Marcelino did not wait to activate the B: join the Williams, last name of sagas. Before testing the effectiveness of the change, Madrid had doubled its advantage. Yeray spread his arms wide to intercept a shot from Benzema. It escaped Soto, but the VAR caught him. The Frenchman increased his status as an Athletic ogre with a perfect conversion of the penalty. Athletic had claimed another in the first half, but Alaba had his hand on the ground, cause for exemption by regulatory means.

The 0-2 forced a second shock for Athletic, with three more changes. One of them, Raúl García, who has Madrid between his eyebrows. A couple of times, the best being a shot by the Navarrese, Ancelotti was warned that there was still something to be done and he lowered the volume of the game even more, with Valverde instead of Rodrygo. Then Marcelo would enter, to celebrate his 23rd title on the field. There will be no better tribute match.

Athletic was worthy until the end. Defeated and exhausted, he forced Madrid to win the Cup until the last breath. He sent balls to the area, that territory in which Urzaiz and Aduriz have not been for a long time, to the greater glory of Militao and Alaba. He also forced corners, those that sounded like heavenly music against Atlético, and missed a penalty (with the red bonus to Militao, for a hand as clear as Yeray’s), stopped with a golden foot by Courtois to Raúl García . And now only a sad trumpet ballad sounded.