Comfortable victory for Real Madrid (2-0) to maintain its co-leader status
MADRID, 2 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid won this Saturday in their stadium 2-0 against Granada CF, with goals from Brahim Díaz and Rodrygo Goes, to continue at the top of LaLiga EA Sports, equal on points with an increasingly less surprising Girona FC and who kept his pulse with the meringues during this day 15.
The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium opened its doors hours after Girona had beaten Valencia (2-1), without giving up its pace to occupy the top of the First Division. And that spurred Real Madrid, who also found themselves with a small favor after seven minutes, due to the change due to an injury to their opponent's goal.
Raúl Fernández, who had been in the dry dock for two months, suffered from his discomfort just the day he returned to ownership. André Ferreira came in to replace him, who had work to do and to make matters worse, he conceded the 1-0 lead before half an hour of play was over. It was the work of Brahim Díaz in a combination with Toni Kroos, again very inspired.
The distant wall between them served for Brahim to sneak into a gap in the visitors' defense, control with his right hand and beat Ferreira with his left, subtly with a 'sting'. Beautiful goal for a footballer who during the autumn is making good use of the minutes given to him by his coach, Carlo Ancelotti.
With the wind in their favor, and supporting their game in Kroos, the merengue team took control of the ball, although they lacked better aim on the rival goal. Just before the break, the local parish claimed a possible penalty from Ignasi Miquel to Jude Bellingham, inside the area and ready to finish.
But referee Pablo González Fuertes did not interpret a maximum penalty and thus it was time to break, after which the visitors did not improve either. Not in vain, the Nasrid team is still immersed in a very bad streak; They have been in relegation positions for many weeks and to make matters worse they fired their coach, Paco López, just a few days before this visit to the Santiago Bernabéu.
Alexander Medina, a Uruguayan coach with no experience in European football and the personal bet of the club's new sports director, the Italian Matteo Tognozzi, took the reins of his bench. So Granada was not up for frills in the white coliseum, it was enough to minimize damage and leave a neat image.
IN ALL GOOD THINGS, BRAHIM
Midway through the second half, a toned Brahim connected with Joselu Mato on the edge of the area. The Madrid center forward returned a filtered pass so that his teammate entered the area from the left and assisted Bellingham, standing on the penalty spot; His shot was repelled by Ferreira in a save, but Rodrygo took advantage of the rebound to score.
Fifth game in a row for Real Madrid with at least one goal from the young Brazilian, who is masterfully replacing his compatriot Vinícius Jr. in that regard. Ancelotti's pupils slowed down from then on, controlling every action of a decided duel.
This efficient victory put the Madrid team with 38 points in the co-leadership of LaLiga, but ahead of Girona due to a better overall goal difference. For its part, Granada remained very low in the table with seven points, as it has not won a league match since last August 26 (3-2 against Mallorca).
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: REAL MADRID, 2 – GRANADA, 0 (1-0, at halftime).
–ALIGNMENTS.
REAL MADRID: Lunin; Carvajal (Lucas Vázquez, min.46), Rüdiger, Alaba, Mendy; Valverde, Kroos, Bellingham; Brahim Díaz (Nico Paz, min.88), Joselu (Ceballos, min.70) and Rodrygo (Gonzalo, min.85).
GRANADA: R. Fernández (Ferreira, min.11); Sánchez, Manafá (Petrovic, min.64), Torrente, Miquel, Neva; Ruiz, Gumbau, Bryan Zaragoza (A. Fernández, min.83); Uzuni (Weissman, min.64) and Boyé (Puertas, min.83).
–GOALS:
1-0, min.26: Brahim Díaz.
2-0, min.57: Rodrygo.
–REFEREE: González Fuertes (C. Asturiano). He yellow carded Bellingham (min.22) and Rüdiger (min.24) at Real Madrid, and Gumbau (min.77) at Granada.
–STADIUM: Santiago Bernabéu, 70,685 spectators.