Getafe-Real Madrid With the bench it is not enough

What remains of Madrid is not enough. Three beatings and nine casualties finish anyone. More if in times of coronavirus it is allowed to pluck the squad (Odegaard, Modric, Mayoral …) on the fly. So an exhausted team, undergoing major surgery in the line-up and with a needy adversary in front of them, left part of the advantage that El Clásico gave them and separated themselves from Atlético's neck. It could have been worse without some miracle from Courtois. Getafe had moments of its golden age, but aiming was like the rest of the course, below zero.

Get to tomorrow alive. That is the long term for Madrid. Match by match without preservatives or colorants. The workforce is now extremely varied: full-time injured (Ramos, Mendy and Lucas), part-time injured (Carvajal and Hazard), confined (Varane and Valverde), sanctioned (Nacho and Casemiro), squeezed (Modric, Kroos, Benzema … ) and rusty (Odriozola, Marcelo, Isco, Mariano…). The quick summary is that he arrived in Getafe with nine absent and Zidane, who has at hand the data of the last three super efforts, added two more starting: Kroos and Benzema. Of that eleven with whom he would dream for the final of a Champions League, only Courtois and Modric remained. An extreme rotation of the gold bench times with no gold on the bench. There are only now Homegrown players sent to Stalingrad, many with 90 minutes with Castilla the day before. With such deprivations, Zidane was left with an eleven with no more midfielder than Modric, four midfielders and Mariano. A clinical trial that did not go well.

In Getafe the crisis is one of faith. And that is even worse. For no apparent reason, the president stops believing in the coach and his message to the locker room, which was law, has been blown away. So as Bordalás is convinced that the problem is not one of names, he composed a slightly revolutionary eleven, with Ünal as second striker and without Kubo, who here has not broken in the first sword either.

Mata's header

In any case, the group seems to be aware of the danger and threw itself on that Madrid of remnants from the outside in. The best of Getafe is in their bands, with Aleñá and Cucurella. And they are more showy if in front they find sides with no return like Odriozola or Marcelo. In ten minutes he knocked three times on Courtois' doors, although the Belgian was only relevant in a forced auction by Olivera. With all of them, it was not that triumphant Getafe that mortified with its pressure, with its interrupted game, with its propensity for the long ball. A team that became boring. Madrid also allowed him to arrive. In fact, in that phase, Mariano scored a goal in a counterattack invalidated by a nail offside. So it seemed to the assistant and the VAR. The train would pass again for him shortly after. And his bitten header saved him on the Timor line after a departure to the wind by David Soria.

The match woke up, then, with a round trip, an upheaval that never went to Getafe but logical given the overwhelming majority of touch players compared to those of quite in Madrid. In any case, the bluish attack had more substance. A chopped header from Mata hit the stick in those minutes of the Bordalás' patient attack, which really squeezed Madrid with its two corpulent points.

Madrid, as in Liverpool, had little insistence and a lot of resistance. The perception remained that he wants the flood not to wash away until it subsides. And Modric showed why he was the only real starter and Isco, who is still a useful footballer. He was only close to the goal before the break on two frustrated occasions by Mariano and in a frank header from Vinicius.

Whites on white

The second half brought out that Modric, for lack of habit, risks like a midfielder where it is not advisable for a pivot. In two bad outings of his and another reckless one by Marcelo, Madrid was seen in the abyss. The first two passed by. In the third, Courtois was forced to stop the match at Ünal's zapatazo.

Given the lack of progress and fiercer pressure from Getafe, Zidane could no longer contain himself. He put Benzema and, although a recruit, a real midfielder, Blanco. A movement with double intention: to reduce risk losses at the beginning of the possessions and to give more offensive court to Modric and Isco. Madrid had not existed in attack in the second half. His appearance was that of an exhausted team, at the limit, beyond his physical possibilities. It was also seen by Bordalás, who shot Angel, the second instance scorer. Soon he caught the thread of the match. His first shot missed him by a span. He then claimed a penalty from Militao and Courtois had to reach out his hand to stop a Getafe then clearly superior in ambition and drive.

Benzema, the signing of the last half hour, was even more irrelevant than Mariano. And so Madrid moved away from the head and was within shooting distance of Barça. Now it is only in the hands of his grieving rescuers.