Possession of the ball is usually synonymous with goals and success in football. A CIES study in January 2019 corroborated this: as a general rule, the teams that registered the most possession won more games and by more goals. But mastery of the ball is not the only way to victory. If not, let them tell Real Madrid, that this season they have been unable to win three of the four games in which they doubled their rival's possession. and yet, he achieved two brilliant victories in the only two games (El Clásico and against Sevilla) in which he had less the ball than the opponent. This Wednesday (7:45 pm, Movistar LaLiga) Granada, the third LaLiga Santander team with the least possession, arrives at the Bernabéu.
The ghost of the defeats against Cádiz and Alavés appears at Di Stéfano. The yellows took the three points from Valdebebas (0-1) with just 25.17% of possession. Nobody has given so much control of the ball to Madrid this season. In that game he almost tripled his rival's possession and in another three he doubled it. He beat Athletic (3-1, with 68.37% possession of the whites), drew against Real (0-0, 67.71%) and succumbed to the aforementioned Alavés (1-2, 67.59 %).
The Vitorianos are together with Cádiz the only teams in the championship that do not reach 40% of possession. Of the five LaLiga Santander teams with the lowest possession of the ball, Granada is the last to face Madrid, which also lost (4-1) to the fifth team with the least ball, Valencia. One match, that of Mestalla, conditioned by the three penalties against Zidane's whistles. And the fourth, Valladolid, defeated him by the minimum (1-0).
Instead, Madrid successfully resolved, and at home, their commitments against the two teams that exceed 60% of possession (Barcelona and Seville). Madrid, with 59.13%, is the third First team that has the ball for the longest time.
Granada have not managed to win their two league games with less possession. He lost (2-0 and 26.95%) against Real – in a duel that was greatly diminished and plagued by team players due to a coronavirus outbreak – and drew (1-1 and 28.53%) against Levante . Yes, comes from winning (2-0) at Betis in their third game with less possession (30.79%).