Granada-Real Madrid Madrid Festival in Granada

Madrid have Vinicius and the best center of the field in LaLiga. From the one and the other it follows that it is still out of the reach of Atlético and of the sight of Barça after a full match in Granada with a reverse development: first he scored the goals and then he took the game out. A great game, by the way, at the command of Kroos and Modric, that rested are unstoppable. With twenty fewer games a year they would last a century. And then there was Vinicius, who ate his markers raw. This time he did not need even Benzema while Granada’s good game by Luis Suárez was very short.

Nacho for Militao and the usual ones (Asensio reaffirms himself in the only position for debate) despite two weeks of FIFA, with the World Cup at stake and a few transoceanic trips in the backpack. Ancelotti agrees with Zidane’s latest diagnosis. Much of the Madrid bench is invisible. Among the eternally unfit (Bale and Hazard), those who have already left before leaving (Marcelo, Isco, perhaps Ceballos …) and those who never existed (Vallejo, Jovic, Mariano …) the census of eligible go very reduced. The squad is once again divided between the same old ones and the old ones. And in Granada they played the usual ones again, despite the fact that an American court rises against Madrid. Sheriff, Sevilla, Athletic, Real Sociedad, Inter is the fearsome immediate sequence. Fasten seat belts.

Robert Moreno also played his own. He reduced the 4-4-2 with Luis Suárez as the only nominal point, but with Rochina released between the lines and Puertas and Soro open. Behind, Gonalons, with the injured Milla the most solvent of his midfielders.

From less to more

Madrid landed in the game with the soft air of the last duel against Shakhtar and of the last minutes against Rayo. There were two half-light triumphs and it is time to remember that great crises begin with small self-deception. Granada lived comfortable not to be wrong until the first loss ended up being his obituary. Kroos, the Madrid player who best reads the fine print of matches, was astute and at first he sent a cross pass to Asensio forty meters from the finish line. And the Spaniard was then the one before the injury. He held the sprint to avoid being hunted and crossed with his right, which in his case is not the right hand.

And after the protection account, the KO, almost without blinking, in an art and rehearsal corner with a Kroos-Modric-Kroos combination and Nacho’s shot at the near post. Granada was caught shocked and Puertas, in Babia. He broke the offside. In two arrivals, without the accompaniment of dominance or brilliance, Madrid put the game in their pocket. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Nothing that we have not always seen. All from the hand of Kroos and Modric, surviving veterans in the jungle of vigorous midfielders who are fashionable. Only the knowledge of the game has allowed them to extend their careers so much.

Luis Suárez’s goal

The rest seemed to run and sing. It is impossible to put Vinicius and escape the temptation of the counterattack. Madrid is definitely more about light cavalry than heavy artillery. At a gallop the third goal could arrive, in a bitten finish by Asensio that Soro literally saved on the line. However, in a gamble of fortune, Granada was able to cut Madrid’s roll. The play, in any case, had the merit of faith in pressure. Vinicius had the ball cleaned in a bad control and Luis Suárez hooked a low shot from outside the area that after touching Nacho fatefully changed the stick to Courtois.

The 1-2 reminded Madrid that there are no cheap games. The gong rest seemed to be on their side in a distribution of opportunities that seemed favorable to Granada.

The recess returned a Madrid in reverse: better game and less initial success. Carvajal and Kroos missed the goal when their team already overwhelmed Granada to avoid the ‘thriller’ to desserts. And in the end he found the goal, a design counterattack. Long pass from Casemiro, galloped from Benzema (his pursuer, Víctor Ruiz, broke down on the way), a magical pass to Modric and a gift from him to Vinicius with an empty door. Something of very high precision at very high speed, the Sistine Chapel of football.

The red ones

Even then, Madrid were playing really well in a game governed from start to finish by Kroos and Modric and without too much chimney sweep work for Casemiro. And above, Vinicius was unleashing until he unhinged his markers. The worst stopped was Monchu, who caught him with the ball out of reach and saw a red that seemed exaggerated (they also expelled Robert Moreno for the protests). Ancelotti believed then that the greatest danger that awaited him in the match was the integrity of his most destabilizing player and removed him. There was no better proof that the game was won.

Only the final recess remained: Mendy’s goal with the right (two left-handers scoring with a different leg, even that came to Madrid), minutes of consolation for Jovic and Isco and Vallejo’s debut in the League. A false message that everyone tells.