Nacho overtakes Militao

Nacho seriously valued the option of leaving last summer. At the age of 30, he had been relegated to the role of central fourth after all his life defending the same shirt. The arrival of Militao, for whom Madrid paid 50 million euros in the summer of 2019, took away minutes. He thought it might be a good time to try his luck abroad.

Finally he stayed, because Zidane highly values ​​his versatility. And Nacho, always hard-working and at the service of the team, clenched his teeth to earn his place. The absences of Ramos and Militao gave him the opportunity to return to ownership on a big stage And, as is usual for him, he did not waste it: he was one of the most prominent in the victory against Inter at San Siro.

His game was impeccable in defense and attack. The first section is checked quickly: Madrid left a clean sheet despite having Lukaku and Lautaro in front of them. Varane and Nacho dried them up and didn't create a single opportunity. The Real Madrid youth squad won 77% of the duels and recovered six balls, committing only one foul despite the demands of the match.

In attack, he caused the penalty that Hazard transformed to overtake Madrid in the first minutes. He was impeccable in construction: 45 good passes from 50 attempts (90% correct). It was common to see him incorporated into the attack, since 23 of those passes were made in the opposite field.

With this performance, Nacho presents his candidacy to overtake Militao in the rotation. While the Brazilian has left doubts when he has had to start in important games, the Spanish was impeccable. He returned to perform on a big stage and now it will be Militao, when he returns from his discharge after testing positive for coronavirus, who must show that he can offer the same guarantees as Nacho on those demanding nights …