Real Madrid-Cádiz General blackout of Madrid

While packing for the Himalayas (Europe and the Classic) Madrid forgot Cádiz, which turned out not to be what it seemed. Cervera's group showed itself as A great team, as neat as it is daring. It was impossible to tell that he was a newly promoted. And in Madrid there was the impression that the lack of a goal has led to metastasis: he defended badly, he did not create anything and upstairs remained blank. A total eclipse that puts the fans at their worst when the Champions League anthem already plays in the background.

Zidane and the entire planet know that stitches escape unexpectedly through the FIFA windows, wounds in autumn that hurt in spring. This hiatus swept away Odegaard, who was beginning to queue up, and carried the legs of nearly a dozen. So the Frenchman opted for a geographical alignment: the three who crossed the Atlantic were left out, traditionally those most affected by the FIFA Virus, clearly seasonal. And he resumed the casting of the right band, where many pass and no one stays. The place seems reserved for Asensio, an eternal emergent but whose injuries do not allow him to take off. So this time it was up to Lucas Vázquez, ahead of Nacho, two native Madridistas, two players without marketing but with a high sense of duty.

A daring Cadiz

Álvaro Cervera was not wrinkled by the story, which talks about a few tumbles from Cádiz on his visits to Madrid, and began the task in the media: brought together Negredo, a veteran of so many wars, and 'Choco' Lozano, two hunters, more Álex Fernández, his top all-field player, who went to the left to antagonize his brother. The duel had its joke.

The eleven of Madrid made a hole for Isco, a footballer whose position does not exist in the classical geometry of Zidane. So it goes in and out. Or more goes out than goes in, to be exact. And is that in recent times a point of disappointment has been appreciated in his game. A journey from major to minor art that has even taken him out of the National Team and that has not invited the technician to change the drawing in his favor. Now he walks without magic or grace.

Lozano's goal

That distracted air was also offered by Madrid on the way out. One of those silly starts that with his current lack of gunpowder complicates his matches extraordinarily. Before the first quarter of an hour, Ramos took a shot from Negredo that entered very close to the line; Courtois was a good screen against Lozano and made a stop to Cala; Negredo fumbled two heads in advantage … And in the end, that yellow fever ended with a subtle shot by Lozano against Courtois, who had finished the miracles. A goal that established the difference between an absent team and an omnipresent one. And proof that the barrier effect that Casemiro imposes is essential in Madrid and that the intended defensive armor of the team has remained in the bones. Those of both arms of Courtois, specifically, who saved many and screwed up one without consequences.

What came next was predictable. A hill start for Madrid with Modric as the only trailer. Too much homework for a single footballer that before the break did not take him to the Ledesma area: Isco did not filter passes, Vinicius was not even daring, Benzema was a fuchsia shadow and Lucas Vázquez did not offer much progress against an opponent who worked hard in the retreat. A Cádiz full of people of order and with a murderous instinct in the counterattacks that closed probably the best 45 minutes of its history against Madrid. At the other extreme, Zidane's team, in their worst moment in months with the aggravation of Ramos's injury after hitting Lozano with his knee. Nor could the Honduran follow.

Changes without change

Given the disaster, Zidane divested himself of diplomacy and politicking. CFour changes at rest, an unprecedented tremor: Casemiro and Valverde to change the engine, Asensio to fly again and Militao as a patch for Ramos. And in the final quarter of an hour, Jovic, who was bought as a second-instance scorer for games like this.

But the logical reaction of Madrid caught Cádiz warned, Very protected in two lines very close together and with few cracks. He had known how to attack in the mature and also knew how to defend in the hard.

He had two Vinicius, more entrepreneurial in the second half, and they left. It's usual. In the final charge, with Madrid looking for spaces that did not exist in the inner game, they annulled a goal to Jovic for offside by Benzema, who soon after crashed a ball into the wood. It happened in a nervous ending, with more drive than clarity, and in which Cádiz resisted with solvency, which adds three victories in three starts (and the first in its history in white fiefdom) while Madrid out of tune at the gates of the greats concerts.