Real Madrid: escalation to the leadership

Estrada Fernández was signaling the end of the match and the screams of happiness erupted within the Madrid players (in green against Real Sociedad). The Whites returned to regain leadership 112 days and after four games after having achieved it against Barcelona on March 1. After losing it a week later in the field of Betis, he has recovered it in a intense week in which he defeated Eibar (3-1), Valencia (3-0, both at Di Stéfano) and Real Sociedad (1-2) at the Reale Arena in San Sebastián. He has scored eight goals (It is striking that Benzema has added three goals, the same figure that the defense adds, with two goals from Ramos and another from Marcelo) and has only fitted two in these almost 300 minutes of the League that have been played after the return of the competition, stalled by the Coronavirus pandemic from mid-March to last June 11.

And Madrid has reached the top again (he is tied on points with Barcelona, ​​but is a leader for goalaverage) thanks to various factors. To begin with, his effectiveness in front of the rival goal: against Eibar he shot six times over the goal that Dmitrovic defended (five of which were on goal), which fitted three goals in the first 40 minutes of meeting. That first half was all a physical wonder of the whites. In the second, the team wanted to save efforts and was about to get a good scare from the gunsmith box …

The first trial by fire was against Valencia: A goal annulled by Maxi's interference on Varane allowed Rodrigo to score. The whites, in a second part in which they went from less to more (just contrary to Eibar's day), liquidated Celades' team in three blows (they threw 14 times on Cillesen's door), with a stellar Benzema, and above all, with the long-awaited return of Marco Asensio after being practically a year blank: The Balearic took just 30 seconds to score his first goal of the season. Another of the pleasant surprises is the state of form in which Eden Hazard is, injured since last February, and who has participated with two assists in two goals in this reenter. Conversely, the bad ones have been the injuries of Jovic, Nacho, Isco and Lucas Vázquez, spare parts that can be used at any time …

Before the Royal Society, the whites shot again ex officio and Vinicius, who started for the first time in this competitive return, and who was the offensive trick of the Whites: his duel with Gorosabel exploded whom he surpassed in speed, talent, technique … He was the master of the meeting in San Sebastián. And it is in the physical aspect where you can see the hand of the physical trainer Dupont. The Whites have played three games in three different ways: against Eibar they came to demolish the Eibar team as quickly as possible. Those of Zidane came out as motorcycles to go down revolutions as the goals were falling. Against Valencia, however, and being a rival with more baggage (this season they had already faced each other in the League and in the Super Cup), the Whites went from less to more: they scored their goals in 25 minutes (those that go from 60 'to 86'). Precisely, against the Valencians they reached the figure of 646 good passes (of 707 attempted), the highest of the campaign along with the match against Athletic at the Bernabéu (goalless draw at the Bernabéu in the last match of 2019, although here they tried 721 passes).

The only mole is that it does not just close the games: if he conceded against Eibar in the 60th minute, Real managed to pierce Courtois's goal in the 83rd minute. Of the 21 goals Madrid have conceded, 15 have been in the second half, of which 13 have been in the final half hour of the parties (86.66% of the total). Until the break for COVID-19, that had become the loss of 10 points. Now comes Mallorca, one of the teams that was able to defeat him in the first round of the League. But Zidane's do not want to lose benefits now that the end of the League is approaching …