To Madrid it was better vertigo than command, extremes than management, Vinicius than Jovic and having Courtois than not. In a turn of the rudder on the fly he ended up liquidating Valladolid, a modest that does not wrinkle or decompose. That resistance in the famine has kept him alive in this jungle. The party, in any case, reiterated the concern about the future of Madrid: up it is still fair and the armor that gave it the title a quarter of an hour ago has disappeared. Only a magnificent Courtois watches over that border.
Madrid had breakfast with another injury for a month from Hazard, the galactigate what's next. After the summer song (Bale), Zidane's team runs into a clinical case that goes to chronic. That of the Belgian was the site of Vinicius, but while life passes without Hazard Zidane he continues to turn his back on the Brazilian without too many arguments in sight. And instead, against all odds (the general performance, his game against Betis, his launch on the market, the lack of adaptation …), he repeated with Jovic as Benzema's companion, who with the Serbian is closer to ten than nine. And he took advantage of the trip to sneak in Isco, his favorite playmaker, and the two substitute full-backs, Odriozola and Marcelo. On these remains the explanation that its usefulness is greater in someone else's field than in one's own and that in an eleven full of footballers for the inside game, two crossings of winger and winger always come in handy. In return, Casemiro had to stand guard as third center sporadically. So the thing was at times 3-5-2, with the Brazilian in rescue and first aid work due to the defensive weakness of the two wing players.
Valladolid behaved as what it is, a minimalist team, without punching but with a jaw, with good self-defense mechanisms and few scorers. A reduced budget but used to the bone. And also a team still half done, like most. With the lack of public and the salary mass in the neck it is difficult to leave that area. Orellana is his differential fact, a player who plays hide and seek between the lines and with a good last pass. The match did not give him too many chances, but he showed finesse in his arrivals. And it wasn't easy for Weissman, the Israeli striker who was a cannon in Austria, either. Hervías loaded all the gunpowder, a winger forced to play side by side due to the casualties.
Valverde and the blackout
The game, in any case, did not have a single meaning for that soft, dispassionate command offered by this Madrid, with plenty of possession and a short shot.
Valverde opened the first gap from the right wing. From his lungs came the first two chances for his team: a close shot well rejected by a half Roberto off foot and a pass with music to Jovic, who threw him out, in the race, with the left. His best virtue did not appear there either: one-touch definition. A long time ago, since Cristiano lost the public's wild card with the departure, Madrid is condemned to win almost every game on points. The KO has become almost a rarity.
So, and this is also recurring, Madrid began to bore the game, to space their arrivals more and more, to give air to a great rival in the narrowness. The team lacks play in space, an agitation that dislodges the rival and a rhythm that exhausts it.
Close to rest Jovic had the second, with a worse angle and greater frontal opposition. He sent his shot to the side of the net. The shot interrupted a long period of football without grace or profit. A time in which Valladolid felt comforted and feigned warmly with two shots.
The changes and the change
The restart left another good header from Jovic, a shot to the post from Casemiro in the rebound and two occasions from Valladolid, one of them magnificently resolved by Courtois, again with Miracle hands, within Weissman's shot. Zidane understood that it was necessary to change the register: 4-3-3 with wingers, Asensio and Vinicius. More Carvajal, another with a great engine. The shock that Madrid needed, the uproar that Valladolid feared. The remodel took immediate effect. A double error by Bruno left Vinicius in front of Roberto and the Brazilian showed his improvement in those extreme situations. And immediately, the second great stop of Courtois, just off Carnero. It was not the end of the dispute. Valladolid understood that they had an opportunity there and pressed enough to drown Madrid's reaction.
So there was party to the end with a modric stick, several pucelan arrivals and the general feeling that the champion wins too many games at the sprint.