Shakhtar-Real Madrid On the edge of the catastrophic zone

There is a worrying trace behind each Madrid game. Your results are remarkably alike on bad days and regular ones (the good ones are hard to find), like the one in Kiev. The goal is missing, time passes and metastasis occurs, which ends up reaching the entire geography of the team. Thus fell to the Shakhtar, that grew up against an unarmed rival. Now going to eighth is no longer in their hands. And staying on that border is uncharted territory at the club.

Zidane's investigation into why his Madrid goes from stick to stick from one day to the next has not prospered so far, from Why does he suddenly lose his sense of duty like someone who loses sight of the road and ends up in the gutter. Given his recent slips (defeats against three modest and an amputee Valencia) the most reasonable hypothesis points to the miscalculation. Today's football divides the teams into good, very good and exceptional teams and Madrid mistakenly believed that there are still some below that threshold. This time he did treat the Shakhtar with respect, who does not have blue blood but is not a Mary either, and it was not enough either. Zidane must also look inward, whose plan is to count on everyone when some can no longer be counted on.

The stick

In Kiev the Frenchman gave the eleven another lap, without Casemiro's escort, which this year is not so much; with a more creative midfield than allows Odegaard to be the hitch, since suppressed by 4-3-3, and with Rodrygo and Asensio in their natural bands. He believes that the best treatment to improve the partner is persistence. With Vinicius, natural relief of the disappeared Hazard, he applied the opposite therapy.

Madrid came out with the ball and determination under their arms. High pressure, solidarity and demanding and a vocation to attack from the flanks. What was not seen against Alavés. Al Shakhtar, who is notably inferior, he had no choice but to wrap around Trubin. The message he sent to the Ukrainians is that in Valdebebas they caught him at nap time. At 5 minutes Asensio had already crashed a shot to the post and six later Benzema found no placement in his free shot from the edge of the area. Even Rodrygo took a face in his first two forays to the right. With him there is always the feeling that he plays below his possibilities due to lack of courage.

The problem is that this Madrid is extremely easily distracted. A crucial foul by Varane against Moraes that injured the Brazilian changed the dynamics. Zidane's team lost the thread and Shakhtar found a place to breathe. It is a hegemonic group in their League and seeing themselves without the ball makes them uncomfortable. And it is that Madrid is capable of being a team and the opposite in the same game. Even at the same time. Before and after the break, Asensio noted good news. He offered his best version in months. Perhaps the left is his band, although he likes it less and Zidane is not happy to have another competitor for Hazard. After half an hour, Trubin miraculously took a shot from the Balearic Islands, who had embroidered a combination with Odegaard.

The disaster

The second round of Madrid before the break He also finished without a goal, the wall he runs into even in his best days. Benzema does not always have the same appetite and Odegaard, who leaves good details, still needs to kick the door.

The second half returned with the same dominance of Madrid and five crazy minutes: Nacho's header went high when Trubin had already taken the white flag; Courtois took the goal away from Taison, the best of the Ukrainians, and Dentinho put Shakhtar ahead on a terrible mistake by Mendy, who got creative in his own area and assisted the Brazilian.

There it became evident again that Madrid is not just a team without punch, but also jawless. That unexpected goal, somehow undeserved, caused a huge swoon. He lost orientation, ball, order and even hope. For a few minutes, a team remained blocked, without response capacity, very soft on the axis, where Kroos and Modric are not exactly scaffolding, and without the intention to resume their initial pressure. And suddenly, three changes, all in attack, and the final onslaught, with Mariano in the lead. And with Casemiro, on the bench. The all or nothing. And it was nothing, because in a counter, Solomon, just entered, walked measuring Lucas Vázquez until he found the hole to put the rapier on Madrid, that reaches the last day in the hands of others. Two years he has been falling in the second round and it was perceived as a drama. Failing in the group stage, for the first time in history, would elevate the case to catastrophe status.