Valencia-Real Madrid Between penalties and penalties

With and without an audience, Mestalla is Korea for Madrid. And since this Sunday, also for Gil Manzano, who not even the VAR could rescue. He whistled three penalties against Zidane's team, two clear (although one preceded by a previous foul against Asensio) and another nonexistent. It had never happened in the history of the League. Madrid played acceptably until 1-1 and catastrophically afterwards. After the disaster everything is in solfa. Zidane's lineup, which was inexplicable. Isco, who is walking towards a lost case. Varane, in darkness since the night of cars at the Etihad. Asensio and Vinicius, who are neither meat nor fish. Many open debates and one closed: the VAR does not have the color that they painted it.

The night tHe also awarded a very hard-working Valencia and Gayá, a 100-meter winger. Everything started with him. Definitely Madrid misjudged the size of the adversary, which even undercapitalized honored its history.

Isco, blank

From artist to artist, Zidane passed the ball to Isco, who now plays for Madrid half as much as three years ago without having to blame this coach or those who preceded him. He's been waiting too long for the muses. This train also passed by. With him he put Marcelo, another under investigation, in one of those matches that require climbing equipment and the day Casemiro, the patrolman, was missing. On the other side was Lucas, a sword forced to be a shield, something that doesn't always work out. Definitely, that Madrid got into the work without a helmet. And without Kroos, but with Modric, the most versatile of the group: it is worth to order, to arrive and to recover. No other Madrid midfielder offers so much. Soccer ended up giving him an Oscar, which after thirty sounded honorary. The thing was in a kind of 4-2-3-1 mutant, with Modric and Valverde in the axis and ahead a permanent rotation, with the Croatian dominating the scene.

In Valencia Javi Gracia pulled what he has, after the expropriation of a large part of its figures. Right now it is not a comfortable club. The fans are uncomfortable with the property, the coach is uncomfortable with the squad and the squad is uncomfortable with their situation on the table. So on the quarry (Guillamón, Yunus, Soler, Racic, Kang-in Lee …), which is for the straits, falls more weight than it should. With the aforementioned and without Guedes, another waning genius, came out to this classic with water up to his neck, but he played intelligently, well above the expected.

Benzema … and the disaster

Madrid left a recurring feeling on the way out: there is much brush and little hammer. He took the ball under his arm and with it he walked up to three-quarters of the field. And from then on, the usual anemia. Vinicius is more gazelle than panther, Asensio has not just broken in figure, Isco flees the area … So there is Benzema, with the leadership raised after nine years as Cristiano's butler. And that's a lot. Ramos was already changing areas, an unequivocal symptom of lack of activity above and of his own incontinence, when Benzema caught a ball outside the area and unleashed a more powerful than precise shot that Jaume missed. Until then, Valencia's strategy had worked, with the big cat hunting plan: wait and be opportunistic in short and selective efforts. For that, Gayá was enough, tireless on the left.

In one of those came the tie, after double blunder by Lucas Vázquez. He first committed a penalty by intercepting a cross from Gayá with his hand. Soler threw it, Courtois rejected it, returned the ball to the midfielder, who shot the post, and that second rejection was taken advantage of by Yunus. Then the VAR tipped off. The American had entered the area before … and Lucas too. Soler did not fail in the repetition.

The goal greatly cushioned the dominance of this Madrid more barking than biting. The ball was no longer his own nor did he gain so much ground from this minimalist Valencia, who also found himself with the gift of an own goal from Varane, in a grotesque punt. For a few moments it was a ghost because the cameras were slow to reveal whether the ball crossed the line or not. Valencia had reached the ball after a more than possible foul by Cheryshev to Asensio. The VAR looked at one and the other and concluded that that was a goal. So Madrid, without being worse but without claws, went to rest losing the victim of a multiple accident.

The win

And when he returned, he found more mishaps: two more penalties. The first, more non-existent than doubtful, from Marcelo to Maxi Gómez. According to the shots, the Uruguayan seems more lacking than the Brazilian. The second, very clear, by an absurd hand of Ramos in a dispute with Yunus. Carlos Soler threw both from the same side and Courtois was close to taking them both out.

The game is finished there. Madrid chained some occasions (of Asensio, Lucas Vázquez …) knowing that they would not lead him anywhere and Zidane made the changes knowing that there was no remedy. The five substitutions came with 4-1. The last was Isco's. It must have been the first.

Even Mariano and Jovic entered, who were in a vegetative state, and Benzema left clinging to his adductor, when Madrid's only future in the short term is to keep it healthy. It was the umpteenth misfortune of a team dejected and flattened in front of another survivor dress that has decided to do their job and that of Peter Lim.