Real Madrid 3-1 Eibar
All the La Liga pressure was on Real Madrid.
After leaders Barcelona’s crushing of Mallorca, the gap at the summit was five points and Zinedine Zidane and his men knew only a win against Eibar would suffice as the run-in begins.
They needed to rediscover their swagger which, when football was halted in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, was in danger of being disrupted.
Yet the delay has proved a welcome release on the injury front.
Isco, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and left-back Marcelo were all likely to miss this match when it was initially scheduled in March, while Eden Hazard and Marco Asensio were definite absentees.
As they returned (Asensio was on the bench) – the latter two akin to new signings at Zidane’s disposal – so did La Liga highlights for Los Blancos.
Highlights of the game
As soon as the game kicked-off in the Di Stefano, the bidding began with the shirts the Real players were wearing being auctioned off for charity, with funds going to the club’s foundation.
It is continuing many of its charity projects such as a social-sporting school in Cazalegas alongside the Ebira Foundation, the sixth integrated school in the Castilla-La Mancha region.
However, most eyes remained on the pitch with the hosts aware they need to pick up as many of the remaining 33 points on offer as possible, while Eibar needing the points for their own survival battle and boss Jose Luis Mendilibar fielding a strong XI, even with a derby against Athletic Club at Ipurua on Wednesday 72 hours away.
It felt surreal playing at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano (tiny compared to the Bernabeu) but normal service resumed almost immediately.
Barca may have taken little over a minute to break the deadlock on Saturday night and Real were not wasting any time either.
Within two minutes, in fact, as German midfielder Toni Kroos rifled in an unstoppable long-range drive which left visiting keeper Marko Dimitrovic with no chance.
It was a wonderful goal to open proceedings and a second fine goal followed on the half-hour.
The returning Hazard laid the ball off to Sergio Ramos and the captain, who had run half the length of the pitch into the penalty area, slotted home from close range as Eibar has no answer to the movement of the hosts.
There was a real spring to the step of Real, seemingly on a mission to wipe out Barca’s goal difference advantage in one foul swoop.
To prove the point, Marcelo made it three before the break after another involvement with Hazard as the Belgian’s shot was parried only for the Brazilian full-back to fire home the rebound with aplomb.
Everything they hit seemed to end up in the net and the contest was over by half-time.
Marcelo also showed his stance for the ‘Black Lives Matters’ movement by going down on one knee to celebrate his goal. The gesture of taking a knee has become synonymous with the protests against systemic racism in sport in the United States and now players are using their platforms to show their support for the movement in Europe.
Into the second period and Eibar showed more spirit.
Courtois made a fine save to keep out Sergio Enrich and then somehow was beaten, on the hour, by a Pedro Bigas effort which rolled slowly over the line to reduce the arrears.
If there was going to be an interesting finale, then the strugglers needed another goal and they might have had it only for Pedro Leon, against his former club, to shoot too close to Courtois when played clean through.
After that, the most interesting point to acknowledge in the closing stages was that both sides took full advantage of the new rule concerning the number of substitutes allowed with 10 changes (five each side) in total.
The SBOBET La Liga betting odds back Real more times than not. Are they ready to make their title tilt a title triumph? I think they possibly are!
Key statistics
Kroos’ opener was his sixth goal of the season for Real – his best since making the move to the Spanish capital from Bayern Munich in 2014. His previous season-high came during the 2017/18 campaign (five).
Zidane is only the third manager to reach 200+ games in all competitions for Madrid after the legendary duo Miguel Muñoz (605) and Vicente del Bosque (246).
Marcelo is the 19th player to score for Real this term – the most different scorers for a team in the top five European leagues in 2019/20.
What’s next?
Real Madrid have slightly longer than Eibar to recover. They are next in action on Thursday night (June 18) at home to Valencia before travelling to Champions League-chasing Real Sociedad a week tonight.
Eibar host Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday evening before a visit to Getafe three days later.
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