Victory for Real Madrid

Castilla’s Alfredo Di Stefano stadium was chosen as the venue for the return of Los Blancos because Santiago Bernabeu is under renovation work. Gareth Bale was playing his 250th match for Real whereas Zinedine Zidane became third Real Madrid boss to reach 200 games in all competitions (W132 D42 L26), after Miguel Munoz (605) and Vicente del Bosque (246).

After a minute of silence for those who lost their lives in the COVID-19 Pandemic, Real Madrid started off.

Toni Kroos slung a thunderbolt from outside the box – the ball looped beyond Eibar’s goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic. Real Madrid 1-0. The game was just 4 minutes old and it was evident, the break due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not disturb the rhythm and hamper the hunger of Los Blancos. They were off and running.

It was Kroos’ sixth goal in all competitions this season - his best tally in a single campaign for Los Blancos.

Sergio Ramos stepped out to intercept a pass and spark a swift counterattacking move that ended with tapping in an unselfish square ball from Eden Hazard, who returned to the squad since February. Hazard looked good, but not the best, which one would expect. Perhaps, he might become that gradually, but the time is less.

Then a Marcelo strike into the bottom-right corner after an impressive interplay between Hazard and Karim Benzema made it 3-0 before the break, the Brazil left-back taking a knee after scoring his first goal of the season.

The goal-scoring festival went missing in the second half. Real Madrid’s attacking instincts went missing and no further goals were added to the score-sheet.

Eibar started to attack in the second. They moved better even without the ball at their feet, scripted daring passes, and dribbled enough to find out spaces.

In the 57th minute, Edu Exposito dribbled into space and tested Thibaut Courtois from distance — forcing a corner. From the ensuing corner, substitute Sergi Enrich hit the crossbar from a header. Three minutes later, Pedro Bigas scored a freak deflected goal to make it 3 - 1.

Vinicius Junior and Gareth bale were introduced and both had chances during the transition, but none of them proved effective enough.

Madrid had fewer shots than in any other LaLiga game this season (6 in total, 5 on target), but they had their highest shot conversion rate (50%).

Real did not push enough to put Eibar on the back foot, whereas, a goal festival would have been the ideal comeback after the break.  

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 15/06/2020 Victory for Real Madrid  

Thank You

Faisal Caesar