Levante setback for Real Madrid

 

After the match against Alaves, the fans of Real Madrid, again, started to rediscover their joy thinking that the Los Blancos have hit the form and are ready to maintain the consistency in the coming matches. But guess what, the Los Blancos are always ready to gift shocks to the astonishment of the fans.

They ended the game against Levante digesting a defeat and it was at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium, where the venue has become a happy hunting ground for them in recent times. The position of Levante has been bad this season and they were close to the relegation zone. Well, there was no better way to pull their socks up against a side, which remains inconsistent throughout the season – consistently make things difficult for them.

 Real Madrid started brightly - fluid with their positioning and movement off of the ball. They looked dangerous at times. But things turned out tough for them when Eder Militao received a straight red card. Levante found themselves through on goal before the ten-minute mark, and Eder Militão brought the forward down – Real Madrid were down to ten-men.

Still, Madrid then took the lead minutes later, as Asensio found himself in acres of space on the counter as Toni Kroos produced a gem of a pass, carrying the ball towards goal before picking his spot passing the goalkeeper.

It seemed that the pressure was bringing the best out of Real Madrid as they started to look sharper enough.

But the numerical advantage was on the side of the visitors as Levante exploited with a nice touch inside the box from a cross. They clawed their way back into the play and Thibaut Courtois was called upon to produce an excellent double save to keep the scores level by half time.

Real Madrid started with Eden Hazard again, but yet again, he was not at his best, rather failed to link-up with the players and exploited the spaces, and melted under pressure.

Ultimately he was substituted.

After the break Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio wasted opportunities, that toned down the tempo of Real Madrid.   

Levante had the bigger chance to score again though, as Vinicius Junior caught his man right on the line of the area to concede a penalty.

The resulting spot-kick struck the post but still went on to take the lead through a well-worked corner with just over ten minutes to go.

Mariano Diaz and Sergio Arribas were introduced, but it was Levante who left the field smiling.

Yet again, Real Madrid have wasted points against a lower-ranked side and this is not doing anything good for the morale of the team. They were expected to win in a dominating fashion against such opponents, but in turn, most of the time, they had been seen wandering around the field trying to rediscover themselves. This is pretty frustrating from a side, who are in the hot soup at the moment and consistency should have been the order of the day.

Other than that sublime pass from Kroos, nothing significant happened for the Los Blancos in this match. Their sharpness at the start became blunt –Vinicius was poor on the ball, the midfield had to spend time on the deep to shield the backline which was melting under the counterattack and the kind of determination which was needed at the back after the sent-off of Militao, was never evident. Casemiro tried his best to glue the backline, but he can’t save every day.  

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 30/01/2021 Levante setback for Real Madrid

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Faisal Caesar