Real Madrid beat Eibar and is now Atlético’s first chaser

After four consecutive wins in the League, Real Madrid in the Basque Country were looking for their fifth three in a row and literally invaded the local Eibar team in the early stages. In the sixth minute, Rodrygo raised sensations to the defense to the run of Karim Benzema, who caught the ball with his right and finished with his left under Eibar goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic from the lead (6th).

Eibar barely had time to recover from the initial deficit when the Whites scored again. Again the agile Benzema intervened, this time the French player Luka Modric served with a pass from the baseline. The Croatian could not be asked twice and fired from 14 meters to make it 2-0 (13th).

Benzema could have provoked the preliminary decision three minutes later, but he put his header after a cross from Modric just outside the goal (16).

Real left the reins a little looser after a brilliant first 25 minutes, which should take revenge immediately. After winning the ball in the real half, left-back Kevin Rodrigues played alongside captain Kike Garcia, who appeared and flipped inside dreamily at the right angle from 22 meters (28).

Due to Rodrygo missing the 3: 1 shortly after restarting from ten meters (53rd), Eibar stayed in the game and subsequently had deals from Papa Diop (55th), Takashi Inui (57th) and Yoshinori Muto (60th) his best phase.

In injury time, the hosts, who had been fighting until the end, almost tied, but Sergio Ramos avoided the goal (90 + 1) with a great tackle to Eibars defensive boss Pedro Bigas. In return, Lucas Vázquez got the final score 3-1 (90º + 2) after a double with Benzema from an acute angle.

Zinédine Zidane (Real Madrid coach): “We had problems today against an opponent who never gave up. The first twenty minutes were spectacular and we controlled the game well for long stretches.”

Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid): “Eibar started us early so we didn’t always feel comfortable. Our start led the game in the right direction and we had to fight in the second half.”

Kike García (SD Eibar): “In the second half we were on par with Real and we should have taken more advantage of our opportunities.”

Real Madrid avoided the long ball against the local Eibar whenever they could, even when the Basques put pressure on the Real defense in their own penalty area, Sergio Ramos and company preferred to look for the short pass than to hit the pitch uncontrollably.

The risky style of play used to go well for the individual quality of the Whites and led to attacks that were worth watching, but as with Kike Garcia’s goal, it was also difficult for them to condemn. Real continued to make simple turnovers around his own penalty area, which a qualitatively better opponent would have ruthlessly exploited.

In 15 league duels with Eibar, Real dominated 12 times and shared the points with the Basques twice.

TV tip: Loving Maradona: a film about the Maradona myth. Monday at 8:30 p.m. on Eurosport 1 and on Eurosport with Joyn!

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