Three answers and three questions about Real Madrid’s victory over Athletic


Real Madrid got all three points from this week-long league match against Athletic Club, thanks to a 3-1 win with a goal from Toni Kroos and a double from Karim Benzema. There are several questions to discuss about this game, starting with one about why it was taking place in the first place.

Three responses

1. Why did this match on matchday 19 take place?

This is a Copa del Rey mid-week action for most teams in Spain, but for the four Super Cup teams (Real Madrid, Athletic Club, Barcelona and Real Sociedad) it was a mid-week action of The league. The reason is that these four teams will meet at La Cartuja del Sevilla next month for the first trophy of 2021 and that these four teams are also exempt from playing in the first round of the Copa del Rey this season, as decided by the Spanish soccer authorities. that it would make sense for these teams to play league games with each other now. That way, they’ll have a bit of breathing room to fit into Super Cup props when they need it in January. That is why Real Madrid and Athletic Club were now playing this match on matchday 19, between matchdays 13 and 14, and that is why Barcelona will face Real Sociedad in a similar way tomorrow night.

2. Would Zidane rotate for this one?

Before this game, Zinedine Zidane was asked about rotations given that he had been using the same players again and against last week for the big games in a row against Sevilla, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Atlético de Madrid. He was as lazy as he usually is in press conferences, so he had a feeling that he could make some changes for this match against a weaker opponent. But no. The only change in the line-up that Zidane made was the forced change of the sanctioned Casemiro for Fede Valverde. It worked, as now there are four wins in a row, a good streak in a way that has been achieved by selecting starters from a group of only 14 players for these four games.

3. How would Fede Valverde do?

With Valverde starting, it was going to be interesting to see how he would do in his first start since returning from injury. The version of Valverde that we saw in the post-closure section of the 2019/20 season was the worst version of Valverde that we had seen since his promotion to the first team squad, but the version that had started the 2020/21 campaign was between the best we have seen from the Uruguayan. So which version would appear in this one when you get back on your feet after injury? Well, after the red card to Raúl García and after the Athletic press died with it, we saw a very attacking Valverde. The average position of his touches during his time on the field was almost exactly the same as Benzema’s. Although we know that Benzema likes to dig deep, that still says something. This, then, was a bit of a strange game to judge Valverde. Let’s see if he comes out again on Sunday against Eibar.

Three questions

1. What happened in that crazy 13 minute?

Between 12:00 and 13:00 on the clock, many things happened. First, Valverde fumbled near the midline to allow Athletic Club to launch a counterattack, with Iñaki Williams bursting into the area and pushed by Dani Carvajal. The Athletic players asked for a penalty, but they didn’t get it. That challenge from Carvajal was with 12:18 on the clock. Then, at 12:46, Raúl García attacked Kroos for a second yellow, almost out of frustration. It was a whole minute, with two great calls for Jesús Gil Manzano. He clearly got Raúl García’s second yellow right, but that foul shouldn’t have happened because I also think it should have been a penalty for Williams as Carvajal really shoves him from behind without trying to play the ball. So it was a crazy and decisive minute. Although Raúl García would surely have gotten a second yellow in a short time …

2. What if Asensio had not been allowed to take that corner?

Let’s take a look at Real Madrid’s second goal, Benzema’s header. It was a great header from Benzema and a perfect cross from Carvajal, but Marco Asensio also played a role by taking a quick corner. It wasn’t the Trent Alexander-Arnold vs. Barça level or anything like that, but the Spaniard did well to detect how much space was in Carvajal and to pass the ball to his teammate quickly. The speed of the Spanish was also vital because Rodrygo was standing on the touchline waiting to be substituted. If Asensio had stopped a little longer before taking that corner, Gil Manzano could have asked Zidane if he wanted to make the substitution right there and that could have given Athletic even more time to settle down. When the ball came out, after a corner from Kroos from the other side, he expected the change to be made on the spot. It was not and in seconds Real Madrid went ahead. It is a small detail, but perhaps significant.

3. Is this the season in which Benzema wins the Pichichi award?

At certain times last season it seemed that Benzema could finish at the top of the LaLiga scoring table. In the end, Lionel Messi did it one more time and finished with 25 goals to Benzema’s 21. This year, however, Messi doesn’t look so much like Messi, while Benzema continues to get the ball into the net from open play with consistency. . The Frenchman is on track to score 20 goals in LaLiga this season. Obviously that’s less than what he achieved even last year, but Messi is only on track to score 18 league goals this season if he maintains his current goal rate. Maybe this is the year.