Real Madrid Extend Point Streak in Draw with Villarreal
By Mike Dyce
Real Madrid saw a 16 game win streak in La Liga spanning from last season to now come to an end Wednesday night in the Santiago Bernabéu as Los Blancos drew with Villarreal on match day 5.
Overall Match Recap
Unlike the past couple of games, Los Merengues got off to a hot a start immediately putting lots of pressure on Villarreal. Real won four corners within the first 10 minutes but were unable to find the break thorough despite several chances from Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. However, after withstanding a barrage, Villarreal seemed to settle down and the game moved into a steady back and forth affair.
Former Real winger Denis Cheryshev, had the best opportunities in the first half for Villarreal creating three separate chances, testing Madrid keeper Kiko Casilla. Unfortunately for Los Blancos, left fullback Marcelo appeared to have a muscle problem and was forced off a couple minutes before the intermission and was replaced by Daniel Carvajal.
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In injury and stoppage time, Villarreal had a good build up and saw the ball bounce off the hand of Real Madrid center back Sergio Ramos for a handball in the box thus giving The Submarines a penalty, which was then finished off by captain Bruno on a beautiful penalty to give Villarreal a 1-0 lead heading into the half.
Real looked determined to bring the game back to level early in the second half as they pushed more players forward. It was captain Sergio Ramos who headed down a wonderfully arching corner ball from James Rodriguez, bouncing the ball off the turf and over the hand of keeper Sergio Asenjo in the 48th minute.
Los Blancos didn’t stop there as they kept possession of the ball for the majority of the second half and there was never really a serious threat of Villarreal trying to score another goal as they sat back and played defense.
In the 80th minute, Toni Kroos’ shot from distance was parried by Asenjo leaving the rebound out in front of goal however, the keeper was able to control the ball just before Alvaro Morata could get to the ball. There were plenty of complaints from the Real Madrid playrs when Sergio Ramos was seemingly fouled from behind while in the Villarreal box but no penalty was called.
Player of the Match
According to Whoscored.com, the player of the match was James Rodriguez who made his second straight start in the midfield and played a fantastic 90 minutes. James finished with an assist, 92% of passes competed, and 7 tackles, which earned him a match rating of 7.89.
Honorable mentions go to Toni Kroos, and Danilo who were making good runs and linking up well on the left wing all night, especially in the second half. Danilo created several good chances up the wing and played in a couple of good crosses, the best of the game coming in the 85th minute was just a bit out of reach from Ronaldo who couldn’t redirect the ball.
Kroos on the other hand had plenty of corner kicks to take (17 by the team) and several of them created a good opportunities however, to no avail. He also had a great shot from distance that was tough to save.
Next Match:
Next up for Los Blancos will be a trip to face recently promoted side Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. The game is Saturday night.