3 takeaways from Real Madrid’s La Liga title clinching win at Malaga
By Ben Sundock
Real Madrid are champions of Spain for the first time since the 2011/2012 season thanks to Zinedine Zidane and his fantastic coaching all season. Real were able to defeat Malaga 2-0 on the road thanks to an early goal from Cristiano Ronaldo, and a second half brace from Karim Benzema. Ben Sundock gives you three takeaways from Real Madrid’s last match of the year in La Liga.
The Brazilians were brilliant, again
Real Madrid haven’t banked on the play of left back Marcelo and holding midfielder Casemiro, but they’ve lived and died by the play of these two regulars in the starting XI. Once again, in La Roselada, Marcelo and Casemiro were nothing short of amazing as they held Malaga away from Keylor Navas, and contributed on the attack as well.
Marcelo was up to his usual tricks working down the left wing, as the 29 year-old kept putting himself in the right positions to score, twice taking shots just over the bar, and providing the usual flurry of crosses into Benzema and Ronaldo.
Casemiro was a great “fifth defender” in the formation as he stayed back and stopped all attacking chances from Malaga through the middle for the majority of the match, forcing them wide to the flanks were compatriots Danilo and Marcelo were able to close them down.
Danilo had a surprisingly great game (I am still not the biggest fan of his) dealing with Jony and Pablo Fornals for the entirety of the match, especially in the first half, as the graphic below shows.
Zidane relied heavily on these Brazilian players all year, and they didn’t let him down on the final match day, securing Los Blancos their 10th shutout of the La Liga season.