Five matches that defined Real Madrid’s 2016/2017 La Liga title campaign

Sporting de Gijón 2 – 3 Real Madrid – April 15, 2017

Speaking of last minute winners, this list would definitely be incomplete without Madrid’s late victory against Sporting de Gijón.

Despite not getting as many minutes as both he and the Madrid faithful would have liked, in many ways 2016/2017 was the season of Isco Alarcon.

Nowhere was Isco’s importance on more prominent display than the match against Sporting de Gijón.

Isco absolutely dominated this match, earning himself a perfect 10 rating from WhoScored.

It looked like Real Madrid was about to drop points against one of La Liga’s bottom dwellers. Barcelona had just done the same thing twice, with losses in March against Deportivo La Coruna and in April against Malaga. Real Madrid needed to take advantage of Barca’s slip-up.

Zidane, though, decided to roll the dice with his squad, rotating almost every single player from his typical once de gala. As I wrote following the match:

"Zinedine Zidane made a huge gamble this match, leaving the entirety of the BBC, Keylor Navas, and Dani Carvajal at home. Additionally, Kroos, Modrić, and Marcelo were all left on the bench. Just a week after Luis Enrique’s overly zealous rotation policy may have cost Barca three crucial points in the title race, Zidane decides to go all out with rotations, keeping his powder dry for the upcoming matches against Bayern and Barca. Zidane didn’t just rotate a few players here and there, he rotated nearly everyone. The only true member of Zidane’s once de gala that was on the pitch at the start of the match was Sergio Ramos. Nacho will likely also be a starter for the upcoming clashes, but that is only because of Madrid’s ongoing injury crisis at the back."

This became a characteristic of Zidane’s squad during the last few months of the season. Against La Liga’s bottom half sides, Zidane rarely ever fielded the starting XI that would be played in the Champions League or against La Liga’s top opponents. It’s almost like Real Madrid had a fully functioning A squad and B squad that could each be deployed for different situations.

But against Sporting de Gijón, this strategy almost backfired. Real Madrid had to come from behind twice in this match. And it looked like Madrid were going to be fortunate to escape from Gijón with a single point, until the bandy-legged beauty Isco Alarcon popped up in the last minute of the match to score a beautiful game-winning goal.

Many of the defining characteristics of Real Madrid’s title campaign were on display this match: a dazzling display from Isco, a fully rotated squad coming through when it counts, and a last minute winner grasping victory from the jaws of defeat.

I know it’s strange to say about a match against a team that was ultimately relegated from the Spanish first division, but, in many ways, the victory over Sporting de Gijón was THE defining match of the season.