Espanyol beat Real Madrid at the death, with Los Blancos conceding a Gerard Moreno goal in the last action of the match. Here’s how it happened.
First Half
Zinedine Zidane rolled out a heavily rotated lineup from the side who thrashed Alavés at the weekend. The only one of the BBC who started was Bale, with Zidane opting to leave Cristiano Ronaldo and Casemiro entirely out of the squad. Benzema was sat on the bench, along with Theo and Carvajal. That meant that Nacho filled in on the left, while the youngster Achraf Hakimi got the nod on the right.
Real Madrid did well to control possession (67%) throughout the half, but struggled to create much in terms of offensive opportunity. Bale was essentially playing the role of a center forward, and looked quite isolated in attack. Isco and Asensio did well to circulate possession but the final pass always seemed inconclusive.
Espanyol did the most with the limited possession Madrid allowed them. Los Blancos looked nervous at the back, and you could tell there was occasional miscommunication going on between Llorente, Kovacic, and the center-backs. Varane looked imperious in his transitional defense, but also made a bad error on a clearance which nearly cost Madrid a goal, bar a last-ditch kick-save by Navas.
"He was in a legal position."
— MARCA in English (@MARCAinENGLISH) February 27, 2018
Our refereeing expert believes @RCDEspanyol should be ahead.
The offside call against them was wrong.
🗣 https://t.co/9wPJ8D3dzA pic.twitter.com/dCyZCkT5Dc
Espanyol began to grow into the game around the 30 minute mark, and kept posing problems to Madrid’s defense. Gerard Moreno had a goal ruled offside, which looks like was probably an incorrect decision. Madrid were quite lucky to go into the second half 0-0.
Second Half
If Zidane was hoping his side would start the second half with more intensity, he would have been sorely disappointed. Espanyol were ferocious in their hunt for a goal to start the second half and Madrid kept making sloppy defensive errors which allowed Espanyol into dangerous areas time and time again. Shoutout to Llorente, who hasn’t gotten a ton of minutes this season, but was instrumental in saving Madrid’s bacon a few times in the second half.
Los Blancos just looked like they never decided to get out of bed for this match. Without Ronaldo in the squad, and with a really unfamiliar lineup, Los Blancos never seemed to get their attacking momentum together.
Zidane pulled Isco off for Benzema around the 70th minute, Bale off for Ceballos in the 80th, and Kovacic for Mayoral for extra time. None of these subs had the desired benefit, and Madrid continued to look lost.
Madrid were finally starting to look dangerous in attack around the start of extra time. But then, Espanyol managed to play a dangerous ball down the right, cut back in to Moreno, who finally got his goal with about 30 seconds of extra time left to play.
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Real Madrid need every bit of momentum they can get this season, and they squandered an opportunity here. Los Blancos failed to show any intensity throughout the match, and put in a really poor performance. Credit to Espanyol, who looked strong all night, and were unlucky to not have scored a few more against a poor Real Madrid side.