Las Palmas 0 – 3 Real Madrid – Quick recap from La Liga
By Alex McVey
Real Madrid defeated Las Palmas 3-0 in an easy Real Madrid win. Here’s your quick match recap from Madrid’s La Liga victory.
First Half
Zinedine Zidane opted to rest a number of his gala-11 players after their travels in the International Break . Cristiano Ronaldo was left home for this fixture, along with Toni Kroos and Marcelo. Madrid started with a 4-4-2 with Bale and Benzema spearheading the attack.
📝 This is the #RealMadrid XI for this evening's LaLiga match against @UDLP_english!#RMMovistar pic.twitter.com/0v7PBqM0S8
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) March 31, 2018
Los Blancos began the match with intensity, but looked a bit sloppy with the final pass. Madrid had tons of energy, but weren’t directing this energy intelligently. Vazquez in particular looked incredibly active, but also looked like he may be gearing up for foul trouble going in hard on his challenges.
Nacho was forced to come off in the 28th minute with an apparent injury. Normally I would just think this was a precaution from Zidane, but Nacho spent the rest of the first half on the bench looking despondent, even breaking down into tears at one point. Nacho’s body language makes me wonder whether he knows he has a bad injury that might keep him out the rest of the season. We’ll certainly be reporting on that as we hear more.
Finally, things began clicking for Madrid in the final third, mostly on the back of some great work from Gareth Bale. Even as he has finally enjoyed one of his longer spells off of Real Madrid’s injury list, there have been serious questions about Bale’s future at Madrid, with major speculation that he might be set for an exit this summer. But against Las Palmas, Bale looked to impress.
Bale has often struggled at the striker position. Against Las Palmas, he began with a few dangerous runs into the box that were ruled offside or out of bounds. Finally, Luka Modric found him over the top with a pin-point accurate pass into space and Bale took off running, getting past the last defender. Bale made no mistakes in his one-on-one with the keeper and blasted the ball with ferocity into the back of the net.
The goal seemed to settle Madrid down a bit, as Los Blancos began terrorizing Las Palmas’ defense. Madrid were creating great one-two combinations in Las Palmas’ area and starting to look really dangerous with each attack. Madrid won a free kick about halfway down the right side of Las Palmas half, and played in a cross from the free kick that was dealt with easily. However, when the ball bounced, Lucas Vazquez got dragged down in the box, and the ref pointed for the penalty spot. Captain Karim Benzema, who was playing his 400th match for Real Madrid, stepped up to the penalty spot and slotted away to give Madrid a two goal lead.
Second Half
It didn’t take long for Real Madrid to get the scoring going again in the second half. Madrid kept the intensity up and began making dangerous runs into Las Palmas’ box. Bale got fouled in the box, and the ref pointed for Madrid’s second penalty. This time it was the Welsh Dragon who was trusted with the penalty duties. Bale gave a little stutter step to send the keeper wide and then smashed home Madrid’s third goal of the evening.
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With Madrid three goals ahead, the intensity of the match began to lag. Los Blancos looked content to conserve some energy with eyes ahead to the big midweek Champions League match against Juventus. However, Las Palmas apparently didn’t get the memo about Madrid’s desire to have a low-key second half, as they turned up the physical intensity and the hard challenges started coming in.
With about 30 minutes left to play, Zidane brought on Kovacic and Llorente for Modric and Casemiro. Around the 70th minute, Las Palmas started to find a few more opportunities in Madrid’s area, and it looked like maybe Madrid would once again flounder another clean sheet. Yet of course with Las Palmas pushed up looking for a goal, there were also plenty of opportunities for Madrid on the break on the other side.
Despite looking good in connection, Benzema was profligate in front of goal, once opting to pass to Bale instead of shoot one-on-one on the keeper, and then once shooting straight into the keeper’s arms on what looked to be a certain goal opportunity.
Bale was the standout player on the evening. He really made things tick for Madrid in the offensive third, and was perhaps a bit unlucky to have not gotten his hat trick.
Next: Five notable moments from International Break
Real Madrid got a crucial three points and Zidane successfully managed his squad’s rotation policy by giving key players some rest ahead of their big Champions League fixture against Juventus midweek.
Editor’s note: The featured photo is from Bale on International duty, not against Las Palmas but we’re having some image problems right now, so here’s another photo of him in honor of the undisputed Man of the Match!