Real Madrid return to La Liga with a 2-1 win over Levante
By Hasan Karim
Real Madrid survived a tricky game against Levante as they returned to winning ways in La Liga, goals from Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale bagged all three points as Los Blancos look ahead to back-to-back Clasico’s against Barcelona.
Real battled the hard press of Levante throughout the game that they were largely the inferior performer in. Levante gave Madrid plenty to think about throughout the 90, two penalties from Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, in the end, were enough to gain three points.
The opening exchanges saw Levante pressing Madrid hard. Real struggled to find any rhythm as the dogged tactics of Levante proved to continually upset the momentum and saw Madrid unable to string together any flow with the ball.
Throughout the first half, the team just appeared to be off in every regard. The structure was loose, the movements were slow, the legs were heavy – it goes on. It did not bode for enjoyable spectatorship. Levante hit the woodwork in this game a couple of times, the first coming in the 23rd minute, though, this did little to wake up the tired looking Real Madrid.
Set-pieces, in particular, looked like a problem, a surprise given Varane who is usually so reliable had such a porous game aerially speaking. Nacho partnered him in this game, due to the suspension of Ramos, he too had quite the torrid affair.
Even once Madrid took the lead through a penalty scored by Benzema, following a handball call that was corrected by VAR (not for the first time during the game), Levante sliced the backline open with a single through-ball.
The only positives during the first half were once again, Vinicius and his incredible work rate. The Brazilian won the ball back deep twice and again whilst pressing high-up. Whilst he did make mistakes, particularly with some passes and poor finishing – his continual hustle was commendable as was the case with Benzema, Casemiro and Bale (even though he was introduced very late on).
Coming out for the second half, there was an improvement but it was certainly nothing to dance about. Madrid was still struggling – Levante did well to limit overloads on the flanks and press mistakes out of Madrid, which paid off with their equalizing goal.
The trend continued until Lady Luck once again bailed Madrid out in this encounter. Casemiro was fouled in the box in somewhat of a strange decision to award Madrid their second penalty of the night.
VAR once again was called into action. Gareth Bale fired the penalty home and then proceeded to show a strange celebration – if you can call it that. Shrugging off Lucas Vasquez and basically not celebrating, a message perhaps? However, the struggle was not over. Madrid saw Nacho sent off late for a second yellow, just to sum up how the night went.
Next. Question Corner #7: Pressing, Ramos' suspensions and Solari. dark
Regardless of the manner of the win – Madrid got 3 points. It was ugly but sometimes that is needed, not every game will be pretty. With huge games coming up in every competition, Solari will need his men at his best. Let’s hope the performances are stronger in the upcoming El Clasico’s.