Real Madrid kept their first preseason clean sheet as they defeated RB Salzburg 1-0 in Austria last night. Eden Hazard’s first Real Madrid goal separated the two sides as Real now look to their final preseason friendly.
Eden Hazard is beginning to find his feet:
Finally, Eden Hazard has opened his Real Madrid scoring account. Following his €100m switch from North Londoners Chelsea, Eden Hazard has slowly but surely began to show Madrid fans what he is capable of. Up until now, the forward had only shown glimpses of what he can do. The link-ups with his team-mates are slowly beginning to form, the individual magic is gradually coming to the fore as is his finishing touch.
During the game against the Austrian side, Hazard had multiple moments of individual brilliance as well as linking up with his team-mates. In particular, the Belgian is gradually forming a solid understanding with Marcelo, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema, it was incredibly apparent against Salzburg.
His goal was a wonderful strike, combining with Benzema on a sweeping counter that started with Courtois, Benzema held the ball before releasing Hazard who rocketed upfield before cutting across the box and firing towards the far post. There were a few moments during the game where his individual presence grew into the game and it has grown game on game. Once he completely finds his feet he will be truly magisterial to watch.
Brazilian brilliance:
From Militao and Marcelo at the back to Casemiro in midfield to the introduction of Vincius in the forward line, Real Madrid’s Brazilian players were impressive for much of the game. Starting with Eder Militao, who made his debut since his move from Porto, the defender looked every bit the prospect many were excited for. The defender was solid in cutting off runs and following his man, despite a few moments of leaving a little too much space, his debut was fairly successful.
Casemiro, who played his first game of preseason, showed the world just how crucial he is to Real’s system. The midfielder was consistent in snuffing out danger and keeping the fluidity Real needed to build attacks, a player with weaknesses, sure, but when you consider this is the best Real has looked defensively and also their first clean sheet of preseason, it’s not surprise that Casemiro played a large part in that.
Marcelo also played one of his better games, possibly even his best since the start of preseason. With Zidane experimenting with a new formation, the 31-year-old found himself with the chance to consistently help the attack. The formation change also helped with the enabling of him to go forward with the midfield and Eder Militao regularly mopping up any danger behind him.
The introduction of Vinicus Jr proved to also be effective. The youngster made an immediate difference to the game, his pace and trickery dragged the opposition defence all over the place, he linked with Vasquez and Marcelo well. However, questions surrounding his finishing ability continue, he found himself in good positions a few times but was unable to land the killer blow.
The 3 at the back formation was pretty successful:
Zidane lined up with a slightly different formation for this game. The Frenchman lined his squad up in a 3-5-2 formation, something we’ve seen before but not often and it hasn’t always been successful. However, in this game, it worked well. In something more of a vacuum, the team had structure defensively that hasn’t been seen throughout preseason. Despite some shaky moments, in the second half particularly, it was an encouraging change.
More so than anything else, this formation provided defensive stability. When in transition, the team had more numbers to defend with and Marcelo was finally covered enough to allow him to thrive going forward. Another aspect that was interesting to watch was how did the squad deal with being pressed. As mentioned previously, initially there were some shaky moments, but as they got comfortable the formation proved effective. Whether or not Zidane uses it again, it proved to be a useful experiment with encouraging possibilities.