Real Madrid made their return to club football in fantastic fashion as they picked up an exciting 4-1 win at Granada on matchday 13 of La Liga. Goals from Marco Asensio, Nacho Fernandez, Vinicius Jr and Ferland Mendy made sure that Real were in the driving seat at all times, as they now travel to Moldova for their Champions League clash against Sheriff.
It was a dominant display from start to finish, and there were rarely any hiccups during the game. Of course, I would have preferred to see Real Madrid keep a clean sheet for once, but a win is more important than everything else.
What are my takeaways from this game?
This Real Madrid performance was so fun to watch!
Truth be told, even though Real have been winning a lot of games this season, they still haven’t performed at their best in most of those wins, and have relied on heroics from Vinicius Junior or Karim Benzema for goal-scoring exploits.
This game was a breath of fresh air in that regard. Real escaped Getafe’s press so effortlessly, created chances seamlessly and put them away ruthlessly.
One thing to note is that both Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior had mediocre first-half performances, but the team still played very well, and was leading at half-time without really requiring their help in the build-up for the first two goals. In the second half, Vinicius showed a lot of improvement, but the rest of the team played well enough to keep the load off him.
Casemiro had a great game. Like Kevin said in the player ratings, he more than made up for his mistake by making a bunch of incredible passes. Like, I haven’t seen a string of passes like this from Casemiro in years. Great stuff.
The defense was solid as well, particularly David Alaba. He made sure that the team doesn’t concede any more goals, and had a near-perfect game. He fits this team like a glove.
Oh, and did you watch that third goal? Gorgeous.