Real Madrid played their second game against Elche within the space of 70 hours, and they didn’t find it easy this time either. They drew the game 2-2 thanks to a late equalizer from Eder Militao, and one might think that Los Blancos could’ve won the game if they just had a slice of luck today.
The game started off on an emotional note for every Madridista in the stadium, as the crowd in the Bernabeu got to pay their tributes to one of the greatest Real Madrid legends ever, Paco Gento, who had passed away on 18th January. But on a whole, it was truly an entertaining game, and there can be a lot of takeaways from this game, including some positives and negatives.
Positive 1 – Real Madrid never give up, and neither does Vinicius
I’ve talked about this a lot of times in my recent works. Real Madrid isn’t about a specific footballing philosophy. Real Madrid is all about fighting it out on the pitch, until the final whistle, and about winning at any cost. Madridismo is about not giving up. And today, we got to see a Real Madrid team that simply didn’t give up, even when they were two goals behind and it was becoming increasingly difficult to score against a determined Elche side.
The whites fought like warriors on the pitch, and it took a calmly taken penalty from Luka Modric and a fantastic header from Eder Militao in the 92nd minute, to salvage a point for Real Madrid.
But the player, who embodied that fighting spirit of Real Madrid was the one and only Vinicius Jr. He was simply relentless on the pitch and kept running at the defenders until the final moment. Even in situations where there wasn’t any hope, he was able to create something out of almost nothing.
He got started in the first half itself and won a penalty for the team in the 32nd minute. It was missed by Karim Benzema and it might have demotivated the team a bit as Elche had opened the scoring just a few minutes after that. But Vinicius just didn’t give up. He almost scored in the second half but his shot missed the far post by a margin. After the 75th minute, he just hit the top gear and there was no stopping him, as he eventually assisted Militao’s late equalizer with a wonderful cross.
Players like Vinicius, who never say never, are the ones who can take this club to great heights with their talent and character.