The Real Champs
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Three things to blame for Real Madrid’s Copa Del Rey exit to Athletic Bilbao

By Sai Siddhartha S

BILBAO, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 03: Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid leaves the pitch after losing the match against Athletic Club during the Copa del Rey Quarter Final match between Athletic Club and Real Madrid at Estadio de San Mames on February 03, 2022 in Bilbao, Spain. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
BILBAO, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 03: Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid leaves the pitch after losing the match against Athletic Club during the Copa del Rey Quarter Final match between Athletic Club and Real Madrid at Estadio de San Mames on February 03, 2022 in Bilbao, Spain. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images) /
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Real Madrid, Casemiro
Real Madrid, Casemiro (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images) /

2. The players’ lack of seriousness in an important game

After our last game with Elche, I had praised the team’s fighting spirit and their nature of not giving up. But in yesterday’s game, which was held just 10 days after our last game, there was literally zero intent from the players on the pitch.

Carlo Ancelotti can take the decisions, can only trust the players to perform on the pitch and pass instructions from the sidelines. The rest is in the hands of the players, and the result will be dependent on their performance. And yesterday a lot of players failed to play well, including the seniors of the team.

In attack, Marco Asensio was invisible for major portions of the first half and wasn’t able to take advantage of getting to play as a false-9. Rodrygo was completely ineffective from both the wings, as he was easily bullied by the Athletic players. The overworked Vini looked exhausted throughout the match, and even the team’s best players like Luka Modric and Toni Kroos had a poor game by their lofty standards. And Casemiro’s weaknesses were easily exploited by Marcelino’s men, as he was forced to give away the ball for Athletic’s late winner.

Apart from the team’s saviour Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao and captain Nacho Fernandez, the rest were disappointing, to say the least. I didn’t see this coming, with the European players having a break of around 10 days. And we’re used to a Real Madrid team that lives for big games like these, so it was definitely a shocking performance. We have the best midfield trio in Europe, but it was a shame that we couldn’t string more than two to three passes in most of the attacking moves.

Another topic that has to be talked about is the team’s overdependence on Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr in the attack. Both of them have bailed out the team a lot of times this season, but without them, they looked toothless in attack and were out of ideas. This is something the manager needs to work on because overdependence on just two players is never a good sign.

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