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Real Madrid hosted Valencia at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday night. Coming into the game, Real Madrid were at the 7th spot with 20 points while Valencia was at the 13th spot with 17 points.
Real Madrid came out on top with on the night with a 2-0 victory over Valencia. This comes after Real Madrid had won 2-0 against Roma in the Champions League. Valencia had the chance to break into the top half of the table with a win.
Real Madrid opened the scoring in the 8th minute itself. In an attempt to clear Dani Carvajal's attempted cross, Daniel Wass inadvertently headed the ball into his own net. There were no goals to before the first half came to the close. Late in the second half, Marco Asensio missed a sitter to fire Real Madrid ahead.
Lucas Vazquez finally put the game to bed in the 83rd minute. Real Madrid has managed to close the gap at the top of the table. They are now three points within leaders Sevilla and two away from second-placed Barcelona. Valencia stays at the 13th spot, failing to break into the top half and potentially missing out on a 7th spot.
Here are five talking points from the game.
#5 Youngsters impress for Madrid
Santiago Solari gave a rest to Marcelo and Toni Kroos against Valencia. Although it was a good decision to rotate, rotation against Valencia could have backfired. However both youngsters Llorente and Reguilon were up to the task against Valencia.
Marcos Llorente was deployed in the defensive midfield role and carried forward on his sublime form from the Roma game. He controlled most of the possession for Real Madrid, in fact, the highest possession percentage for a Madrid player yesterday, at 6.9%. At the defensive end, Llorente completed 3/4 tackles and made an interception. Further, he passed with a precision of 95%, completing 79 out of 83 passes and made one key pass.
Reguilon replaced Marcelo in the left wing and he ran an awful lot. In numbers, Reguilon made two successful tackles, made a key pass and made passes at 91%. He made several headways through the left wing which culminated in a pass towards the center but two to three chances were wasted.
These youngsters have proven that Solari could trust them more by performing against a solid Valencia team. Even Federico Valverde won two aerial duels and a tackle in the short amount of time that he was on the pitch. A statement made by the youngsters.
#4 Defense holds steady in the first half, lacks concentration in the second
In their previous games, Madrid was very weak on the defensive end. Eibar broke through the defense in the last game and Madrid lived dangerously against Roma. Valencia made several attempts to break them down in the first half but there was no space vacant.
Any cutback, cross, shot or dribble attempt, everything was gobbled up by the Madrid defense. Valencia didn't have a sight of Thibaut Courtois in the first half. The defense justified the presence of Ramos and Varane in the middle.
In the second half, Valencia came out with more intent and accordingly the defense was broken apart on numerous occasions. We saw the same sort of problems that we saw with Madrid defense in the past few matches. Thibaut Courtois came to their rescue twice in the second half.
Madrid shouldn't be in the delusion that their defensive problems are all but gone. They were saved by poor finishing of Valencia which won't be the case when poachers like Icardi and Kane are on a 1v1. Luck favored Madrid because they were brave in their attacking approach.
#3 Valencia would be gutted to miss all the chances
Valencia had a chance to break into the top half of the league table yesterday with a win. They did not catch a glimpse of the goal in the first half. But there were several chances in the second half that they could have and should have made to count.
Kevin Gameiro failed to get a good connection from Soler's through pass hitting in with no power in the end to Courtois. A minute later, Santi Mina blasted the ball over the bar in a 1v1 against Courtois, being in behind the defense. He had yet another chance five minutes later but he failed to shrug off Marco Llorente.
He had a third chance, 1v1 against Courtois and when he could have released a shot he tried to round Courtois off. His first touch was too heavy and Courtois long arms caught the ball. Gabriel had an easy chance from a volley, hardly a yard from goal and he somehow missed it. Before Vazquez's goal, Mitchy Batshuayi had a 1v1 opportunity to break the deadlock and he was denied by Courtois.
Six clear chances at goal wasted by Valencia. A failure to convert easy chances brought their downfall. They could have shifted momentum towards them had the got even two of those 6 chances because all of them came before Madrid's second.
#2 Real Madrid lacks the killer instinct
Take nothing away from Madrid. It was a good all-around show by Los Blancos. But they didn't have to wait till the 83rd minute to get the winning goal. They came fast off the blocks in the first half and were rewarded with the goal. But what about the remaining 40 minutes or so in the first half. They dominated, yes. But they could have done so much more with the momentum they had.
Reguilon was setting the tone in the left wing while Carvajal was firing up the right-hand side. But ultimately when the ball came to the middle, Real Madrid's forward made some poor choices. When Valencia had crowded the box with defenders, they tried to take the ball into the box and dribble past, ultimately not getting a shot. When they tried shots, they managed to fire it wide or over the bar, or like Bale did on a couple of occasions straight at Neto.
The huge amount of misses was luckily not punished by Valencia. In the second half, Madrid was pushed to the backfoot, chances came not so frequently as they did in the first half. Valencia's defense showed more solidity as there were hardly players forwards for Madrid as compared to the first half. Modric and Carvajal fired a couple of shots without any precision.
The only real threat in the second half before Vazquez's goal was the shot from Asensio. Madrid should have looked to play with the same intensity as they did in the first half but they did not. There were more players in the defensive areas because they let Valencia control so much of the ball. They should have tried to kill the game off, long before Valencia had a sniff. All they had was 3 shots on target out of 13 and a lot more shots could have been taken.
#1 Lucas Vazquez and Dani Carvajal light up the Bernabeu
No Isco, no problem. Solari trusted Vazquez at the right wing and without Isco's presence in the team, Madrid tamed Valencia thanks to him. Dani Carvajal ran tirelessly from the forward position to the defensive and he didn't show any signs of fatigue.
Carvajal was the creator of the first goal and he continued to wind up and down the right flank in the first half. The minimal amount of chances that Madrid created in the second half were mostly due to the fast breaks from Carvajal from the right wing. At the end of the day, Carvajal saw 5.9% of the possession, completed an astounding 100 passes, 5 dribbles and made 5 successful tackles and an interception.
Vazquez continued on his good form. He scored the all-important winner for Real Madrid but he offered a lot more, offensively and defensively. He completed passes at 96%, 51/63. He completed two dribbles and made two key passes as well. At the defensive end, he made 4 tackles along with two interceptions. He could continue in the starting 11 for Real Madrid.
Both players are Man of the Match contenders with some favoring Marcos Llorente as well. But one thing is for sure, both players set the right wing of fire and lit up the Bernabeu.
