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Julen Lopetegui's Real Madrid side played its first home game against Italian giants AC Milan to compete for the Santiago de Bernabeu trophy yesterday. Every year a team is invited to take on the Spanish Giants for the trophy before the start of the season.
Real Madrid's actual season starts when they face their city rivals, Atletico Madrid, in the UEFA Super Cup on the 15th of August.
Their encounter against Milan was the last match in which Lopetegui could plan and try out his tactics for the season, decide his lineups and get to know his players' abilities. Evidently, he started his best line up against Milan, where Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Borja Mayoral each scored to seal the win for the Los Blancos.
Let's take a look at 5 talking points from the match.
#5 Luka Modric still to be vital:
Even though Modric started on the bench, he did not fail to showcase his class in the 15 minutes for which he was present on the pitch. The 32-year-old Croatian midfielder almost bagged a goal and also played a couple of one-twos and dribbled past players resulting in a standing ovation from the fans.
The Croatian was heavily linked with Inter but now he's set to stay at Real with an improved salary after an excellent performance in the World Cup. It will be interesting to see how Lopetegui is going to use him in his side.
#4 Confusion over Navas and Courtois
Real Madrid may have signed the golden glove winner from 2018's World Cup, but it might prove to be a tough task to choose the starter between 26-year-old Courtois or Madrid's previous first-choice keeper, Keylor Navas. Keylor Navas has been in the best form of his career in the past few seasons and showed some good reflexes in the World Cup and during yesterday's match as well.
Navas has been highly underrated despite being one of the top reasons for Real Madrid's UCL domination over the years.
Courtois was expected to make his debut against Milan but the Real Madrid boss chose Navas to start in the goal. It'll be interesting to see whom he chooses to be the regular starter in the team. With Courtois having been desperate to complete the move to Real Madrid, it would be ironic if he does not start regularly.
#3 Bale to become the 'next Ronaldo':
There's no doubt over Gareth Bale's skills and abilities. It was his injuries which restricted him from being one of the top 3 players in the world after Leo and Cristiano. With his recent performances, Bale looks hungry to thrive as if he was waiting for Ronaldo to leave.
Bale scored the second goal of the match and looks in good touch prior to the season which is surely a positive side for Lopetegui, who wishes to win his first major trophy at Real Madrid against Atletico.
Julen already made it clear that Bale would be taking over Ronaldo's role, and Bale started at Ronaldo's old position against Milan. He made it clear that there's a lot to come from him in this season.
#2 Direct football, not possession under Julen:
Judging by the type of more aggressive football Real Madrid is playing these days, it looks to be clear that Julen Lopetegui doesn't want his team to hold unwanted possession of the ball. Seemingly looking to create more and more goal scoring opportunities, Lopetegui's Madrid might be the object of dread for their opponents.
His use of the fullbacks to attack from the flanks, and setting up a player free to score the goal or possibly have a sudden run into the box to make an assist displays his intention clearly. Real Madrid is expected to play some great attacking football this season with highly rated talents such as Asensio, Vasquez and Vinicius Junior there to back up their attack.
#1 Stronger Defence:
Real Madrid had not played good football in terms of defence last season. But Julen Lopetegui looks set to improve the quality of their backline and during the match against Milan, the defence looked stiff and tough.
Casemiro did well in providing his defensive contributions, and Sergio Ramos and Varane are an experienced pair of centre-backs who performed well in the game.
The addition of Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Odriozola have further improved the Real Madrid defence and it looks set to take over the season with better performances than they put up during their last season.
