'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAHAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABv/aAAgBAQAAAAAQV//EABQBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX/2gAIAQIQAAAAK//EABQBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL/2gAIAQMQAAAAX//EACAQAAEDBAIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIBAwQABRESBhMiMlH/2gAIAQEAAT8AKx8TiNw0G1pJaN4Bkvdzg5bHTbVM+y+VO8Gim6ZN3yI0BLkQWO6uqfK//8QAGBEBAAMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgABBBH/2gAIAQIBAT8AWpk9qf/EABURAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS/9oACAEDAQE/ALf/2Q=='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Real Madrid and Las Palmas played out a brilliant 3-3 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu that had everything; great goals, farcical defending, controversial penalty decisions, frustrated red cards, the lot. With this draw, which Madrid will only see as a dropping of points (though in reality it was Las Palmas that dropped the points), La Liga has now been thrown wide open. Sure, Barcelona lead the league now by two points, but Madrid still have a game in hand. Do make it a point to mark out 23rd April on your calenders; that’s when el clasico round II is set to take place, and that one promises to be a belter.
Back to this match though, we take a look at the 5 key Talking Points from the breathless, break-neck-paced encounter:
#1. Keylor Navas’ and Sergio Ramos’ dip in form a major worry
Keylor Navas was in outstanding form over the course of 2016 and most of 2015, and was pushing the much more fancied names for the title of ‘best goalkeeper in th world’. This year, though, it’s been a whole different story and the Costa Rican’s shakiness has set the tone for Madrid’s defending. Much of the blame also lies with Sergio Ramos. Often compensating for disappointing days at the back by going up front and scoring goals instead, the Madrid captain has been in poor touch and is now being far too easily found out by players in La Liga. For Las Palmas’ first goal, Tana skipped past him with a hip swivel-and-turn that left the usually adept-at-recovering-his-position Sevillista with no chance.
Both players will need to improve, and lead from the front, if Madrid are to maintain their bid for the League and Champions League double.
#2. Las Palmas epitomise the brilliance of La Liga
The brilliant Sunny Sagar had just last week written about why La Liga was better than the Premier League, and what he said in that lovely insouciant stye of his driven home by the performance from supposedly ‘lowly’ Las Palmas. Coming to the Bernabeu at the end of a 4-game losing steak (hell, just coming to the Bernabeu) would have seen most teams take the pragmatic step of setting up shop to save themselves. But not Las Palmas.
Committed to the ideal of passing, attacking football, the unfancied islanders were utterly magnificent, attacking from the word go – passing the ball around the hallowed turf with the audacious confidence of an ersatz Barcelona. They were brilliant going forward – equalising right from kick-off on the only occasion they went behind - and even under the most intense pressure refusing to ditch their way off play, the ideal of passing it out from the back.
A measure of conservatism might have seen them protect the 3-1 lead they got against 10-man Madrid (an advantage they got because they frustrated the daylights out of Madrid, and specifically, Bale), but they are cut off a different cloth. In fact with better finishing (more of that to come), this game could well have finished a drubbing, just not in favour of the team you would have thought of before kickoff.
#3. Cristiano Ronaldo saves Madrid, and himself, again
How long can he keep doing this? Cristiano Ronaldo was in horrendous form for the vast majority of the match, skying volleys, getting in poor first touches, failing to pull off tricks (yes there were occasions of wonderful magic from the man, but they were few and far between) and yet at the end of the day he managed to win and convert a penalty (an unsaveable effort) to pull Madrid back into the game and then drag them level with an absolutely brilliant header (from a peach of a James cross).
With those two goals he spared not just Madrid, but also himself, the blushes. While the Bernabeu continued with their usual dose of whistles and boos at the end of the game, none of them were directed at the man they realise is aguably the sole reason they are still favourites to win the league.
Ronaldo now also has another magnificent record to his name – he’s now scored 25+ goals-a-season for all of the eight seasons he’s been at Madrid. Phew!
#4. Jese almost has near-perfect revenge, but shows why Madrid sold him
Jese was almost unplayable for the duration of the match. Having been thrown out of Madrid, and later from Paris, the Spaniard had gone to Las Palmas to regain lost form and confidence, and it appears he has found oodles of both. He ran Dani Carvajal ragged and cutting inside gave the central defenders a torrid time with his quick feet and wily off the ball movement. He set up chances smartly – none better than the one in the first half which Kevin-Prince Boateng blootered into the stratosphere - and created plenty of his own
He got in behind, and often through, the defenders a number of times – and that is when the faults started to creep in. He had atleast three clear cut chances to kill the game off, but each time shot too close to the keeper to give himself a chance of scoring. The other times he created space for himself, he saw his shot careening off a centre back (twice off Nacho, and once of Ramos). It is this haphazard finishing that convinced Madrid to sell him, and helped them save their blushes on his return.
For Jese’s sake, though, one can only hope he takes this a stepping stone and continues to raise his, and his mates’, game as the season progresses. Las Palmas deserve it for the faith they have placed in him.
#5. Is Zinedine Zidane just a lucky manager?
You would have expected the fifth talking point to be about the rather contentious refereeing on the night; Sergio Ramos’ and Dani Castellano’s penalty infrigements were both judged rather too harshly, but they weren’t in anyway disimilar to the one that went against Bruno Soriano when Madrid came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2. Alvaro Morata, meanwhile, had a hattrick chalked off by the linesman’s flag – on one occasion, the poor lad was actually a good yard onside (the ref thought thaat Ronaldo, who made the killer pass, was offside – he wasn’t, either).
But more than the systemic poor refereeing which has affected many-a-team, and many-a-match this season, let’s try and make our last talking point match-specific.
On a night when Luis Enrique called it quits after three years of being called lucky (he is, kind of, isn’t he? How do you not win with a front three of Messi, Suarez and Neymar at your disposal?) the question of whether Zinedine Zidane is just a lucky manager raised it’s ugly head once again.
Zizou’s record is still amazing, hell, he even created a record today; his Madrid side have now scored in 45 consecutive games in all competitions; a new Spanish benchmark, beating the one Barcelona set 70 odd years ago! But the question persists, without those late goals from Ronaldo and/or Ramos what would the record say. Pro-Zizou fans will point out that the best managers always knew how to grind out results, especially when their stars are underperforming and the fact that he’s had a number of key people missing for quite a while now.
Anti-Zizou fans, meanwhile, just need to point at the fact that Madrid still do not have any tangible sense of identity or tactics about them; and the fact that aura of invincibility that they once carried is slpping away and say “I rest my case”. Either way, it’s a tough one to call – and while Zidane will always trump Enrique when it comes to man-management, the question of whether he is just a lucky manager will haunt his legacy unless he does something drastic about it
