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In their second LaLiga game of 2019, Real Madrid hosted Real Sociedad at the Santiago Bernabeu. After a frustrating draw against Villareal, Real Madrid were hoping for a change of fortune in front of their home fans.
Asensio, Bale, and Llorente were all injured; hence Santiago Solari opted to give the teenage Brazilian Vinicius Jr a place in the starting lineup. Real Sociedad manager Alguacil decided to go with a 4-2-3-1 combination with Willian Jose as the sole striker.
Real Sociedad had a dream start to the encounter as Willian Jose converted a penalty after Casemiro fouled Mikel Merino. After that Real Madrid completely dominated the first half and created a lot of goal scoring opportunities but failed to equalize. Ruben Pardo rubbed some salt on Madrid’s wound with a header from close range at the 83rd minute and in the end Sociedad comfortably beat Madrid 2-0. Here are the hits and flops from the game:
Hit: #1 Vinicius Jr.
A lot of eyebrows were raised when the teenager was opted ahead of the experienced Isco, but he displayed his full potential in front of the Bernabeu faithful and put in a Man of the match performance.
He was the sole bright spot in a disastrous performance from the Los Blancos. Whenever Madrid attacked, he was at the forefront of it as he stayed wide of the Left flank and kept cutting in with ease. In the first half, he received a cross from Marcelo and created an excellent opportunity for Benzema to score, but the Frenchman struck the ball wide of the post.
In the second half, he was left unmarked after a brilliant through pass from Isco and was fouled by Sociedad keeper Rulli in a one on one situation. Surprisingly, the Penalty was not given in spite of the presence of VAR. With this performance, he has cemented his place in the team for the next few games.
Flop #1 Casemiro
During his absence from the team, the young Marcos Llorente put on some brilliant performances, and this disastrous display by Casemiro against Real Sociedad will raise question marks over his place in the team.
He made an unnecessary foul very early in the game when he gave away a penalty after deliberately pulling Mikel Moreno down inside the box. Replays clearly showed that there was no Real Sociedad player in a dangerous position inside the box and the ball would have been easily cleared away for a corner.
His positioning was all over the place, and the tackles were brash and had little sense of purpose. He gave away the ball too easily when Madrid started an attack, and this resulted in counter attacks by the opposition. After a few minutes into the second half, he was substituted for Isco and went off in front of the disappointed home crowd who showed their frustration by loud whistles.
Hit #2 Gerónimo Rulli
This was a dream outing for the Argentine as he played a vital part in a historic victory for Real Sociedad and kept a clean sheet away from home. His positioning and game awareness was just outstanding, and even when the Sociedad defence looked shabby, he rose up to the situation and bailed his team out with some good saves.
He denied Vinicius Jr. twice in one on one situations by coming out of his position. First, Vinicius tried to chip the ball past him but Rulli was alert, and the shot deflected off his gloves.
In the second half, he made a dangerous tackle on Vinicius Jr. when the entire goalpost was left open for Vinicius to score. He kept out a powerful shot from 25 yards by Luka Modric with a good dive to his right and showed maturity and calmness while collecting headers from Casemiro and Ramos.
Flop #2 Lucas Vasquez
Just when it looked like he had cemented his place in the team after spending a long time on the bench, his performance against Real Sociedad showed all the weaknesses in his game. He loves working hard to win back the ball, and that resulted in him committing some bad fouls.
It looked like Madrid were out of firepower in the right flank as the defensive discipline of Real Sociedad restricted the number of crosses from Lucas, and he lacked the creativity and vision to pass the ball from tight spaces.
Also, it is fair to say that in this game Vazquez was needed up the pitch, but he seemed more interested in dropping back and helping the defenders. In the 61st minute, he was given a second yellow card and sent off the pitch after yet another foul while trying to regain possession. This was a forgettable outing for him, and Madrid fans will be hoping that he comes back stronger in the next game.
Hit #3 Mikel Merino
The Spaniard was Real Sociedad’s best player on the pitch and with a bit more luck would have had at least two goals to his name. Even though he started as a central attacking midfielder, he was granted the freedom to drift wide off the pitch to create opportunities and this caused a lot of trouble to the Madrid defence.
Within three minutes of the game, he made a brilliant run on the edge of the box by beating Marcelo and Casemiro out of desperation pulled him down. A penalty was awarded, and Willian Jose scored to put the visitors ahead.
The Madrid defence had no clue on how to stop him during transitions as his pace and dribbles wreaked havoc consistently. In the second half, he was denied by an excellent save from Courtois after he beat Ramos and Varane with ease. Even the experienced Casemiro could not do anything to stop him, and this was probably the youngster’s best performance in LaLiga.
