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Real Madrid were shocked for the second time in four days after they were beaten 0-1 by Alaves at Mendizorotta stadium in Alava. Substitute Manu Garcia scored the only goal in what was the last touch of the match.
Real remained second in the league table with 14 points, the same as Barcelona, but played a game more than their arch-rivals. Surprisingly, Alaves leaped to third on the LaLiga table, just behind Real with the same number of points.
However, either Atletico Madrid or Real Betis have a chance to overtake Real, when they meet each other on Sunday. Also, Barcelona can consolidate their top position with a win against Valencia.
After their shocking defeat against CSKA Moscow in Champions League, Real had a great chance to turn things around and put them in the hunt of an elusive League title. Now, they haven’t scored in the last four games after 16 years, and have been beaten by the Basque side after 87 years.
These are the three reason why Real Madrid came to a shocking defeat:
#1 Who is going to score?
The familiar problems continue to haunt Real. After Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure, they have failed to find a near replacement. They have spent a lot of money on Thibaut Courtois, which was unnecessary, but not on Eden Hazard, who could have been a good replacement for the Portuguese superstar.
The result is there for everyone to see. Hazard continues to shine in Chelsea with his talent and goal-scoring ability. Real, on the other hand, stumbling with every move they are taking on to.
It was thought Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema will cover up the loss of Ronaldo. After eight matches, they are far from doing their responsibility.
Bale is a serious talent, but he is an injury-prone player. One has to count the impact he had on last season’s Champions League final.
This season, when he was promising to be the best, he got an injury and after his first match upon returning, he looked like a pale of his shadow.
Real bought back Mariano Diaz from Olympique Lyon and introduced Vinicius Jr. Both of them are supposed to score goals. However, it seems Diaz has left his scoring boots in Lyon and Vinicius is still a raw talent to know the difference between the Brazilian league and the LaLiga.
If this goal-scoring drought continues for some more matches, Real will find really difficult to qualify for the Champions League, let alone keeping it.
#2 Alaves cashes in the opportunity
Alaves have been impressive this year. They are a team who usually aim to avoid relegation and stay in the LaLiga as long as possible. They had started the season with a 0-3 loss against Barcelona and everybody thought this season will also be more or less the same.
But after the opening loss, they continued to improve. They routed Rayo Vallecano 5-1 two weeks ago in an away game but lost to Levante in their previous match.
Before the match against Real, their supporter put up a large banner which roughly says, ‘You don’t need to win trophies to be a great club, you need to have supporters.’ This surely suits for a club who don’t have any top flight honour and their best performance so far was in 2001 when they were runner-up in UEFA Cup against Liverpool.
They were superb against Real, considering the number of attacks they had. Despite lacking on ball possession, they utilized every opportunity to counter-attack and both Jony and Ibai Gomez tasted Courtois with blazing shots.
A draw was enough for them on Saturday. But they kept on attacking and the last second goal only shows their grit and resilience.
#3 Is it the end of the road for Julen Lopetegui?
How long will Julen Lopetegui survive? The supporters have already started campaigning against the Spanish coach. Even under Rafael Benitez, who was sacked midway in the 2015-16 season, had a better record.
Real had a very smooth campaign at the beginning of this season, with three wins from as many matches in La Liga. Problems started to arise when they were held against Athletic Bilbao, and the subsequent losses against Sevilla, CSKA and Alaves proves all is not well.
In the absence of Isco, Marcelo and Dani Carvajal, Lopetegui started with the best available line-up. Four of them got a place in FIFpro World XI recently. But for the whole 90 minutes, they failed to find the back of the net.
Gareth Bale started after coming back from injury but midway in the second half, the Welshman looked dead tired as eventually substituted by Lopetegui.
What Lopetegui wants to do with this team is hard to understand. But his time is running out. He will have only two matches – Levante in La Liga and Victoria Plzen in Champions League – before the biggest encounter against Barcelona.
Lopetegui needs to go back to the drawing board before everything fizzles out of his hand.
