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Real Madrid take themselves four points clear at the top of the La Liga table after defeating a gritty Getafe at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano on Thursday.
While the game looked stuck till very late, with neither team creating clear opportunities to score, Los Blancos captain Sergio Ramos converted a penalty in the 79th minute to assert his side's dominance at the top of the standings.
The away side probed early and put in a massive shift but Real Madrid managed to eke out a professional victory to maintain their golden form since the restart of the league post-lockdown.
On that note, let's discuss the five reasons why Real Madrid won the game.
#1 Getafe wore down after putting in a tremendous shift
Getafe put up an incredible performance for most of the 90 minutes, probing and attacking Real Madrid on the break. Jose Bordalas' team crowded the midfield, cut off the hosts' wing play and attacked with Jaime Mata at the top of a 4-5-1 set up.
While the system looked to nullify most of what Real Madrid had to offer, the plan was dependent on the fullback pairing of Damián Suárez and Mathías Olivera, who ran up and down relentlessly till the 70th minute.
This attacking mentality meant that it left spaces in the wide areas and Real Madrid exploited this more than once in the game.
While Suarez- who was positioned on the right- was able to block an advance from Karim Benzema in the second half of the game, it was Olivera who could not cope with the pace of Dani Carvajal and brought him down in the penalty box.
Disciplined for most of the game and executing the coach's plan to perfection, Getafe will probably feel hard done by Thursday's result.
#2 Substitutions from Zidane
With the new rule allowing five substitutions from a team in a single game, Zinedine Zidane exploited the quality in the Real Madrid bench. Despite losing Raphael Varane in the half-hour mark to what seemed like a mild concussion, the French manager did not cluster.
When Real Madrid looked slow in transition and Vinicuis Jr. looked lost for ideas, Zidane brought in three substitutions in the 63rd minute. Rodrygo for Isco. Federico Valverde for Luka Modric. Marco Asensio for Vinicius Jr.
The changes bore fruit immediately. Real Madrid started to free up Benzema more often and, the quick transitions meant they gave space for the fullbacks to attack wide.
This came in handy in the 77th minute when a quick back-flick in the right side of the midfield found Carvajal storming up the pitch and cut back sharply inside the box, prompting the Getafe left-back to foul him for an obvious penalty.
Ramos converted the spot-kick, which ended up being the only difference between Madrid and Getafe on the night.
#3 Patience pays off for Real Madrid
It would not be an understatement to say that a lot was riding on the game. Real Madrid were looking to extend their lead at the top of the La Liga table, and Getafe were looking to inch closer to the Champions League spot which they had just missed out on last season.
Despite the stakes being high, Real Madrid's calmness on the ball looked relatively odd. However, Zinedine Zidane trusts his men and they trust him back. They passed the ball around, tried not to lose possession and stretched the opponent's defence. Once they were drawn wide, Los Blancos launched a searing counter-attack to earn themselves the crucial penalty.
#4 Sergio Ramos shows up when required
If people were randomly asked to guess the player with the most number of goals since the restart on a Twitter poll, many would not be able to answer definitively.
Sergio Ramos, the talismanic captain of the famed Los Blancos, at the age of 34, has scored six goals in the last 11 La Liga matches, four of which came after the league restart.
Against Getafe, the Spaniard lost his centre-back partner in the 30th minute, was paired up with Eder Militao- who did not look very comfortable on the ball- and yet kept a clean sheet for Real Madrid.
The team looked lost in the final third as they did not have many clear chances but they still managed to score a solitary goal to earn all three points. And all this was because of a single man: Sergio Ramos.
#5 Getafe's decision-making in the final third
Getafe came into the game with a very clear gameplan. Crowd the midfield, attack wide and grab any chance by the scruff of its neck. They knew that they were playing against the mighty Real Madrid and that the chances would be hard to come by.
The visitors did most of the probing in the first half with Marc Cucurella bombarding the defence along with Mata, Allan Nyom, Mauro Arambarri and Nemanja Maksimovic. They took their chances against Thibaut Courtois but none of the shots was sharp enough to beat the Belgian goalkeeper. This ultimately cost them the game.
If Getafe could have scored early in the first half, the game's result could have been very different.
