Rayo Vallecano – Real Madrid – Karim Benzema offers victory to Real on the lawn of Rayo Vallecano

Who else than Karim Benzema to save Real Madrid at half mast? Scorer in the 83rd minute of a dull Madrid derby, the French center-forward scored his 19th goal of the season in La Liga, allowing the Merengues to snag victory on the lawn of Rayo Vallecano ( 0-1). Without ideas and barely 10 minutes from the end of regulation time, Carlo Ancelotti’s men delivered a performance far from being up to the challenge that will await them on March 9 at the Bernabeu against Paris Saint-Germain (eighth second leg of the Champions League).

This meeting perfectly symbolizes the game deployed by the people of Madrid since the beginning of the year: wait-and-see attitude, repeated loss of ball (134 this Saturday), and a lack of efficiency screaming both in the transmissions of the midfield , than in front of the opposing cages. Reassuring in his role as a metronome, Luka Modric, well helped by the performance of Dani Carvajal on the right side, was able to show himself at the level, in a breathless midfield. Proof of this is the sixty minutes played by Casemiro, overwhelmed by the match, and author of 14 ball losses alone in just one hour.

Carlo Ancelotti… limited?

With his usual eleven (apart from the absence of Alaba in central defense, replaced by Nacho), Carlo Ancelotti was slow to react, his last three changes having taken place in the last ten minutes of regulation time. After bringing in Eduardo Camavinga and Federico Valverde late, the Italian coach left players like Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic and Isco on the bench.

With this victory, Real retains its first place (60 points) and obtains a provisional nine-point lead over its runner-up (Sevilla, 51 points, 1 game less). With an almost full game, Andoni Iraola’s Franjirrojos stagnated in 12th place (31 points), and chained a fifth defeat in a row in La Liga… Positive point to note: the successful performance of Luca Zidane in the goals of Rayo, the former resident of Real having distinguished himself against his training club by saving 5 times shots on target from the Merengues.