This Real Madrid wants the League: the whites conquered Montilivi with a rout of Gironadespite a bad start to the game, to take advantage of Barça’s setback against Betis and depend on themselves again —and what happens at Mestalla in the postponed match— to assault the leadership of the national championship.
Montilivi left very opposite realities with the initial whistle: Girona, a team well built, knows what he’s playinghe is brave and is not afraid to dominate, he came out with great intensity for the game; Madrid, a painting still searching for his identity after Kroos’ goodbye and without a clear playing stylewith a Mbappé who has not yet found his best version, started so sleepy that he had to wake up suddenly.
Because it was the albirrojo team that took the lead. That was seen very soon on the pitch of the Girona stadium, with Bryan Gil doing his thing on the left side, against a Lucas Vázquez who suffered again against a vertical wingerand Asprilla stabbing the right before a Mendy who has lost all his defensive firmness.
Míchel’s team came very close, and always with danger. Much more than Madrid. But he was always very unsuccessful: Asprilla and Bryan Gil’s long-range shots went wide, and their clearest chance, a shot by Van de Beek inside the area, also ended up in the stands.
And in those, Madrid, which should never be trusted no matter how dead it seemshe had an opportunity and he didn’t waste it. Bellingham started the play by enabling Brahim on the right, and the man from Malaga, who should never give an inch, reached the baseline and put the ball back. Nobody managed to finish, but nobody cleared it either and Jude, who is sweet, impaled it on the goal to score his fifth goal of the season, scoring for the fifth consecutive game.
There Jude ended up taking control of the match. Because once English was intoned, Madrid danced to its rhythm and there was no one to stop it. This is demonstrated by the second half that Ancelotti’s men left on the Montilivi green. Gazzaniga saved two when he returned to the field: first he took a header from Tchouaméni, and then he cleared the ball before Mbappé was unmarked. But he couldn’t with the third.
By order of Bellingham, Arda Güler unmarked herself to receive a spectacular vertical ball from the British and stepped into the area, pulling out of his hat a very powerful cross shot to make the second and debut his scoring account this season. By then, the white team already dominated without opposition.
And then, the bad news arrived: the merengue ‘5’ went to the ground with a bad gesture and He asked for the change, although it seems that his presence is not in danger for the crucial visit to Atalanta in the Champions League, and Ceballos came out in his place. Not even the injury to his compass stopped an unleashed Real Madrid that wanted to finish the game calmly.
It only took him a minute to do it and it served him to respond to a shot from Asprilla that Courtois took after an error in the ball’s release by Ceballos: in a perfect counterattack, Kylian Mbappé returned to being the old man to step into the area and put the ball in the nets with a ‘house brand’ definition. A goal that helps the Frenchman continue to shake off the anxiety he has carried in recent games and to continue taking steps towards his best version.
He came very close in Montilivi, with good movements into space and much finer in his dribblingand he was even able to score the double, but Gazzaniga denied him by putting his arm in his first shot at the short post.
Meanwhile, Girona continued to push in search of, at least, the winning goal. Aprilla tried again, once again leaving a man in a bad place. Mendy who was injured in that action and left his position to Fran Garcíabut Courtois was not in the mood to fit in this Saturday. Danjuma also tried it, in an action in which he scrambled in the area in front of Lucas and took the shot, but the Belgian wall appeared again. In the other area, Endrick gave the scare and not because of the chances, but because of a blow with Gazzaniga’s knee that forced him to leave the field to be treated.
And the scoreboard did not move any further: Real Madrid took a very important victory, leaving good feelings on the grass with a great second half under the Bellingham leadershipand puts pressure on a Barça that could lose the lead if the whites defeat Valencia in their postponed match.
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