Real Madrid took a breath after one of the darkest weeks in memory on and off the pitch. A goal from Benzema in the first half and another from Rodrygo in the vertiginous twilight of a dispute until then peaceful, returned to the path of victory a team that suffered a tolerable football storm last Wednesday at the Etihad, but which suffered a intolerable racist episode on the part of a few brainless three days ago at Mestalla.
Rayo, especially sharp in the first third of the match, stepped on the Santiago Bernabéu with the same determination and lack of complexes that helped him to score points this season in two other big venues such as the Camp Nou and the Metropolitano, but he ended up leaving Chamartín without a prize for the eleventh consecutive visit at the end of a confrontation that was framed by the moving act of reparation that the Santiago Bernabéu carried out with Vinicius, after the ordeal that the Brazilian experienced on Sunday at Mestalla.
Exempted by the Competition Committee from a sanction after seeing the red at the Valencia venue but dropped due to discomfort in his left knee, the winger watched, sitting to the right of Florentino Pérez in the box, how the white parish turned to support to a star whose courageous crusade should cause a catharsis in football and in Spanish society.
real Madrid
Courtois, Carvajal, Alaba, Nacho, Rüdiger (Tchouaméni, min. 83), Camavinga, Modric (Asensio, min. 71), Kroos, Valverde (Ceballos, min. 63), Benzema and Rodrygo.
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Vallecano Ray
Dimitrievski, Balliu, Lejeune, Catena, Fran García, Óscar Valentín, Comesaña (Trejo, min. 63), Isi (Chavarría, min. 63), Unai López (Falcao, min. 83), Álvaro García (Salvi Sánchez, min. 83) and Camel (Raúl de Tomás, min. 69).
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Goals:
1-0: min. 31, Benzema. 1-1: minutes 83, Raul de Tomas. 2-1: min. 89, Rodrigo. -
Referee:
Gil Manzano (Extremadura Committee). He admonished Álvaro García, Unai López, Comesaña and Carvajal. -
Incidents:
Match corresponding to matchday 36 of the League, played at the Santiago Bernabéu in front of 45,811 spectators.
The entire squad of Real Madrid, including Vinicius himself dressed in street clothes, jumped out onto the pitch with shirts bearing the number ’20’ and the name of the man from Fluminense on the back, while the respectable applause was louder for a footballer who thanked the closed ovation waving from the center of the field. In the South Fund, a huge banner that read “Vinicius we are all, enough is enough” served to express the rejection of all those madmen who take refuge in the mass to feed the serpent of racism. However, the high point came at minute 20, at which time the Chamartín coliseum thundered chanting the name of its flagship and making it clear that xenophobia, which has been growing like a Malaysian drop in the stadiums until the camel’s back overflowed. in Mestalla, it has no place in any sphere.
Beyond the tribute to a figure who has put his finger on the wound and assumed the flag for civil rights that other athletes like Muhammad Ali or Colin Kaepernick once raised, the meeting started with surprises such as the location of Rüdiger on the side Curiously, he made his debut for Real Madrid during the derby played in Las Vegas during the preseason. Camavinga, whom Ancelotti had been using as an orthopedic winger, was thus freed to play a double pivot with Kroos, while Rodrygo stepped on Vinicius’s private hunting ground on the left-handed end.
The lame goal
In short, an eleven without frills that was met with an energetic start by Rayo, who threatened, above all from midrange, a rival conditioned once again by the physicality of Benzema, battered but lethal. The man from Lyon, lame since the dawn of the dispute, nevertheless held on to beat Dimitrievski after a combination with Valverde that was preceded by a neutral dribble after a mishap suffered by Isi that further fueled the fire of controversy. Those from Iraola complained to Gil Manzano arguing that the last one to touch the ball had been a Rayo player, but the man from Extremadura ignored their pleas, understanding that the ball was headed for Carvajal’s boots when play stopped and that, therefore , the game had to resume with possession of Real Madrid.
The goal freed Real Madrid, who managed to anesthetize Rayo for a good part of the second half. But the franjirrojos found a crack in the lack of tension of a squad that cries out for vacations and reconnected to the party. A charge from Chavarría on the left flank dismasted Ancelotti’s rear, punished by a former member of the house like Raúl de Tomás with a whiplash that passed under Tchouaméni’s legs. And when Iraola’s men were licking their lips with a point that was surely insufficient in their fight for the Conference League, although valuable, Rodrygo appeared to give Ancelotti’s side the victory in a match that was inconsequential on the sporting level, but very relevant to score a goal for him. the whole squad to racism, which was what it was about.
#Rodrygo #resolves #Vinicius #reparation