Although he remains anguished by the mountain of injuries, Real Madrid’s current has changed in parallel with Barcelona’s decline, which has recovered five points in the last two days. In the extreme scarcity, Ancelotti’s battalion has woken up, more united with fewer troops, and with goals from those who missed them the most, Mbappé and Bellingham, who scored in the victory against a Leganés that did not fall apart in any section, but who was not allowed to find a way to worry Courtois. Despite the personnel shortages, Madrid looks with a little more joy to the committed visit to Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday.
0
Marko Dmitrovic, Matija Nastasic, Sergio González, Javi Hernández, Yvan Neyou (Julián Chicco, min. 57), Adrià Alti (Valentin Rosier, min. 74), Renato Tapia, Juan Cruz, Darko Brasanac (Sébastien Haller, min. 74) , Munir El Haddadi (Dani Raba, min. 58) and Miguel de la Fuente (Diego Garcia, min. 85)
3
Thibaut Courtois, Fran García, Raúl, Antonio Rüdiger, Federico Valverde, Jude Bellingham (Endrick, min. 86), Eduardo Camavinga, Arda Güler (Brahim Díaz, min. 74), Dani Ceballos, Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé (Luka Modric, min. 82)
Goals
0-1 min. 42: Kylian Mbappe. 0-2 min. 65: Federico Valverde. 0-3 min. 84: Jude Bellingham
Referee Javier Alberola Rojas
yellow cards
Miguel De La Fuente (min. 48), Adrià Altimira (min. 69)
It will need some minor adjustments, but it already has more gears working than before. He is bare in defense, but it was not only there where Ancelotti intervened. He had little room left in that line: he placed Valverde at right back and, as Rüdiger’s partner, the youth squad Asencio, again safe and successful. The Italian continued to shake up the organization higher up, where the arrival of Mbappé has had an influence. After 18 games he has not acclimated to the center. In the last match, that small general resurgence against Osasuna, it already appeared on the left towards the end.
And that’s where it started in Butarque, which moved Vinicius to the center. The Brazilian stepped heavily into the central zone last year, after the departure of Benzema, who seems to have retained some of his talent as a connector. He moves there with more ease than Mbappé, he enriches the game more. But it disappears from the left, where it is even more harmful than the French. But at the moment there are other needs. The transfer suited Mbappé well, freed up in his lane. He came into contact with the ball more often and started forward, although from very far away and with little threat. The best thing he had was served by Vinicius from his pivot location: two filtered passes for a one-on-one and an assist.
The play for the first goal contained a lot of what Ancelotti had missed until a few days ago. Vinicius lost a ball and the loss sparked a furious reaction. Camavinga went in to steal, Bellingham tried to keep pressing and the Brazilian ended up recovering with a touch that already got him into the area. When he faced Dmitrevski, he gave the goal to Mbappé, who only had the net left in front of him.
Mbappé’s move coincided with a greater presence of Bellingham, the axis of everything from the midfield. The world danced around him. He made it spin. He dominated space and time, ordered and disordered, marking the pace of the function, and in his function all interpretations exuded harmony. The pieces fit together. Güler, once again a starter, threatened with his dribble and pass from the right, a depopulated region from which he extracted something with each attempt. Camavinga supported the system as a pivot, and accelerated the distribution very successfully.
Leganés held on in order, and in the cool stretches found some way with Juan Cruz and Brasanac under the direction of Tapia. Madrid calmed down the first episodes, and for the next local assault they had to wait for Borja Jiménez to move the bench and bring in Raba and Chicco. There Leganés stirred again, always under the surveillance of General Rüdiger.
Valverde not only fulfilled the surveillance of his right wing. As the meeting progressed, he became encouraged to explore further ahead. And he completed his test session for Anfield by scoring in a way that is beginning to become a habit. Ceballos softly touched a free kick near the front, Güler stopped the ball and the Uruguayan smashed it: a bolt of lightning that whizzed by near the post stump. From then on, Leganés barely found any more air, and Vinicius continued to open paths from the center. As a delivery man. He left Mbappé alone in the race against Dmitrevski, but the Frenchman has not yet recovered his point and put it into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Among what is working again we must also include Brahim, who had just scored five goals with Morocco. In the long quarter of an hour he had in Butarque he showed his usual voracity. His half-turned shot deflected off the crossbar, and there Bellingham scored the third. Madrid has lost many people, but Anfield is heading into that awakening that usually causes despair.
