Once again, Real Madrid responded: on Wednesday, the Spanish club beat Borussia Muenchengladbach 2-0 with an emphatically functionality to triumph in the champions league round and relieve the pressure on coach Zinedine Zidane, but doubts remain after a complicated level organization for the Spanish national team.
Sergio Ramos returned to Madrid’s 11th most sensible against the Germans and there was also a first start this season for casemiro midfield triumvirate Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, who helped coach Zidane win three consecutive Champions League crowns between 2016 and 2018.
Karim Benzema, however, was the protagonist of the evening. The striker has been overshadowed by some of Florentino Pérez’s most prominent signings and even in this Real Madrid, Eden Hazard pretends to be the galactic of the selection for the president, but once he has. Back showed how trustworthy it can be for a team suffering from attack.
Number nine scored with two hard heads in the first 31 minutes in front of the Munchengladbach. From that moment on, Madrid never seemed to give in to their advantage over a rival who behaved disorderly. Modric orchestrated the game from the middle of the field, stretching the German in the baseline, and coach Marco Rose’s team never produced the fluid football that has become his Bundesliga trademark. There’s not even a fleeting look at what they can do on a strangely dull night at Borussia Monchengladbach.
What Madrid produced was a cool and serene performance, which left the awkward Germans no chance to rejoin the game. Even after the break, Madrid continued to climb. Zidane felt emboldened and passed the minutes to Sergio Arribas, 19 years old.
The dominance of Madrid, however, was flattered to deceive. This season, the Champions League has been a delight that invites reflection for the Spanish champion, proving, painfully, that the days of continental hegemony of the club are definitely a thing of the past. , the Spaniards left the 2019/20 Champions League with Manchester City and, in the new campaign, Madrid played a lousy football. First, the lousy 2-3 home defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk before Madrid fought for a 2–2 draw against Borussia Monchengladbach. The Spanish champion faced a modern and systemic interpretation of the game in Germany.
Last week, Madrid sparked a 2-0 defeat in Ukraine that was perhaps even more outrageous than the home defeat to Donetsk. On other occasions, Madrid has been exposed as an aged and disjointed team, moving to the center of one of Zidane’s challenges: his team has been the sum of its parts, but never again. The Frenchman tried to solve this challenge by asking his players for more help, but it was a complicated exercise. Monchengladbach didn’t go through the Madrid press, at the start of the attack and then capitulate, but in other phytos, the Madrid press was sometimes too shy with too much hesitation in the midfield. Donetsk and Valencia were among the groups that took advantage of it.
“Football has physically replaced and the intensity is very high those days,” Zidane said at a press conference last month. “I’m in favor of that, urgent upstairs and bringing the game to opposition. “it can also play deeper and wait, but it’s not for me. »
It is a sign that Zidane understands that his team will have to evolve, perhaps moving away from the pragmatic technique that has brought him so much good fortune in the past, to thrive both at home and in Europe. collective of its players. Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid’s next rival this weekend, showed how far this can take you.
I’m an independent football journalist in Belgium. I have traveled to more than 20 countries to report on the match. This summer I went to Azerbaijan for Europe.
I am an independent football journalist founded in Belgium, I have traveled to more than 20 countries to report on the match, this summer I went to Azerbaijan for the Europa League final, went to Spain for the Champions League final, covered the FIFA Congress and the first days of the Women’s World Cup in France and spent too much time on bed buses in Brazil the America’s Cup. I contribute to INSIDE World Football, World Soccer, Josimar, The Blizzard and BBC Radio’s Focus On Africa, among others. I’m also publishing an e-book about my passion, the Brazilian team of the 1970s. Graduated from Leuven Law School and Columbia University’s J-School.