Thursday, March 28

A golden victory at a worrying cost


Reuters

Matchday 28

Real Madrid leaves the League practically sentenced by defeating Mallorca in a match that caused the injuries of bigoleador Benzema and Rodrygo

Oscar Bellot

Real Madrid dealt a practically definitive blow to the League adding a golden victory that had a worrying cost. A goal from Vinicius to a pass from Benzema and a brace from the Lyon striker, who has accumulated eight goals in his last five appearances but turned on the red light by reaching out to the twin, overcame the resistance of a seasoned but weak Mallorca in the areas that ended up being diluted with the push of the leader.

Ancelotti’s team, unleashed after five days of jubilation, took three decisive points from the Balearic fiefdom but paid a high bill in the form of injuries. Benzema, with a muscle injury, and Rodrygo, who suffered a severe blow to the scaphoid in his right foot in a dispute over a split ball with Raíllo, sounded the alarm six days before a classic that the Whites will face with ten point rent about Sevilla, but pending the infirmary.

Four changes in Ancelotti’s eleven compared to the block that started against PSG. The Italian refreshed the sides, gave Modric oxygen and rewarded Rodrygo’s good work in that hectic last half hour that certified the whites’ passport to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

3
Real Madrid

Courtois, Lucas Vázquez (Carvajal, min. 70), Nacho, Alaba, Mendy (Marcelo, min. 80), Casemiro (Camavinga, min. 60), Valverde (Modric, min. 60), Kroos, Rodrygo (Asensio, min. 70), Benzema and Vinicius.

  • Goals:
    0-1: min. 55, Vinicius. 0-2: min. 77, Benzema, from a penalty. 0-3: min. 82, Benzema.

  • Referee:
    Sánchez Martínez (Murcian Committee). He booked Valverde, Vinicius, Ángel, Lucas Vázquez, Ancelotti, Raíllo and Maffeo.

  • Incidents:
    Match corresponding to matchday 28 of the League, played at the Visit Mallorca Estadi in front of 17,196 spectators.

The European hangover and the proximity of the classic turned relaxation into a possible trap for the leader who, aware of this, came out with intensity. A one-on-one between Benzema and Sergio Rico, from which the goalkeeper emerged victorious, and a whiplash from Mendy looking for the short stick that crashed into the side of the net, uncorked the duel against a Mallorca team in which Kubo struck from the left and Ángel seconded Muriqui in the lead.

The Kosovar wasted a brilliant chance after a wonderful cross from Brian Oliván that had left him alone in the heart of the area, although it was Maffeo who came closest to scoring before the break, shooting against the post after picking up a ball that Nacho had slashed him to Angel.

Modric’s substitution reduced the visitors’ pause and contributed to generating a two-way fight in which Real Madrid assumed to be quite exposed against a brave Mallorca, although with more tension and scuffles than dangerous occasions in an entertaining first half, although somewhat discontinuous due to those recurring fouls that braids sometimes charge so cheaply in the League, while they are permissive in the disciplinary section in ugly entries such as that of Ángel on Vinicius that do entail risk for the protagonists of the show.

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The white imbalance was again in the diagonals of Vinicius and Benzema’s class, although the vermilion team did a good corrective job in a first act that closed without excessive trouble, a merit not exactly minor in the case of the second team with the most goals in the First Division.

Vinicius clears the horizon

Ancelotti kept the deck after passing through the booth but ordered lines to go up to his sides, almost converted into wingers. The bet linked danger because it gave Kubo space to go deeper, but it cleared the horizon of Real Madrid, which was soon ahead. Valverde hit Baba, who went to the ground and lost the ball to Benzema so that the Frenchman served Vinicius and the Brazilian resolved by beating Sergio Rico below the legs.

Ancelotti opted to minimize risks by retiring a booked Valverde and Casemiro, who had twice flirted with a yellow card that had deprived him of playing Sunday’s classic. Talent and energy for the last third of the match with the entry of Modric and Camavinga, who would later be joined by Carvajal and Asensio by Lucas Vázquez and Rodrygo, who left on a stretcher and was unable to support his leg after an impact by Raíllo. Luis García Plaza went to the experience of Salva Sevilla and the office of Abdón Prats in search of a goal that would stop the fall of Mallorca, urgent for points to ward off the ghost of relegation but competitive against a leader on a streak.

The clash was messy with the changes and gave Real Madrid room to run. There the last options of Mallorca expired. Benzema struck in the area and stopped when he spotted Vinicius, who was licking his lips waiting for his partner to hand over when Brian Oliván was knocked down. Benzema did not hesitate from eleven meters, who deceived Sergio Rico and put another stone on the road to a victory that he fastened by scoring with a header, after Marcelo’s cross, his thirty-second goal of the course, twenty-two of them in the League, to leave almost sentenced the title at the gates of a classic in which its appearance is in danger.


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