It has been said since the new season began that LaLiga´s level is getting lower towards other leagues in Europe. The theory gets proved every Champions League fixture while in Spain, those who used to win day in and day out, now loose every three days. Today, in a duel between two of those big clubs that are not going through their best moment, just one of the multiple mistakes that was made was, in this case, taken advantage by Zidane´s Madrid to win, breathe and hide, just for those who do not want to see it, an obvious mediocrity among the big clubs. Sevilla and Real Madrid show these symptoms every weekend.
Worrying first half:
LaLiga´s level is a worrying fact and today´s first half of a game that used to be very attractive was the sign. 45 minutes and just a shot to the goal (Benzema, plus a good save by Bono). Nothing else. Sevilla took too much risk at trying to pass the ball backwards and they were close to give some goals, which they ended up doing in the second half. The two central defenders (Diego Carlos and Koundé) were too high and did not watch out for long balls. Aleix Vidal, who made his debut in the current season today, lost his mark on his back constantly, but neither Rodrygo or Lucas Vázquez took advantage of it.
At Real Madrid, where Casemiro returned to the starting lineup in order to fix problems in the middle, nobody broke lines, everyone was very static and Benzema, the only one to look for options, wouldn´t know who to link with. Vinícius fell down a couple times when trying to dribble, he did not do anything else and Mendy, a dangerous player for his own team, brought his rival back to live, as they were unable to make anything on their own. All in all, both made mistakes but neither of them could take advantage of it. A reflect of the hole both teams are in.
Madrid made the most out of a mistake:
Second half followed the same direction. Madrid, as usual, ran out of gas. Sevilla were unable to make a pass, but they increased the pace. However, Madrid made the things “less worse” and accepted a gift that allow them to breathe. Sevilla suffered a terrible mistake defensively, Mendy made a short cross and Vinícius touched the ball with his toe, which made keeper Bono to send the ball in. He did not show secureness throughout the entire game and he ended up paying for his poor performance.
Lopetegui sent his team to the attack in search of an equalizer that could have only come through one of the thousand crosses that they sent inside the box. it did not happen and Zidane´s team, just as poor as Lopetegui´s, found a victory that is just going to hide their momentum and keep them in the battle for the title.
