La Liga 2020/21: Valencia vs Real Madrid – tactical analysis

Zinedine Zidane suffered his heaviest defeat as Real Madrid manager in peculiar fashion at Estadio Mestalla on Sunday night as they crashed to a 4-1 thrashing in which they only conceded three shots on target, all from the penalty spot.

Real Madrid conceded three penalties in a La Liga game for the first time in history, with Carlos Soler duly converting all three, as each of the Real Madrid defence conceded a penalty each, with Raphaël Varane converting an own goal so as to join the club. For Los Blancos, it was Karim Benzema who opened the scoring and looked to get his team off on the right foot, but their joy was shortlived.

This tactical analysis of the La Liga win by Valencia over Real Madrid will highlight how the tactics of Javi Gracia were enough to overcome Zidane. The analysis looks at how Real Madrid fell to their second defeat of the season, falling behind Atlético Madrid and reducing their lead over Barcelona.

Line-ups

Valencia made just one enforced change from the side who saw just as much drama in the 2-2 draw with Getafe, as Uroš Račić came into midfield, with Daniel Wass moving back to right-back with Thierry Correia suspended after picking up two yellow cards in his last outing.

Real Madrid were forced into changes too. Eden Hazard and Casemiro were ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19, which allowed Luka Modrić and Vinícius Júnior to come into the team. What was more puzzling were two other decisions as Zidane rested Toni Kroos and Ferland Mendy to bring in Isco and Marcelo, both of whom had disappointing evenings.