Real Madrid returned to home turf knowing that they were days away from a Copa del Rey semi-final against Barcelona. It didnt see Santiago Solaris team take their foot off the gas at all though as they blew Alaves away in La Liga for a fifth consecutive win.
Karim Benzema broke the deadlock with a poachers tap-in inside the box to maintain his fine form, whilst Vinicius Junior added a second with a pinpoint finish. Mariano Diaz put the icing on the cake with his header in injury time to seal a 3-0 victory. Here, our tactical analysis will use statistics to identify what key points Real Madrid can take from the game.
All change in attack
For the first time starting together, Benzema and Vinicius were joined by Gareth Bale as the Welshman returned from injury to start in the trident, replacing Lucas Vazquez. It worked well too, with Benzema maintaining his fine form of late. The two wide men were clearly conscious of the fact that they may well have been battling it out for a starting spot in Wednesday’s El Clasico.
Perhaps just as positive was the display of Mariano. Despite going head over heels after missing the ball entirely with one of his first attempted touches, he made an impact on his own return from injury. Scoring with an exquisite diving header late on, he broke through the lines at breakneck speed, showing real anticipation and desire to get on the end of Alvaro Odriozola’s cross.
In fact, in just 18 minutes he achieved more shots on target than in his previous 215 minutes. With a more confident striker on the bench, it would only be good news and can add a more dynamic, traditional number nine to rotate with the in-form Benzema.
The only real negative was the performance of Bale. Whilst Vinicius on the left received more passes than in any other game for the club, clearly growing in influence, Bale became more and more isolated. Alaves anticipated his cuts inside and shut him down with an early press and marked him closely, nullifying him entirely.
For the first time since February 2018, he recorded zero xG when playing over an hour, something he has done just twice in a Real Madrid shirt. More must be expected of the Welshman, who maybe just proved that he doesn’t have what it to takes to compete with his Brazilian team-mate.
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