The start of 2019 brought football back for Real Madrid, welcomed into Estadio de la Ceramica with a guard of honour following their Club World Cup win. However, it was the Real Madrid defence who gave a guard of honour to Santi Cazorla as he scored twice, his first goals in Spain since he left Malaga for Arsenal in 2012.
In between, two headers put the visitors back in the lead as Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane headed in from a cross and a set piece, but Santiago Solaris men were left to share the spoils in a 2-2 draw. Here, our tactical analysis will use statistics to identify what key points Real Madrid can take from the game as they missed out on a chance to close the gap at the top of La Liga.
New year, same old problems
Fans may have been optimistic that 2019 would bring with it a new look to their Real Madrid side. However, that optimism was short-lived. In fact, it lasted just four minutes. One of the biggest disappointments of late 2018 was Marcelo, and it proved costly for his team again in the first outing of 2019. The Brazilian was caught out of position, easily turned inside out, and it exposed his team defensively significantly.
The whole backline were forced to move across to fill the gaping hole he left, while Casemiro was left to pick up the runner in the middle. With the attacking players, namely Lucas Vazquez, caught upfield, it allowed Santi Cazorla to occupy the space Dani Carvajal had vacated.
By the time the ball was played in to the former Arsenal man, he had almost a quarter of the pitch to himself. It was an exquisite finish which left Thibaut Courtois with no chance, but humiliated Madrid defensively.
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