Real Madrid were subject to 90 minutes of pure humiliation at Ipurua as a Marc Cucurella-led Eibar dismantled the European champions in a 3-0 win.
Los Blancos experienced their first defeat in the Santiago Scolari era in the very next game after the Spaniard was handed a permanent contract. We take a look at some of the talking points from the game.
TROUBLE ON THE WINGS
Eibar dominated Madrid in every department but their dominance on the wing stands out as the prime factor which led to Madrid’s defeat.
Cucurella grabbed two assists and was involved in all three goals. The degree to how terrible Alvaro Odriozola played cannot be stressed upon enough. The former Barcelona left-back who functioned as a wide midfielder for Eibar had the former Real Socieded right-back on his toes for every minute the latter was on the field.
An injury forced Odriozola to make way for Dani Carvajal who played his first game after recovering from an injury. But the Spanish international met with the same fate when came up against the La Masia graduate.
On the other wing, Fabian Orellana created all sorts of problem for Marco Asensio and Marcelo but failed to deliver the final ball with precision with most of the crosses flying wide.
Marc Cucurella was brilliant for Eibar
MORE DEFENSIVE WOES
The fact the goalkeeper was one of the best players in a 3-0 drubbing says a lot about how dreadful Madrid’s defence performed. Raphael Varane had an average game and stood tall on most occasions, which further piles the blame on Madrid’s worst player of the day, Sergio Ramos.
The Real and Spain captain displayed potentially his worst performance of the season and given how poor he’s been, that’s definitely saying something. Ramos gifted the ball on a platter twice, to Kike Garcia and Sergio Enrich and the score-line could have read 5-0, had Thibaut Courtois not reacted in time.
The backline seemed extremely unsettled and with the pair of Garcia and Enrich pressing persistently, mistakes were bound to pop up.
The absence of Casemiro was clearly visible as the defence looked terribly open without the Brazilian who provides good cover.
Shambolic by Real madrid’s backline
BALE AND BENZEMA GO MISSING
After a string of good performances, the Madrid frontline went back to firing blanks. Karim Benzema frequently failed to break the off-side trap and was awful with his movement. The Frenchman also had a couple of opportunities which he should have buried.
Gareth Bale was allowed a rather free, central role in the first half and started off well, creating a few chances. However, the Welshman went completely missing in the second half.
Burdened with his defensive duties as a result of Orellana causing problems on the right, Marco Asensio was not as involved in attack as he should’ve been. The Spaniard was sub-par throughout the game and should be doing a lot better, given he’s taking up Isco’s spot in the line-up.
In a rather unconvincing defence of the forwards, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric did nothing to earn any praise either and most of Madrid’s chances came after by-passing the midfield.
This should be the last straw and Los Blancos should definitely consider bolstering the frontline as early as in the winter transfer window.
Karim Benzema was back to firing blanks
