Immediate reaction: Espanyol 2 – 4 Real Madrid

Espanyol lose to real Madrid 2 – 4 (Benzema x2, Ramos, Bale, Baptistato, Rosales). Here is our quick reaction. Upcoming: Player Ranking, Post-Game Podcast and Tactical Review.

Complete, effective and fun – it was Real Madrid at its best (for the majority of the match).

Solari faced a low confidence from the Espanyol team tonight and a lean team at the back. Oscar Duarte, David Lopez and Naldo are all injured, leaving Mario Hermoso as the only central defender of Rubi. All this meant that Lluis Lopez (defender of Espanyol Team B) was called for the second consecutive game with his partner Hermoso in the back.

And the fragility of their entire defensive system was evident from the first minute. Real Madrid was relentless in its counter-pressing (not allowing Espanyol to chase anything from behind), and Karim Benzema, as well as Luka Modric, reinforced the offensive and destroyed again and again Rubi's team.

In the fourth minute of play, Modric opened the scoring to score Real Madrid's first goal. Benzema, totally indifferent, rebounded on the rebound:

Benzema and Modric have been great tonight – especially the former, who has been called the match man and who has achieved his most impressive performance of the season. Time and time again, he cut Espanyol into brilliant cuts, crossed the defenders with ease and was a constant threat.

A little more than 10 minutes after his goal, Real Madrid has doubled its lead thanks to a decisive shot perfectly executed. A small corner for Modric finds Ramos. A big jump of the captain:

From that moment, Real Madrid kept the tempo control, canceling Espanyol's attacks several times while maintaining possession of the ball and putting pressure on their vulnerable backline.

Yet, espanyol had a life buoy in the 25th. Leo Baptistao (a player I've watched has missed a ton of easy chances over the last two seasons, but of course, none of that matters when playing at Real Madrid), found the ball fortuitously at the second post thanks to a deviation:

By achieving this goal, Espanyol has earned a living. There have been some back-and-forth sequences where Rubi's men seemed more confident in the future, and when the game was a little stopped, the Spanish took a more compact form 4-5-1 without the balloon. But Real Madrid's transition defense looked really good. Reguilon's determination to protect this flank was helpful, as well as the urgent interventions of Kroos and Ramos defense.

Benzema, who used his cast in the same manner as Thanos with his Infinity Gauntlet, punished Espanyol just before half-time:

Benzema continued to carve Espanyol in the second half, with the help of Modric and Lucas Vazquez. Vinicius had a calm match against recent matches, but we can not really question his efforts and his descents have constantly worried Espanyol.

The Brazilian striker was kidnapped for Gareth Bale in the second half. The Welsh scored the fourth goal of Real Madrid, which can only be explained by the "perfect goal." Lucas Vazquez steals the money from Bapitstao's lunch, Benzema makes witchcraft in the surface and the balloon ends at Bale's feet, wearing a brilliant turn and ended with the Samurai:

He was 4 – 1 at that time, with the game clearly sealed. And you may think that Bale could feast in transition, espanyol chasing the game. But the rest of the match was not a routine. Things got complicated when Raphael Varane was sent off in the 72nd minute for attacking Piatti as the last man. In the absence of natural central defender on the bench (Nacho was replaced by Ramos at half-time, the captain was hit at the shot), Solari did enter Marcelo and placed Reguilon in the position of the first. central rear.

L 'Espanyol scored a goal back by Roberto Rosales. Marcelo keeps the scorer:

But Real Madrid held up for three more points. Here is a very good set of performances prepared by Solari – and with the players coming back from injury (while others get in shape), you can not help but feel a little better in the direction of the team this season.

There are many points of discussion to dissociate from this game that I did not have time to write here. Do not miss tonight's podcast.