Immediate response: Real Madrid 4 – 2 Girona

It was a relatively routine victory, as Real Madrid built a cushion of two goals before the second leg. Girona left Portu, Pere Pons and Christian Stuani on the bench to start. Eusebio Sacristan's men had a frail defensive form and an easily permeable press.

Curiously, they scored the first goal and it was their press that pushed Odriozola to lose the ball. Dominoes hit hard. Lucas Vazquez not in a position to cover. Nacho is hooked to score Raul Garcia on the wing, Ramos has returned to the first post and Marcelo was away from Anthony Lozano to stop the goal:

It must be repeated, because this sequence came from Girona, that their press was easily practicable and that their high defensive line was vulnerable to the surcharges of Odriozola. Modric, Ceballos and Benzema played nicely by balloons on the right side, where the Spanish right-back got the end of those pbades, as he had done against Leganes in the first leg of the previous round.

Real Madrid's equalizer followed the same path: Casemiro won the ball, while Benzema and Odriozola made the right decisions:

Moments later, Odriozola made the same run and placed the ball in the same position, but instead of reducing it to an open Benzema, he fired shot at goalkeeper Iraizoz. This should mark the second goal of Real Madrid.

The goal was given in the 42nd minute, when Vinicius Jr (a nice threatening play on the offensive tonight and a few cases of deep retention of the ball) was unleashed in the box. Ramos panenka penalty (* drink *) entering:

It seemed comfortable enough at that time. The team played well collectively (aside from a dubious defense transition on the flanks), the energy was great, Casemiro played a stereotypical Casemiro game (at half-time he had three terrible gifts and only 75% of pbad accuracy, but also won the ball six times, and almost all six were spectacular and essential to trigger attacks), Odriozola's runs were dangerous, and Kroos and Llorente marked their long-awaited return from the injury.

Things took a strange turn when Llorente came in, though. His first contact was a nice vertical pbad for Modric, and his second touch was a successful tackle deep in half of Real Madrid. But shortly thereafter, he had a strange brainstorming: lift his arm in the air and make contact with the ball to inflict a penalty. The only explanation was that he thought that he was fouled in the surface and that the handball would not have been a consequence – but it turns out that he's his own teammate who hit it, and there is no excuse for handball.

The result was a penalty, converted by Alex Granell.

Real Madrid has recovered, however. After a stupid head of Sergio Ramos (and the unveiling of a Ramos / Lucas handshake that we had never known existed!), Then Karim Benzema imposed himself 4- 2 by finishing far away.

We will detail this in more detail in the coming hours.