SPAIN lost to Villarreal 2-3 in round 28 of La Liga on the evening of April 8, Real was at risk of being widened by Barca to 15 points.
After winning 4-0 at the Camp Nou and knocking Barca out of the King’s Cup, Real shot themselves in the foot in the race in La Liga. Losing to Villarreal at home puts the royal team at risk of being 15 points behind the top of the table, if Barca defeats Girona in a late match on April 10. However, after the match, Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that Real would not give up and would continue to fight in the coming rounds.
Chukwueze scored a 3-2 victory for Villarreal against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on April 8. Photo: AS
Back to the Bernabeu yesterday. The Italian coach kept only five players to start before Barca in the middle of the week. In it, he replaced the entire midfield when Marco Asensio, Aurelien Tchouameni, Dani Ceballos replaced Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Federico Valverde. In defense, only David Alaba and Thibaut Courtois hold the main kick.
Ancelotti explained that many players are not physically fit and are forced to rotate after a tense match in the King’s Cup. He also left open the possibility of using 11 players to start against Barca in the match against Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on April 12.
Yesterday, the owner of the Bernabeu got in better and opened the scoring in the 16th minute, when Asensio tried to put the ball in from a tight angle and smashed central defender Pau Torres into the net. Real have benefited from own goals in two of their last three La Liga matches – against Barca and Villarreal – after a streak of 89 games without goals from counter-kicks, since December 2020.
Asensio (No. 11) shot…
… led to an own goal by Pau Torres (No. 4). Photo: AS
After that, Real still controlled the game but squandered the opportunity and had to pay the price at the end of the first half. Receiving the ball from Giovani Lo Celso, Samuel Chukwueze dribbled the ball past Nacho and then shot across the corner to finish goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in the face-to-face position.
The same scenario took place in the second half, when Real soon got ahead in the 48th minute. Vinicius dribbled in the circle of five Villarreal players, rushed into the penalty area and put his right foot diagonally into the net. The Brazil forward has contributed to five goals – two goals and three assists – in his last three matches in all competitions, a far more impressive performance than one goal and one assist in the previous six.
58 minutes, the visitors once again equalized the score thanks to Luis Morales’ close-range shot. With ten minutes remaining, Chukwueze completed the comeback for Villarreal with a left-footed cut from outside the box, sending the ball into the far corner and out of Courtois’ reach. Thanks to that, Chukwueze became the second Villarreal player to score a brace at the Bernabeu in La Liga, after Diego Forlan in May 2006.
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Main developments of the Real Madrid 2-3 Villarreal match on April 8.
Matching lineup :
Royal : Courtois; Vazquez, Rudiger, Alaba (Militao 46), Nacho; Asensio, Tchouameni (Modric 72), Ceballos (Camavinga 75); Rodrygo, Benzema (Valverde 59), Vinicius.
Villarreal : Queen; Foyth, Mandi, Torres, Pedraza; Terrats (Trigueros 33), Parejo, Lo Celso (Morales 67); Chukwueze (Femenia 90), Pino (Moreno 67), Baena (Mojica 90).
