Villarreal, in the Yellow Submarine version, torpedoes the soft defense of Real Madrid (2-1)

The first league game of the year 2023 became a nightmare for Real Madrid: the current European champion was defeated 2-1 on his visit to Villarreal, this Saturday in the 16th round of the Spanish championship, with which he could not place the provisional leader .

With 38 points, Real Madrid is still second and level with leader FC Barcelona, ​​whom it would have surpassed in the table, at least temporarily, if it scored.

Now the Catalan team has a great opportunity to distance themselves and return to the lead alone, although their match on Sunday does not look exactly affordable on paper, since they must visit Atlético de Madrid (4th) at the Metropolitano.

All the goals from this Saturday’s match at the Estadio de la Cerámica came in the second half.

Villarreal opened the scoring at minute 47, when an error at the start of Frenchman Ferland Mendy meant that the ball went to Gerard Moreno, who enabled Yéremi Pino, who finished off in the area.

Thibaut Courtois came to clear, but Mendy, in an unfortunate action from start to finish, touched the ball before it entered the goal.

The tying goal came in minute 58, after the referee ruled a penalty for a handball by Argentine world champion Juan Foyth after reviewing the play in VAR. Karim Benzema converted the maximum penalty and put the game in a draw for a few moments.

The duel did not last long in a tie, since Villarreal took the lead again in minute 63, when Gerard Moreno converted a penalty that had been whistled by a handball from the Austrian David Alaba.

Real Madrid tried to avoid defeat until the end, but the last important shot was sent over the crossbar by the Brazilian Vinicius Jr in minute 88.

The match in Villarreal will also go down in the history books for being the first for Real Madrid in its 121 years of life without a single Spanish player in its starting eleven.

After the World Cup break, Real Madrid had recorded two wins without conceding, 2-0 in Valladolid last Friday in the previous league game and on Tuesday of this week 1-0 at Cacereño, in the fourth category. Spanish, in the Copa del Rey.

Now the euphoria stops, just before facing the trip to Saudi Arabia, where next week he will try to win the Spanish Super Cup.

Their next match on Spanish soil will be precisely in Villarreal, in about ten days, since the draw for the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey held this Saturday paired both teams, with the Estadio de la Cerámica also hosting that tie. .

With his goal, Benzema was at least able to place himself in the even group in second place in the scorers’ table, with eight goals, approaching five behind the leader, the Polish Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona).

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