The first starting eleven of Real Madrid in its 121 years of life without Spanish players

Real Madrid this Saturday jumped onto the grass of the Villarreal stadium without a single Spanish Spanish player. The Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti pulled Courtois, Militao, Rüdiger, Alaba, Mendy, Modric, Tchouameni, Kroos, Valverde, Benzema and Vinicius. A Belgian, two Germans, three French, an Austrian, a Croatian, a Uruguayan and two Brazilians; but no spanish That could have been Lucas Vázquez, who appeared as a probable substitute for the injured Carvajal. But Ancelotti chose Militao in that position and formed an eleven for history.

“Because, in its 4,435 previous official matches, Real Madrid always played with at least one Spaniard in its starting eleven. In 2015, the process that culminated in the eleven against Villarreal began to be seen: on the first day of the 2015-2016 League, Rafael Benítez lined up an eleven with only one Spaniard, Sergio Ramos, and without any footballer trained in the white quarry”, reports the newspaper ACE.

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

And last season, Madrid ended their match against Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions League also without Spaniards: they started with Nacho and Miguel Gutiérrez on the wings, but both were substituted and Madrid ended up on the pitch with Courtois, Militao, Alaba, Casemiro, Camavinga, Vinicius, Benzema, Kroos, Modric, Rodrygo and Jovic.

In fact, a World Cup in Qatar has just ended in which Madrid only contributed two players to Luis Enrique’s list: Carvajal and Asensio. And the reality is that he does not have many more to add: The rest of the Spaniards on the squad are Nacho, Lucas Vázquez, Ceballos, Vallejo, Odriozola and Mariano. The last three do not count and their minutes are residual, very scarce.

The decision for Militao to play on the side, Ancelotti commented at a press conference, was due to the fact that he did not want to have Lucas Vázquez because he had played the entire previous game and considered that he was a bit tired, and for this reason he opted for a fresh player that he had already played with his team in that position and had done well.

Only in the second half (minute 63) did Ancelotti give way to a Spaniard by making a double substitution: Rodrygo Goes for the Frenchman Mendy and Vázquez for Tchouameni; seven minutes later Camavinga entered for Modric; and in 1982 he gave way to another Spaniard, Marco Asensio, instead of Valverde.

This game It will also remain in the history books for being the first for Real Madrid in its 121 years of life.

(D)