Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
After going 31 games undefeated, the Spanish giants from Madrid lost in two consecutive rounds of the Spanish La Liga in the last 10 days. The first loss was in the derby against FC Barcelona on Sunday March 23rd. After two penalties and a red card against Real Madrid, the team from Barcelona managed to win with 3:4 and closed the gap that “Los blancos” had at the top. Three days later, on Wednesday, “the white” lost again, shocking everyone and most of all their fans, by dropping the 5 points lead that they had in front of FC Barcelona and Athletico Madrid, a week ago. “Los merengues” needed a must win in their home game against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, March 29th. After a relatively “slow” first half, Real Madrid managed to score only once. The 1st goal came through the Portuguese goal scoring machine, Cristiano Ronaldo, in the 15th minute after an assist from Gareth Bale. The Welshman saw CR7 sprinting a little bit outside of the 18-yard box and perfectly found him with a precise low pass. What followed was a brilliant first touch by Cristiano away from the defenders who were guarding him and inside the 18-yard box, finding himself 1v1 with the keeper and finishing in the opposite corner and putting the ball in the back of the net.
Despite the one goal in the first half, the home team was the more creative and more “dangerous” of the two teams, creating a couple of good chances for Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, and Cristiano Ronaldo. However after the half-time break was over, “los blancos” came out on fire scoring 4 more goals in the span of 23 minutes. In the 55th minute the young right back of Real, Daniel Carvajal, managed to score one of his first goals for “the white.” Gareth Bale was again the player who created the goal scoring opportunity after a great run on the right wing and a perfect cross to Ronaldo, who one-touch passed it to the wide open Carvajal. 13 minutes later, Angel Di Maria made a great run on the left wing and after receiving a pass from CR7, Di Maria managed to perfectly find Gareth Bale who was in a perfect position within the 6-yard box of Rayo Vallecano. The following goal came only 2 minutes later in the 70th minute, and it was absolutely phenomenal. Gareth Bale took the ball right out of Real Madrid’s 18 yard-box and single-handedly created the counter attack, which he also successfully finished. After running over 80 yards with the ball, Bale found himself 1v1 with the goalkeeper which resulted in another goal for the home team. The young real Madrid forward, Alvaro Morata, who came in as a substitute for Karim Benzema in the 73rd minute, scored the last goal.
After this win Real Madrid currently takes the 3rd place in the Spanish Primera Division, only 3 points behind Athletico Madrid and 2 points behind FC Barcelona. Rayo Vallecano is currently 13th with 33 points.
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