After FC Barcelona’s big victory against Real Bétis this Saturday (5-0), Real Madrid had to win at home against Real Sociedad to regain its place at the top of La Liga. On this occasion, Carlo Ancelotti organized his team in a 4-4-2 diamond with Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Madrid cages. In front of him, we found Dani Carvajal, Antonio Rüdiger, David Alaba and Fran Garcia in defense while Federico Valverde, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Toni Kroos and Jude Bellingham found themselves in midfield with Joselu associated with Rodrygo Goes in attack. The meeting also got off to a flying start in this clash between two teams that will have to be counted on at the end of the season as David Alaba fell on Álex Remiro before an offside position from Judes Bellingham, the last passer on the action, is reported by the officials (1e).
A few minutes later, Takefusa Kubo curled a love ball for Ander Barrenetxea who first controlled with his chest before striking directly at Kepa Arrizabalaga but the ball immediately returned to the Basque striker who was able to finish despite the new remarkable intervention from the Madrid goalkeeper (4th, 0-1). While Rodrigo Goes made Alex Remiro shine once again in the process (6th), the Japanese winger took responsibility and sent a remote-controlled missile into the back of the net with a splendid strike to make the break. Unfortunately for him, his achievement was logically canceled for a passive offside position by Mikel Oyarzabal (11th). As intense as ever, the meeting continued with a new series of opportunities. Brais Méndez missed the target (12th) while Dani Carvajal found the home side’s crossbar (16th) and Joselu fell on the Basque goalkeeper (18th).
Real Madrid reverse the trend after the break
Alex Remiro then continued to disgust the Madrid players like Dani Carvajal (18th), Judes Bellingham (26th) and Rodrigo Goes (28th). On the other side of the field, Kepa Arrizabalaga also made several saves against Takefusa Kubo (29th) and Mikel Merino (31st) to keep his team in the match. After this new opportunity, the intensity dropped a notch and the two teams returned to the locker room with this small advantage in favor of the visitors. After the break, however, the Madrilenians came back with better intentions and Federico Valverde fired a heavy shot which ended its course in the cages with the help of the post to completely restart this second period (46th, 1-1). Despite the good sequences on both sides, the match clearly lost intensity afterwards and Real Madrid took the opportunity to completely reverse the trend.
Already author of the first assist for Federico Valverde, Fran Garcia once again took his left side to serve Joselu whose header deceived Alex Remiro (60th, 2-1). After this new achievement by the Merengues, the Real Sociedad players took a real blow to the head and were no longer able to appear dangerous despite Take Kubo still flying until the very last moments of this match. While Federico Valverde missed the double by a hair (85th), Mohamed-Ali Cho narrowly missed the target (89th) while Jude Bellingham made the Basque goalkeeper shine one last time (90th). Thanks to this victory, Real Madrid initially regains its leading position from its rival FC Barcelona but above all also prepares in the best possible way its return to the most prestigious of European competitions, the Champions League.
