Real Madrid suffered a shock defeat to Alaves as the visitors managed to see out the 90 minutes 2-1. Many of the regular Madrid starters made the team sheet, with a midfield of Kroos, Casemiro and Modric dictating things from the heart of the park.
Alaves went ahead five minutes into the game, converting a penalty to get the lead. They doubled their lead shortly after half time with Joselu making it to the scoresheet, capitalising on a woeful error by Courtois.
Casemiro managed to pull one back for the reigning champions with four minutes plus injury time to go. However, it was all in vain.
The defeat now sees Madrid fall to fourth with 17 points from 10 games played. Zinedine Zidane was quite reflective following the shocking loss to Alaves, and took the blame upon himself, saying:
“I have no explanation for tonight. We’ve had good and bad moments in games like today’s. Especially at the beginning, when they scored a goal after three minutes. We had time to get back into the game and then things got very tough for us and it became difficult.”
“Just like the other day in Milan, we played a good game today, but three days later, it’s tough to play a game like this at home, but that’s the reality of today. “
“What we’re going to do is keep working, trying to get all the players back and then change the dynamics. We don’t have the consistency in our matches or in our results”.
The Frenchman believes Eden Hazard’s injury is simply a knock, and that the winger won’t miss any more games.
Although most of the regulars were in the team, Madrid lacked leadership at the back and Sergio Ramos’ absence was felt heavily. Los Blancos conceded their fifth penalty in three games after the hat-trick of penalties taken against them in Valencia.
Zidane must find a way to motivate the players and get the best out of them if they are to achieve something at the end of the season. Tightening up the defense like he did last season could be the key to Zidane’s problems with Madrid’s consistency.
