Real Madrid, the leader, prepares for Tuesday’s match in Paris against Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League final, with a disappointing negative draw in the Spanish League at Villarreal on Saturday, in the 24th stage, which witnessed a crazy first half between Atletico Madrid and its neighbor Getafe, in which 6 goals were scored equally before To snatch the title holder victory in the killer time.
And Yemeni riyal had the soul to return from the “La Ceramica” stadium with its seventeenth victory to restore the six-point difference that separated it from its pursuit of Seville, who won Friday against Elche 2-0, but he was unable to reach the net and was satisfied with the sixth tie of the season, raising his score to 54 points, to reduce The difference between him and the Andalusian club to four points.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team was affected by the absence of French striker Karim Benzema due to a thigh injury he sustained during the 2-2 draw with Lecce on January 23.
The Frenchman will be in a race against time to participate in the match against Saint-Germain, and the team certainly missed him Saturday against Villarreal, who remained sixth with 36 points, 3 behind Atletico, who became fourth provisionally at the expense of Barcelona, before the latter’s meeting Sunday with his neighbor Espanyol.
Ancelotti’s 100th game in the league
The confrontation against Villarreal was Ancelotti’s 100th match in the Spanish League as coach of Real, who was supervised by the Italian in the first period between 2013 and 2015 and led him to the Champions League treble, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup in 2014, in addition to the local cup in the same year, before he was dismissed from his position, which He’s back and getting it back this season.
Ancelotti commented on the equalizer by saying, “With some accuracy and luck, we could have scored. We had three chances against the goalkeeper and hit the crossbar twice. I worry about the team when we don’t have any chances to score, but on Saturday we had chances. We missed the effectiveness.”
Contrary to expectations, Ancelotti preferred to start the match with Welshman Gareth Bale instead of Serbian Luka Jovic, to play in the front line alongside Brazilian Vinicius Junior and Marco Asensio.
Bale played his first match with the Royal Club since August after suffering from various injuries, but he participated during this period four times with the Wales national team.
The Italian touched on Bale’s participation by saying, “He suffered a serious injury. The most important thing is that he got a chance and showed that he is with us mentally and physically and that he is committed,” refusing to confirm whether he would involve him in Tuesday’s match against Saint-Germain and only answering the question with “I don’t know.” We have to wait and see what happens in the next few hours.”
The start was difficult for Real in light of the pressure of the owner of the land, who was close to opening the scoring if he was not lucky, after the post intervened to block the Dutchman’s attempt, Arnaut Danjuma.
Villarreal threatened Thibaut Courtois again in the 38th minute through Gerard Moreno, but the Belgian goalkeeper had him on the lookout, before Real got his first real chance on goal, but Bale failed to translate his complete isolation with Argentine goalkeeper Jeronimo Rulli.
And the negative tie remained the master of the situation until the end of the first half, then Real started the second with an opportunity for Bale, who received the ball from Vinicius, so he fired it strong to find on its way goalkeeper Roli, who blocked it with the help of the crossbar, then intervened two minutes later to block an attempt by Vinicius and another for Bale with the help of Argentine defender Juan Foyth, who was removed the ball before it crosses the goal line.
Despite the fact that Biovic, Croatian Luka Modric, Brazilian Rodrigo, then Belgian Eden Hazard and Nacho in the last minutes, Real failed to reach Roli’s net and contented himself with a point despite a last golden chance at the time of the killer Jovic, who tried to play the ball over the goalkeeper and it bounced off the crossbar and then Ivory Coast substitute Serge Aurier intervened to remove The ball off the line after a follow-up from Nacho.
Goals and penalty kicks
At the “Wanda Metropolitano” stadium, Atlético achieved a crazy and deadly victory over its neighbor Getafe 4-3, its substitute hero Mario Hermoso, in a meeting in which the first half witnessed 6 goals and three penalties.
Atletico started the match by missing a penalty kick taken by Uruguayan Luis Soares and executed by himself, and goalkeeper David Soria saved it, but he quickly compensated by scoring two goals through Argentine Angel Correa and Brazilian Matthews Konia.
But Borja Mayoral brought Getafe back into the game by reducing the difference, before turning the table on the hosts as a result of the referee awarding two penalty kicks, which were successfully executed by Turkish Enis Unal against the giant Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak after two hand touches in the forbidden area against Konya and French Toma Lemar.
Thus, the humble neighbor, who has not tasted victory over Atletico since 2011 in its stadium and 2010 in the stronghold of its rival, became the first team to score three goals in the first half against Los Rojiblancos at the Wanda Metropolitano since its opening in 2017.
But Argentine coach Diego Simeone’s team did not give up and entered the two-half break tied 3-3 thanks to a header and a second goal for Korea after Lemar’s cross.
Contrary to the crazy first half, the second came uninteresting, especially since Atletico found itself with ten players after Brazilian defender Felipe was sent off for a mistake on Uruguayan Mauro Arambari, which made him play conservatively until he snatched the victory in the 89th minute after a free kick through which the ball reached the Portuguese substitute Joao Felix, who played it with his head. , to reach the other alternative, Mario Hermoso, who controlled it first and then hit it with an acrobatic backhand into the net.