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The more signs that Luka Modric’s end is approaching, the more he tries to go against the logic of time, biology and tactical balances. At a time when Real Madrid was stuck against Sevilla’s resistance, Carlo Ancelotti turned to what seemed like the deepest corner of the closet. Even there, Modric’s flame still shines, determined to destroy the calendars. The Croatian won the game with a brilliant spark, a control-dribble, a tight shot, and exploded joyfully standing on the north end fence. An explosion of relief and rebellion that left a side message to one of those who comes from behind with the motto of age. Arda Güler, who was turning 19, was waiting on the sideline, ready to enter the field, for another of his little moments that he knows so little about. But Modric, who is already aiming to turn 39 in September, caused him to return to the bench with a goal that keeps Madrid in the lead, with eight points over Barça and nine over Girona, with a match in hand.
1
Andriy Lunin, Rüdiger, Lucas Vazquez, Ferland Mendy, Nacho (Modric, 74th minute), Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde, Kroos, Brahim Diaz (Dani Ceballos, 89th minute), Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo (Alvaro Rodriguez, 93rd minute). )
0
Ørjan Haskjold Nyland, Lucas Ocampos (Januzaj, 90th minute), Loic Bade, Jesus Navas (Juanlu Sanchez, 74th minute), Sergio Ramos, Kike Salas, Oliver Torres (Suso, 75th minute), Djibril Sow, Boubakary Soumare, Isaac Rosemary and En-Nesyri
Goals 1-0 min. 81: Modric.
Referee Isidro Díaz de Mera Escuderos
Yellow cards Ancelotti (min. 12), Kroos (min. 34), Lucas Ocampos (min. 69), Nianzou Tanguy Kouassi (min. 91) and Djibril Sow (min. 98)
The Croatian closed a duel that had begun with the emotional return to the Bernabéu of his friend Sergio Ramos, the great captain of many years, and immediately led to despair. The caresses remained in the preludes, and in the applause, when the speaker reserved the name of the center back to shout it in the last position of the rival lineup. Courtesies evaporated in Brahim’s first expedition that Ramos aborted, with his usual forcefulness, the same one that Vinicius later tried.
However, those crossings were still part of the preliminary scores. The desperation began to grow after the disallowed goal of Lucas Vázquez, who took advantage of a shipment from Vinicius with his left foot. But the VAR found that Nacho had hit En-Nesyri’s foot in the initial steal and the goal came to nothing. It was the first spark of a set of small fires that were lit throughout the field, foul by foul that Madrid protested and the referee did not see the same. The accumulation of small frustrations ended up causing something unusual: he brought Toni Kroos out of his cold boxes.
Real moved forward in fits and starts without finding anything too threatening. The first half ended with a single shot on goal, a long shot from Fede Valverde that described a strange curve and Nyland tapped it in for a corner. It happened already at the entrance to the locker room, entering the third of the four added minutes of the first act.
Until then, Sevilla had held out without being too compromised, supported by a line of five defenders led by Ramos from the center. In some sections, Madrid managed to push them very close to their goalkeeper, with Rodrygo very close to Vinicius on the left, but nothing came of it. The ball went back and forth from side to side, and Sevilla looked comfortable, although they had a hard time recovering and going out.
Despite everything, they managed to meet Isaac Romero a couple of times, their happy revelation in the morass of this course. The first was on the run, with a lot of space on the right, from where he found En-Nesyri, who shot wide. In the second, he shot, alone against Lunin, who saved the unthinkable. The Ukrainian, now installed as a starter, is getting used to one or two miracle shots per game.
That enlightened rapture paved the way for madness. Until then, Madrid had barely been agitated by Vinicius and Brahim, combining successions of dribbles with bursts of pride to chase opponents from whom to snatch the ball. But from that saving moment from Lunin, Rodrygo opened a lane through the center to end up shooting near the post, Nyland had to stretch to take a soft shot from Vinicius inside the area, another narrowly missed the back and one more He ended up sleeping peacefully in the hands of the Norwegian goalkeeper.
When Madrid revved up, the line of five revealed cracks everywhere. The agitation disordered it, or it showed that in reality its solidity contained a good dose of appearance, or the weaknesses were the result of the fatigue produced by chasing the ball from a distance for more than an hour, and seeing that when it is recovered, the other goal It seems more and more distant. The seventy meters from where Sevilla camped to Lunin did not seem like only seventy meters. In that chaos, Ramos was less Ramos than at the beginning, more unprotected, less decisive.
But they were still standing and then Ancelotti intervened. He removed Nacho and turned to Luka Modric, who moved much closer to the area than Tchouameni had been, who then dropped back to the center of the defence. Madrid kept pushing, but the one who found it was the Croatian genius. He tamed a clearance with a control that was also a dribble, which opened a brief space for the goal that entered after touching the post. Another moment for the infinite memory of a flame that never goes out.