Real Madrid 3-1 Espanyol: Real Madrid cautiously increased the pressure on Barcelona in the Spanish title fight on Saturday afternoon. Things got into trouble against Espanyol at home, but things were soon put in order. As a result, after two duels without a win, they won again.
Without Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, the big gap with the leader had to be limited. The Madrilenians were already nine points behind their arch-rival. With the prospect of the Catalans’ tough away match against Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid wanted to increase the pressure somewhat. That happened with Rodrygo as striker.
Initially, things did not go smoothly for De Koninklijke . Aurélien Tchouaméni simply let the ball be taken away, after which the defense of the reigning national champion was also easily tricked. Routinier Joselu stood in front of the leader’s fellow townsman at the end of a razor-sharp attack. The striker fired the ball into the top corner in a great way and scored his eighth goal against Real Madrid in his career.
Espanyol immediately shook the home team awake. And especially Vinicius Junior. The Brazilian responded with a great dribble and shot the equalizer before the quarter of the game. And that was not the end of the answer from the home team, because compatriot Eder Militão also headed in the 2-1 soon afterwards. The defender did that well, but the greatest attention went to Tchouaméni. The Frenchman gave the ball in an unparalleled way with the outside of your foot. And thus fabulously initiated the goal.
Second half
Real Madrid slowed down in the second half. With a view to the Champions League return against Liverpool, in which it defends a 2-5 lead, Luka Modric, Kroos and Tchouaméni were taken aside. It kept the tension in the game for a long time. However, Espanyol was unable to break down the defense again. In fact, substitute Marco Asensio was also allowed to make the third Madrid goal in injury time after a beautiful dribble by Nacho Fernández. As a result, Real Madrid booked an important victory and the gap with arch-rival Barça has been reduced to six points for at least one day.
