This Sunday we saw one of La Liga’s most exciting match ups in this very young season so far. Real Madrid and Valencia met at Santiago Bernabeu where the Che’s haven’t won within the last ten years. Despite what the numbers might say Valencia is traditionally one of the teams that can give Real Madrid and Barcelona a difficult time in their usually dominant La Liga campaigns.
This Sunday’s showdown was no different as both teams battled to highly contested 2-2 draw. The Ronaldo-less Madrid side set up in a flexible 4-3-3 system that saw Marco Asensio as the wild card as he did not constantly remain on the wing and would constantly help out the interior midfield play, led by Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. This didn’t always benefit the Los Blancos as it sometimes caused Isco to become missing in action during large periods of the match. Despite that, Madrid played their usual dominant game with Marcelo constantly arriving from behind to set up goal scoring opportunities for Karim Benzema who had a horrific outing combined by a great night from Brazilian goalkeeper Neto which ultimately sealed the draw in the final score.
Zinedine Zidane has rejected suggestions Real Madrid are dependent on Cristiano Ronaldo following a stuttering start to their defence of La Liga in the Portuguese star's absence.
"You know who Cristiano is", Zidane told repoters at his pre-match media conference. "We cannot talk about dependency, but I always want him to be with us. What interests me is that everyone can play. Cristiano brings only goals, but is a leader as well and he always wants to win. He transmits that to his team-mates. We are all happy that he is very happy to play again because it is what he likes, what makes him happy".
"He is going to play tomorrow, but we're not going to have him on Sunday. I hope Sunday is the last game of the season that he is not here."
Ronaldo was dismissed during the first leg of their Supercopa de Espana triumph over Barcelona and received a five match ban for shoving the referee.
Madrid went on to win their first league game of the season in his absence, but that was followed by successive home draws with Valencia and Levante.
