Faced with composing without the Cristiano Ronaldo scoring machine, Zinedine Zidane turned to his defense to win Real Madrid.
Eliminated in the knockout stages of the Champions League and unable to compete with Barça in La Liga, the real Madrid did not skimp on the last summer transfer window. Determined to find the light, the merengue club has spent no less than 337 million euros to recruit Eden Hazard, Eder Militao, Rodrygo, Ferland Mendy or Luka Jovic.
If not the former Lyonnais, about to unbolt Marcelo in the left corridor of Madrid’s defense, however, there was no recruit on Saturday, during the Madrid derby against Atletico (1-0). While Eden Hazard is not yet done with her thigh injury, Luka Jovic, Eder Militao and Rodrygo are not part of Zinedine Zidane’s plans. It is therefore essentially with players already present at the club last season that the 1998 world champion replaced Real at the head of La Liga.
Unheard of in the history of Real
Despite the verve of Karim Benzema, still a goalscorer, on Saturday against the Colchoneros, the Madrid attack is still an orphan of Cristiano Ronaldo. But it is now of course on his defense that the Merengues build their successes. A defense, the most waterproof in Liga, already entered the club’s history since Real had never conceded so few goals at this stage of the season.
With only 13 goals conceded, Zinedine Zidane’s troops surpassed the 14 goals conceded in 1962, 1965 and 1988. A solidity which obviously owes a lot to the performances of Thibaut Courtois, who indeed took only 10 goals since the start of the season in Liga. A record among the five major championships, the Red Devil can also boast 14 clean sheets in 26 matches in all competitions and a ratio of 0.69 goals conceded per match.
What explain for many the series of 21 matches in a row without defeat in all competitions combined with 16 wins, 5 draws, 46 goals for and only 9 against.
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