Zinedine Zidane has made changes when Real Madrid visited Real Betis in round 3 of La Liga. That is what experts said after the draw with Real Sociedad in the opening match 1 week ago, however, the French coach did not return to his familiar style.
Instead of the 4-3-3 formation, Zizou chose 4-4-2 and still kept Martin Odegaard in the squad. The reserved players are Luka Modric, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes, giving way to Casemiro, Federico Valverde and Luka Jovic.
This formula surprised everyone, because Zidane rarely used 2 strikers at the same time. It seems that he felt pressured by the home team's failure to score on the opening day. However, the operation was not really smooth, even when Real Madrid took the lead after 14 minutes of play.
After Karim Benzema's goal was disallowed for offside and Thibaut Courtois made an excellent save from Antonio Sanabria's header, Valverde opened the scoring with a close-range tap-in after Benzema's efforts on the right wing. Sergio Ramos then missed a very regrettable opportunity to increase the score.
It seemed that the match would be easier when Real Madrid had factors that knew how to control the game, but on the contrary, Los Blancos were a bit subjective when the home team took strong action. Sergio Canales, Nabil Fekir and veteran Joaquin Sanchez move extremely dynamically, creating quick, accurate combinations to continuously pressure the opponent.
As a result, within just 2 minutes, from 35 to 37, the Andalusian team had 2 consecutive goals from Alissa Mandi and William Carvalho from extremely sharp and effective combinations. Betis played very well in the first half, while Real Madrid were lucky not to lose more and did not create any more chances.
Zidane also had to make a change when Toni Kroos was injured, giving way to Modric, while Casemiro played under him.
After the break, Zizou adjusted once again, with Isco alarcon replacing Odegaard and the effect was early until Emerson returned home after Dani Carvajal's cross. Adding the technical quality to the squad, plus the home team players starting to lose strength, Real Madrid controlled the ball better and created more opportunities.
The problem still lies with the strikers. Benzema had a rather unlucky day when they were constantly offside or when they had the chance, they threw them away hastily. Jovic has not played for a long time, so he has lost confidence to the point of not daring to hold the ball for long. Borja Mayoral's move on for Jovic from the 72nd minute was not much better.
The match was also interrupted quite a few times because the referee had to ask for VAR intervention, including a situation that led to Emerson's red card in the 68th minute for fouling Jovic and in the 80th minute, Marc Bartra used his hand to play while trying to stop Mayoral.
From the 11m mark, Ramos scored to seal the score at 3-2, bringing Real Madrid the first 3 full points in La Liga this season. The white vultures won, but still full of worries...
