On a short overview Real Madrid had an extremely difficult time in Barcelona against RCD Espanyol as they were unable to cope with quite a fresh opponent. Former Real Madrid player Raúl de Tomás opened the scoring with a close range strike after good play down the right by Adrián Embarba. The home side took a 1-0 lead into the half-time break. On the hour-mark, Aleix Vidal nutmegged Nacho, before firing past Thibaut Courtois to double his side's lead.
Karim Benzema brought Madrid back into the game with 20 minutes remaining on the clock after having a goal disallowed due to offside. Eden Hazard scored a fine volley late on, but Benzema, who assisted the Belgian, was offside in the build-up. Espanyol held out to record an important home win over Los Blancos. Real Madrid dug in and fought until the end but were unable to turn around Espanyol's 2-0 lead.
Ancelotti came in with a 4-4-2 formation but this time Casemiro was benched and the midfield which sometimes seemed like a rhombus was composed by Camavinga, Kroos, Valverde and Modric whose job was to get up front more often. Meanwhile Camavinga and Valverde had to attack the vertical lines on the left and the right side but not as typical wingers. In the defense Vasquez appeared at the right flank as for the attack the usual Benzema was supported by Vini Jr with the latter trying to attack more from the left wing.
It were actually the Madridistas who had the first chance of the match after Vinicius Jr. won the ball back inside the area and played in Benzema with a beautiful backheel and the Frenchman's first-time shot ended up in the hands of Diego López with just four minutes on the clock. It seemed like Real Madrid had started the game with a clear vision but as the minutes passed it was noticed that the team was not fresh enough.
The home side hit back quick in the 9th minute with a long-range effort by Embarba but Courtois was equal to it. Espanyol went ahead as RDT got on the end of an Embarba cross after 15 minutes. Ancelotti's side had two good chances to equalize before the interval through Benzema's volley on the rebound after 21 minutes which was kept out by Diego López and Militão's great strike before with 42 minutes played Alaba was just off target from a free kick.
Ancelotti brought on Rodrygo in place of Camavinga at the break, and following the restart, Madrid had a fine chance to level on 50 minutes when Kroos whipped in a corner and Militão’s header clipped the outside of the post. Five minutes later, Espanyol extended their lead thanks to a superb piece of individual play by Aleix Vidal. They could have gone on to make it three with 64 minutes played, when a swift counter put Darder through against Courtois but he failed to hit the target.
From that point on, Real Madrid pushed hard trying to cut the deficit. First it was Benzema who scored after being served by Jovic in a somewhat messy wall pass but the goal was disallowed as the Serbian was caught offside. Just a few minutes later, on 71’, Jović again, brought the ball down on his chest and laid it to Benzema, who beat three players and tucked the ball sweetly into the corner leaving Diego López with no chance.
The LaLiga’s leading marksman nearly bagged his brace on 80’, when his back-post header from a Lucas Vázquez cross flew inches wide of the upright. After four minutes, on 84’, Benzema was again on the lead of the Real’s attempt, serving Hazard nicely before the Belgian beautifully kicked the ball at the left corner of Diego Lopez. The offside flag was up again and the goal was disallowed...
Real Madrid continued to try but with the great pressure of the very few minutes left they got even more unclear. From that moment most of the crosses in the action build ups or the passes at the final phase of the actions were imprecise and more ideas were wasted. Ancelotti’s men gave it all they had until the end but ultimately came up short at the Cornellà.
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