Real Madrid won 1-2 in the 29th week of the regular season against Athletic Bilbao. The team managed by Zinedine Zidane played a complete match in one of the toughest stadiums, actually the Basque side is the best team at home in La Liga, only behind Real Madrid. Athletic have only lost one match in their stadium in the current season and it was against Barcelona. Zinedine Zidane decided to play with his usual line-up because he knew it was going to be a very difficult game.
Athletic Bilbao started the game with a lot of intensity as they usually do at San Mamés, but they didn’t create any important opportunity. Los Blancos were waiting their moment, and in the 15th minute Cristiano Ronaldo had the first chance to open the scoreboard, but Kepa Arrizabalaga prevented it with a great safe. After this chance, the team managed by Zinedine Zdiane started to play better and Benzema scored the fist goal of the match from a great pass of Cristiano Ronaldo. The French striker was participating a lot in the game and he played probably his best match in all the season.
The second half started similar as the first one. The Basque team were trying to create danger from the sides, but both Sergio Ramos and Nacho Fernández showed a lot of security in the defense. In the 62nd minute the French manger decided to do some changes in the line-up because Los Blancos were not having the control of the match. He decided to introduce Lucas Vázquez by Modric. It was a really weird change because Gareth Bale was not participating in the game and without Modric on the pitch, Real Madrid were going to have even less the ball. Only three minutes after the substitution, Athletic Bilbao tied the game from a header of Aritz Aduriz. It seemed like Los Blancos could lose the match, but only two minutes later Casemiro scored the second goal from a corner kick. This goal was very important because Athletic were having their best minutes. Zidane decided to introduce another midfielder with the goal of controlling the match, and he replaced Cristiano Ronaldo by Isco. Morata also entered on the pitch replacing Benzema in the last minutes.
This has been a very important victory for the team managed by Zidane because San Mamés is the toughest away game remaining this season. Now Real Madrid will not play until April 2 against Alavés (international break) and Zinedine Zidane can not count with one of the most important players in the squad, Casemiro (5 yellow cards). We can say that the MVP of the match was Karim Benzema. The French striker is improving with the pass of the games and these are very good news for Los Blancos.
