Real Madrid’s 1-0 win over Espanyol in the first leg of the quarter-final of the Copa del Rey on Tuesday night was Los Blancos’ sixth consecutive match without conceding a goal, and moves them closer to breaking a club record.
The last time the 32-time La Liga winners went this long without scoring was back in the 1994/95 season, when the Whites went seven matches without conceding – something Carlo Ancelotti’s men can equal this Saturday when they take on Granada at the Santiago Bernabeu. Should they overcome that hurdle, they could break the record at home to Espanyol next week in the return leg of the Copa.
The current record was made up just league fixtures. Oviedo (2-0), Valladolid (0-5), Barcelona (5-0), Deportivo La Coruña (0-0), Celta Vigo (4-0), Real Betis (0-0) and Sevilla (2-0) were the opponents in that run of results twenty years ago.
Real Betis and Celta Vigo have featured in the current run of clean sheets for Los Blancos, along with Osasuna twice (Copa del Rey) and Espanyol twice (one La Liga, one Copa del Rey).
The fact that over the course of the past six matches Madrid’s opponents have mustered just 10 shots on target between them shows just how impressive the defensive performances have been.
