Match Report: Real Madrid 2-1 Sporting Gijón: Los Blancos have their head in El Clásico

Real Madrid won the thirteenth match of the regular season at Santiago Bernabéu against Sporting Gijón in a poor game of Zidane’s players. Zinedine Zidane had to make some changes in the line up because of Bale and Varane recent injuries. James, Pepe, Ramos and Benzema returned to the starting 11 and Nacho played in the left back, replacing Marcelo. Isco didn’t start from the beginning thinking in el Clásico of next week end. Sporting Gijón played this match with 5 defenders something that’s not usual in the team managed by Abelardo.

The match started really good for Real Madrid. In the fourth minute Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoreboard from a perfect penalty kick. It was much easier with the first goal and Sporting started to have doubts in defense. Only 10 minutes later Nacho did a great cross with his left foot and Cristiano appeared to score a beautiful goal from a great header. After the second goal, Sporting Gijón had some chances but we could saw great saves from Keylor Navas that prevented the first goal. Los Blancos had really bad minutes just before the first half finished and Sporting scored their first goal in a great counter back finished by Carmona.

In the second half Los Blancos started really relaxed and Sporting Gijón’s football improved with the pass of the minutes. Modric, Kovacic and James could not control the midfield and the team managed by Abelardo started to have the control of the match, playing even better than Real Madrid.

In the last 20 minutes Zidane started to make substitutions and Asensio entered replacing James with the objective of having more possession and Ramos left the pitch replacing Marcelo because the Andalusian has 4 yellow cards and if the referee booked him, he will lose El Clásico. In the minute 82 Sporting Gijón had great chance to draw the match from a penalty kick, but Cop failed it with a very poor shot. Isco entered replacing Modric to play the last minutes.

Los Blancos will go to Barcelona being in the top of the table despite they did not play a good match today. The players manage by Zidane must play much better if they want to have a positive result against a team that have very good attackers as Barcelona.