The virtual champion also enjoys his unit B

Real Madrid maintains its steady pace in the League after winning three points against Osasuna that put the title on a platter. The Whites came away smiling from a visit to El Sadar in which Carlo Ancelotti polished up his B unit. Despite the fact that Benzema wasted two penalties in the second half to settle the dispute, the goals before the break from Alaba and Asensio, together with by Lucas Vázquez when the clash was already dying, they served to fasten a victory that stopped the streak of three consecutive victories of the red team in their fiefdom and leaves the Chamartín team one step away from the alirón.

The soft league mattress and the proximity of the duel with Manchester City in the Champions League semifinals invited Ancelotti to revolutionize the eleven. The Real Madrid coach reserved Carvajal, Kroos and Vinicius from the outset with the visit to the Etihad in mind, configured an unprecedented midfield in which Ceballos’ first start of the course stood out and arranged Asensio and Rodrygo as escorts in the offensive trident de Benzema, essential both in the flat stages and in the high mountain ones. The bet could not have gone better.

The leader faced an adversary devoid of urgencies, but extramotivated. It is therefore not surprising that the first chances were from Osasuna, with a special mention for a very tense shipment by Chimy Ávila that passed in front of Brasanac’s nose without the Serb managing to touch the ball in the mouth of the goal when a touch could have been enough to open the can The ardent pressure from the rojillos made life difficult for Real Madrid, who shook off the pincers pulling the board. A strategic action allowed Alaba to unbalance the balance with a good dose of fortune. But the local response was immediate. Once again, Chimy Ávila found a corridor on the right side to put in another poisonous pass that Budimir, alone at the far post, pocketed to register his fifth consecutive day scoring.

The absence of their usual helmsmen detracted from Real Madrid and made it easier for the duel to go vertical in the first half hour. This panorama benefited Osasuna, hermetic in defense and brave at the start. The locals bottled up the whites from the inside and forced him to hit the sides without too much lance. The plan worked for Arrasate until Camavinga glimpsed a crack in the red backline on the edge of the break. The French pivot, who had been growing as the minutes went by, put in a rainy pass to Ceballos that the Sevillian midfielder could not take advantage of but Asensio did, attentive to the rebound to impale at pleasure.

Praise turns on the alarms

Real Madrid returned from the locker room without Alaba, whose muscle injury in the throes of the first act set off the alarms, less than a week before the momentous match against City. He was replaced by Carvajal, again an emergency left-back, which moved Nacho to the rear. A fight that Brasanac won against Alcalá was about to get Courtois into a serious mess, but the Belgian corrected in time.

The focus immediately moved to the other area, with a slap at the ball by Chimy Ávila while the Argentine slid across the pitch, which opened up a golden opportunity for Benzema to sentence the fight from eleven meters. But the French failed. He had the opportunity to get even when Nacho Vidal slashed Rodrygo minutes later. Challenger, the Lyon native traced the launch. And Sergio Herrera read the intention again. Unusual.

The double error did not distract Real Madrid, once again grown in the second half and with Rodrygo as their most incisive player. The player from São Paulo associated himself, overflowed with infinite faith and left innumerable details of his class the day he reached his hundredth game with Real Madrid. His were the sharpest actions in a section in which the leader left his best minutes before Osasuna took a step forward to hurry up his last options, taking advantage of the fact that the whites had lost muscle in the spinal cord with the departure of Camavinga, again notable to remove and orderly with the ball.

Despite this, Real Madrid was able to kill the clash with a header from Isco that caught Nacho’s slow reflexes, without a mark at the far post, and, above all, Vinicius with an extraordinary ride but without the necessary finesse in his shot crossed. But it was Lucas Vázquez who was in charge of sentencing at the end of a counter unleashed with a ballet movement by Benzema and a sprint by Vinicius who took a while to be decisive.