Real Madrid interruptus win in Elche by the VAR

The match against Elche appeared crossed on the white calendar between the classic and the match with Sevilla. To add insult to injury, in a hangover week in which Benzema won the Ballon d’Or and, to a lesser extent, Courtois’ Yashin trophy. for all this The one with Martínez Valero seemed like an unglamorous match that could even generate a certain laziness in Real Madrid. To all but one: Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian lined up an eleven of bells in Elche with the golden Benzema escorted by the Brazilian spark and with a caviar-flavored midfield with Kroos as pivot, Valverde in a state of grace and Modric with the baton. And on top of that they went out to have fun, bad for Elche.

Splendid start

After five minutes the Brazilians accelerated the play and scored Benzema, but Vinicius, who assisted the Frenchman, was offside. Six minutes later Valverde picked up a rebound and nailed his left foot into the net. And before the quarter of an hour an Elche defender took the second under the line and Rodrygo was able to suffer a penalty. Carletto’s warning produced the best start of the season for Madrid.

Ancelotti must think that it is a pity that the World Cup in Qatar is coming, because the Madrid play with cruising speed. Although if you compare it with others it seems the speed of light. Rodrygo and Vinicius have a spark, Benzema lives installed in clairvoyance, Modric is Benjamin Button, Kroos could be playing another five seasons… But the World Cup event arrives and that break is a black hole from which nobody knows what will come out later. A new season in which tired players will return, others will start having lost their rhythm… At 25 minutes a start from Alaba, who chained two majestic walls with Valverde and Benzema, left the Austrian against Badía to score the second. But Karim was millimeters ahead and the VAR sent the goal to limbo again. At the break Madrid closed a win interrupted in Elche that, in reality, remained in minimum triumph.

Resurrected by the VAR, Elche understood that his moment was at the start of the second act. They increased their aggressiveness and had a couple of chances from Boyé and Morente. Benzema responded by making Badía work on a couple of occasions while the defense punished a Vinicius who has become a walking target. Six of Elche’s eleven fouls at match time had the Brazilian as their victim, who is being eagerly sought by rivals. At match time came the third, the third goal disallowed. A pass from Kroos to the back of the local defense was picked up by Carvajal, who dropped a cross for Benzema to score with class… but the full-back started in an irregular situation. There was no way to close the match, Ancelotti must have thought, who ended up bringing out Tchouaméni to tie up the midfield and saw Lunin save the furniture with an unlikely save from Clerc’s shot.

And at the end of so much going to the fountain, the pitcher broke in the 75th minute, after another majestic wall with Rodrygo as the protagonist and Benzema as the finisher. The Frenchman made the VAR sign to the referee, joking in celebration of the Whites’ fifth goal after the previous three had been annulled. But this time he did get on the scoreboard and Carletto breathed a sigh of relief putting land in the middle with Elche. The victory was closed by a goal from Asensio, who always leaves something behind, and who keeps Madrid undefeated, nine wins and one draw, and leader in the League.