Carlo Ancelotti rested most of Real Madrid’s key starters for Friday’s trip to Real Sociedad but still managed to secure a 1-0 win.
In a performance that was anything but classic, Arda Guler scored the only goal of the game midway through the first half, taking Madrid one step closer to La Liga glory.
The win brings a very welcome three points for Ancelotti, whose focus is clearly on Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich.
How the game developed
An early cross from Javi Galan put Kepa Arrizabalaga in trouble early on, but the substitute striker did well to deny Take Kubo, putting Madrid under considerable pressure in the early stages of the game.
The first 28 minutes were one-way traffic, but the 29th minute gave the visitors an unlikely lead.
Dani Carvajal’s first cross should have been cleared by Igor Zubeldia, but the ball rolled through to Guler, who converted Madrid’s first shot on goal to give his side the lead.
Parity was restored almost immediately when Kubo fired past Kepa after Aurelien Tchouameni released the ball on the edge of his own penalty area, but a VAR review confirmed that the Frenchman had indeed been fouled and the goal was not possible.
Benat Turrientes almost equalized in the opening seconds of the second half, but Kepa was outnumbered again and fired the shot wide.
Sociedad’s spark began to fade around the hour mark and Madrid were content to sit deep and limit the space available to the hosts, who still had the majority of possession at that point.
With 17 minutes to go, Sociedad had the ball in the net again, but this time no VAR check was needed as Mikel Oyarzabal had clearly been offside before putting the ball into the net.
Oyarzabal thought he had scored a valid goal shortly afterwards when his superb shot beat Kepa, but Antonio Rüdiger’s header deflected the shot wide of the post.
The introduction of Sheraldo Becker from the bench brought more life to Sociedad, but Madrid maintained their form and weathered the storm fairly well before the final whistle.
TW: Kepa Arrizabalaga – 7/10 – A nervous start but some clever saves from deep prevented Sociedad from scoring the goals.
RB: Dani Carvajal – 7/10 – Madrid needed his experience and Carvajal stepped up his game. A really clever assist for Guler’s opening goal.
CB: Eder Militao – 5/10 – He really has nothing to offer here, which is probably due to rust after such a long break. He’s made a handful of mistakes that one hopes he’ll erase as he gets back into his rhythm.
CB: Nacho Fernandez – 6/10 – A few sloppy decisions but he largely held his own in a surprisingly busy performance.
LB: Fran Garcia – 7/10 – He clearly heard the criticism of his defensive effectiveness and rose to the challenge. Looked very focused towards the back.
DM: Aurelien Tchouameni – 8/10 – It was a slow start but Tchouameni gained control of the midfield. However, some sensational passes, including for Guler’s goal, focused on giving Sociedad no more space to attack.
DM: Luka Modric – 6/10 – He found it noticeably difficult to commit to a game that required more defense than anything else, but eventually he began to find his feet.
RM: Arda Güler – 7/10 – A clear highlight in Madrid’s attacking line. He took his goal well and played with some confidence as he looked to improve his tally.
AM: Brahim Diaz – 4/10 – Hardly involved in a game that is usually played at the other end of the field.
LM: Dani Ceballos – 3/10 – Had no control in midfield as Sociedad kept coming. Not the kind of performance needed to get back into Ancelotti’s mind.
ST: Joselu – 4/10 – I can’t fault the performance, but Joselu was on his own island for most of this game and is not the type of striker who can chase possession.
Substitute
SUB: Vinicius Junior (68′ for Guler) – 5/10
SUB: Federico Valverde (68′ for Ceballos) – 6/10
SUB: Antonio Rüdiger (76′ for Brahim) – 6/10
Substitute: Eduardo Camavinga (76th minute for Garcia) – 6/10
Substitute: Lucas Vazquez (84th minute for Modric) – not available
Substitutes not used: Andrew Lunin (TW), Fran Gonzalez (TW), Jude Bellingham, Toni Kroos
Manager
Carlo Ancelotti – 7/10 – His only goal here was to give his starters a break, and that’s exactly what he did. It wasn’t an impressive performance by any means, but that wasn’t remotely important to Ancelotti.