Madrid: Reigning La Liga Champions faltered against Alaves losing 1-2 on Sunday (November 29). Thibaut Courtois made a catastrophic error and Eden Hazard had to be subbed off due to yet another injury.
Lucas Perez gave the visitors an early lead on five minutes after scoring from the spot, which was awarded to them due to Nacho’s handball. This was the fifth penalty that Zinedine Zidane’s men conceded in the last three league matches.
Hazard had to be subbed off on 28 minutes after a muscle injury and an appeal for a penalty, which was ruled out by the referee. Alaves doubled their lead, when a monumental mistake by Courtois was utilised to its fullest by Joselu, a former Real Madrid youth player and Alaves went 2-0 up against the Los Blancos on 49 minutes.
Zidane surely missed his star players like Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema their top two scorers last season. However, during the closing minutes, Casemiro did manage to pull one goal back for his team, when he scored on 86 minutes. This was Zidane’s 10th league game defeat since he rejoined Madrid as the head coach in March 2019.
“Alaves made a much better start than us and if you don’t score you pay for it as this is the toughest league in the world and every opponent has quality.”
“This is a very different season from most, all the big teams are dropping points but we have to keep working and try to do better. At least we kept trying until the end today.
“Our pre-season campaign was not good and we have almost no time to work because there are so many games. But we need to keep on fighting as there’s still a long way to go,” said Casemiro to media post the match.
