Real Madrid 3-2 Villarreal: Zidane’s Men Stage a Dramatic Comeback

Real Madrid 3-2 Villarreal, one of the most dramatic games of La Liga division left everyone stunned not once but twice. Going against the expectations at the Camp El Madrigal, Villarreal, the hosts gave a tough time to Real Madrid as the Vikings had to depend on K. Navas throughout the whole first half when Villarreal stormed towards the opposition’s standings.

The first half saw both the team working their legs out to score an opener but it was Villarreal that left Zidane’s men 2 down at the beginning of the second half. The hosts resumed the proceedings as commandingly as they left before halftime and their superiority finally bore fruit.

In the 50th minute, Castillejo tackled Marcelo and held him off while nodding down a lofted pass for Trigueros in the area. The attacker rifled a half-volley from outside the box and the helpless Navas had to let it go in the nets. The stadium erupted after the opener as it seemed as the start of Real Madrid’s end. The ghost of the Viking’s past again turned up as Villarreal had a second just six minutes later.

Bruno left the opposition’s defence in tatters as his pass from the centre circle nicely tied up with the approaching legs of Bakambu. The later, after defeating Sergio Ramos, slotted the ball into the bottom-left corner from 20 yards, forcing Real to live their 2-1 loss to Valencia.

The hosts were looking like the ‘Walking Dead’ before Cristiano Ronaldo took the matter in his hands. Coming back from a 2-0 deficit was never an easy task for any of the teams, but the ‘Men In Whites’ have done it before and they did it again, however, in a very controversial manner.

Interestingly, it was Gareth Bale who laid the foundation of this astonishing comeback. His 64th-minute goal after meeting Dani Carvajal’s cross for a header past substitute goalkeeper Andres Fernandez made sure that Real Madrid had scored in their last 44 games, matching the highest of rankings with Barcelona for the record. The hosts equaled the longest ever streak in La Liga history, with the 1944 Barcelona squad which was the last team to run off such an impressive scoring run.

But, then again, the focus shifted back on the proceedings. Villarreal must be cursing their luck when a pass from Toni Kroos to Bruno was controversially adjudged as being handed by the later, which by every means was unintentional, and Ronaldo made no mistake to tie the scores on the penalty.

Interestingly, after smashing the ball inside the nets, Cristiano Ronaldo became the only player to have scored 57 penalties in La Liga history, surpassing Hugo Sanchez (56).

Morata completed the astounding turnaround meeting Marcelo’s fine left-wing cross and beating Andres with his head in the 83rd minute and despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to it, the shot led the score tally to 3-2 in Real Madrid’s favour.

However, in the 89th minute, Gareth Bale went off after picking a little cramp in his leg and considering his comeback from an ankle injury, Zinedine Zidane might be a worried man for their next clash with Las Palmas.

Madrid (55) now holds a one-point lead over Barca (54) in La Liga and three points over Sevilla (52), with having a solitary game advantage against the both the teams. 

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