After Nyom’s expulsion, Mbappé unlocked a tense and balanced match. The Merengues are first in the standings on the eve of the match against Barcelona
Pepe Bordalas admires ancient Rome and the gladiatorial spirit, his Getafe plays dirty, he loads up his team as if they were always protagonists of Full Metal Jacket and this brings with it the risk of overexcitement. A nervous and boring match was going on between Getafe and Real Madrid until Bordalas made his first substitution.
45 seconds
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It was the 76th minute and the rude Nyom, welcomed by an ovation from the faithful of the Coliseum, as Getafe’s stadium is called, replaced Kiko Femenía who had been suffering since Vinicius came on. Well, Nyom lasted 44 seconds. At the first opportunity he knocked out Vinicius in a dramatic manner: he wanted to be intimidating, he was sent off. And after another 3 minutes, spent calming things down, Kilyan Mbappé decided the match with his tenth goal in La Liga, served by a nice through ball from Arda Güler, who had recently come on. Getafe out of their minds and left with 9 men shortly afterwards due to the second yellow card from Alex Sancris, who arrived for another absolutely unnecessary foul on Vinicius. Bordalas extends his negative streak to 16 against Madrid, who he has never beaten and against whom he has lost 14 times, Xabi Alonso remains at the top: +2 on Barcelona who go to play at the Bernabeu next Sunday, 4 days after Juventus. This is the rapid and electric succession of moments that decided the race. In the long recovery Courtois sacrificed himself to avoid Getafe’s equalizer, coming out in desperation on Coba, suffering a blow to his knee and remaining on the ground. Madrid fans with bated breath but the Belgian finished the match and came out on his own.
Xabi’s choices
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To begin the triptych of matches with increasing difficulty, Getafe, Juve, Barça, Xabi Alonso moved between forced substitutions and experiments: he chose Alaba (and not Asencio as the Madrid press thought) and Camavinga as replacements for the injured Huijsen and Ceballos, and then Bellingham and Rodrygo (in his third start in 10 outings) for Arda Guler and Vinicius. Valverde continues as right back given the ailments of Carvajal and Alexander-Arnold. Of the injured players mentioned, only Ceballos has a slim chance of reappearing on Wednesday. Bordalas designed a rocky 5-3-2 on the pitch which in defense left no room for Madrid’s offensive ambitions, which weren’t even shameless.
Two flashes
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Rodrygo produced the only flash of his team in the first half, a magnificent cut for Mbappé with David Soria forced into a good save. At the other end, a great left-footed volley from Sancris ended up just wide with Courtois beaten. For the rest, a dirty and fragmented game, isolated quality details but always ends in themselves, a few yawns in the placid night of the Madrid suburbs. During the break, Xabi removed Alaba (muscle problems) by inserting Asencio, and after 10 minutes the much booed Vinicius for the outgoing Franco Mastantuono: the 18-year-old Argentinian took over the starting shirt in the right sector of the Blanco attack but struggled to convince with continuity. Vini accomplished almost nothing but made Bordalas’ soldiers nervous. And Mbappé pierced them. The Frenchman between Bleus and Blancos has scored in 11 games in a row, a personal best. The series began on September 5th and there are 15 goals. Juventus is warned.
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