The big week of Real Madrid (Valencia, Barcelona, and Athletic) ended up with much better football than results. The balance of three points of nine does not do justice to what Zidane’s team has proposed on the field, but the lack of goals is condemning them in excess. A goal in 270 minutes is the poor balance of Madrid in a week in which they have left six points on the road despite all the football flow and opportunities generated in each of the matches. In addition, for the first time since 2006, they accumulate two 0-0 draws in a row and that has led them to be placed two points behind Barcelona in La Liga.

2 - Real Madrid have drawn 0-0 in back-to-back LaLiga games for the first time since March 2006 when Juan Ramón López Caro was in charge. Tired. pic.twitter.com/lxbsc2wepM — OptaJose (@OptaJose) December 22, 2019

LAST MINUTE GOAL IN MESTALLA

And if we go back to the only goal scored in the last three matches, it arrived in a very peculiar way in Mestalla against Valencia, almost heroic, after a Courtois header in a corner kick that ended up with Benzema pushing the ball to the net. Zidane says that he is not worried about the lack of goal and that does not consider the signing of a number ‘9’. "The goal will come in 2020," he said last night, but it is clear that the white team has suffered in this regard since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure. They suffered last year and they are suffering now. In the last three games they have shot 18 times on goal to celebrate just once.

Yesterday against Athletic, ‘Los Blancos’ hit the woodwork up to three times. First it was Kroos, then Nacho and finally Jovic. And those shots that were not saved by the post, were saved by Unai Simón, who signed a great game at the Bernabéu. Shortly after starting the match, Athletic's goalkeeper had already avoided the first goal against Vinícius, one of the players on whom the lack of punch is more evident. The Brazilian does everything right until it is time to finish the play, which is when the blind is lowered. Yesterday he could have scored a goal that would have put the Bernabéu on his feet, but the goalkeeper's knee began to twist the night for Madrid

MISSING CRISTIANO

Numbers don’t lie and is evident that since Ronaldo’s departures the average of goals has gone down. In the Portuguese’s first season in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid scored 130 goals in 50 games in 2010, in an average of 2.60 strikes per match, and the following year was even better with 167 goals in 60 games with an average of 2.78. 2014 with 2.83 and 206 with 2.81 were the best scoring seasons with the Juventus player still in Madrid’s ranks, on an average that was never below 2.37 goals per match that was the lowest number achieved in the 2018 season. In the first year without his presence, the average went down to 1.85 after Real Madrid scored 100 goals in 54 games in 2019. The difference is more than evident.

Unai Simon & the woodwork deny Real Madrid at the Bernabeu! ?



???? Highlights #RealMadridAthletic pic.twitter.com/RLL9b1XIst — LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) December 22, 2019

Zidane's team, as against Valencia and Barça, tried everything without success against Athletic. Even Sergio Ramos ended up playing as a forward looking for another heroic goal, but not even the saving shot of the central defender worked yesterday. In fact, Madrid, which had an infinite number of occasions, did not have enough presence in the last meters, because there were 37 crosses placed from the sides and only seven found a striker. It’s clear that Athletic’s defense, with three central defenders, also made it very difficult yesterday for Madrid attackers, but is also evident that Madrid’s forwards have been blocked in the last three games, and they will need to go back to a scoring mode when the decisive moment of the season arrives.

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