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Cristiano Ronaldo scored a double and Real Madrid got the three points. That's all. Because no merengue should be happy about how the team played this match. While there were some good moments of positional offense throughout the first half, a recently promoted Elche side were able to completely dominate the whole second half. And that should worry Carlo Ancelotti and the rest of the team, because Atlético Madrid will be Real's next opponent.
Pepe was Real Madrid's best defender, but both him and Arbeloa -who also had a good game overall- had mistakes on Elche's goal. Ramos had a terrible match as well, earning a yellow card in the first ten minutes and almost getting the second five minutes later. If Real Madrid is to contend for the titles, Ramos needs to step his game up soon, because neither Pepe nor Varane are left center backs.
Ancelotti has some work to do in these two days, because Simeone and his men will not let a game like this one slip through their hands. The whole squad played mediocrely, and only Cristiano Ronaldo's goals allowed Real Madrid to walk away with the three points, because not even the Portuguese player had a good performance.
Simply put, the 1-2 win was unfair. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first goal just because the ball passed through the wall on a free-kick and also because Manu Herrera is not a good goalkeeper. Herrera touched the ball and should have easily cleared the danger, but Real's players ended up celebrating instead.
After that, Ancelotti decided to introduce Illarramendi and remove Isco. Illarra didn't have a good night, but it's also true that the context was not helping. Then, Modric left the field for Carvajal. The right back ended up playing as a right midfielder, allowing Di María to have that same role on the left. That completely took the ball away from los blancos, so even though Elche didn't have great scoring chances -Diego López saved two good shots during the first 15 minutes and that's about all-, Fran Escribá's team dominated Real Madrid and ended up scoring a well-deserved equalizer off Boakye's boots.
After that, Real Madrid had a corner-kick and a defender suddenly thought about trying out for judo. He grabbed Pepe and brought him down. Luckily enough for Real Madrid, the referee called the infraction and Cristiano Ronaldo converted from the penalty spot. The crowd then started to sing that "Así, así, así gana el Madrid" song -"that's the way Real Madrid win"-.
Again, this team better improve soon. Ancelotti and his players were really lucky to escape with the win, and it's clear that the defensive midfield and the attackers need to improve. A team with Khedira and Illarramendi as midfielders should not struggle this much, but the last minutes were terrible.
After the game, Gerard Piqué tweeted the following:
Watching a comedy on Canal+ Liga! It's always good to do that this late in the night!
— Gerard Piqué (@3gerardpique) September 25, 2013
"Watching a comedy on Canal+Liga! it's always good to do that this late in the night"
Ancelotti rightfully answered Piqué's words and said this to the press:
Piqué should think about playing and not about talking. He is much better on the pitch than off the pitch.
And of course, the Italian coach said that Real Madrid will not game the derby if his team plays this way. But everybody knew that already.