Real Madrid Castilla 1-3 Arenas Club de Getxo

Playoff hopes were all but gone, and Castilla were set to see out the remainder of the season hoping for a miracle. Today fellow dream chasers Arenas Club de Getxo paid a visit to Madrid. Castilla were without Fede Valverde or Nikos Vergos, who were rested, and chose to start with Campuzano up top, with Díaz out wide per usual. Seoane came into fill the Valverde shaped hole in the middle.

Castilla started the game very elegantly, passing the ball around nicely. That was the story of the first half in a sentence really, as Castilla moved the ball well, using the width of the pitch via the full backs to deliver crosses into the box. Arenas Club offered next to nothing going forward, and all in all looked a pretty bad side. Castilla were dominating the game when Arenas Club were agonizingly given a lifeline when Seoane put in a high footed challenge in the Castilla penalty area to concede a penalty. Abad guessed the right way but could do nothing to stop the well hit strike giving Arenas the lead. 1-0. The game didn't change at all after the goal, and Castilla continued to dominate. For all of their good play, the carved out very few clear cut chances, and could not find an equalizer before the break.

The second half brought on more of the same, with Castilla desperately trying to get back into the game. A few minutes into the half, they found themselves 3-on-1 against the Arenas goalkeeper, but Enzo saw his shot somehow blocked off of the line. Castilla were playing well, but their play was focused on crossing into the box for the strikers to finish. Here is where I think Solari got it completely wrong. If the tall, strong Nikos Vergos was available then Castilla probably would've won, but today the crosses were aimed at either Sergio Díaz, who stands at 5 foot 6, or Víctor Campuzano, who isn't much taller at 5 foot 7. As you can imagine, the only successful header I saw was from an Enzo half chance, and even that wasn't great.

However, Arenas Club were still creating nothing, which is why it came as a big shock when they stole the ball away from Achraf, before finishing really well into the bottom corner to make it 2-0. Minutes later, Philipp Lienhart played a back pass to Abad which was completely misjudged by the keeper, and the ball painfully rolled into the net for an own goal. 3-0. Ouch. The game panned out from here, and Castilla began to crumble. Arenas came into the game more with their new found advantage. It looked to be a bleak result, when right at the end Javi Muñoz played a ball in for Luismi Quezada to smash home. The game finished 3-1 to Arenas Club.

This was one of the worst results I have seen Castilla record. Especially when the performance wasn't necessarily bad at all. I felt that the tactics were wrong yet again, but the team did what Solari wanted them to do with good effect. Man of the match went to substitute Luismi Quezada, who came on and produced another fine display, and even got himself another goal. That loss adds to Castilla's woes, and all but confirms their status in the third division for next season. Next week the team will travel to UD Logroñés for a tasty match up. Hopefully there will be plenty of goals on show, so make sure you don't miss out!

Goal: Quezada

Assist: Muñoz

MOTM: Quezada