Attention Madridistas: Your club needs you

For Real Madrid, this season has been an extraordinary disaster. Everything has happened, so much so that I don’t actually have the time nor the vocabulary to even attempt to explain it. Still: one of the weirdest and worst seasons in memory for the club could be about to get a little better. No, not for the first team - but for Castilla, the clubs reserve side. The youngsters played Coruxo on Saturday, and with a little bit of luck things could be looking very promising for them indeed. It was another experimental line-up from manager Manolo Díaz, as both Ayoub Abou and Martín Calderón started in midfield. Álvaro Fidalgo was pushed almost out-wide alongside the in form Jorge De Frutos, allowing top scorer Cristo González and Dani Gómez to congregate in middle up top.

The game may have started of painfully familiar to nearly every other game, but it would change pretty quickly after half time. Castilla did manage to reach that point with a deserved lead to protect, after Dani Gómez was tripped up after nimbly driving into the area. It was captain Javier Sánchez who stepped up to take it, and he led by example, showing no sign of nerves as he tucked it into the bottom corner. The first half was pretty slow paced, and it looked like it was going to be a dreary scoreless outing until the penalty was scored. Despite the lack of action, Castilla still were the better team for the most part of the half. During the second half, the team would go on to transform their momentum to complete one of their best performances of the season.

The game continued and Castilla attacked from the start, looking a lot sharper and more motivated in their play. They made this intensity count before the hour mark after Cristo González decided to join the party with a sleek finish using his weaker foot in a cramped area. The game opened up from here and Corux began to create some genuine danger. They probably should have scored at least once too, but a fine intervention from the impressive Dani Fernández was enough to put the attacker off whilst in a glorious position. Another top save from Luca Zidane meant that the eventual clean-sheet would be well earned. Adrián De la Fuente , Jaume Grau and Jaime Seoane were all brought on, and at first I thought these changes were slightly too conservative considering the way the game was panning out. They all ended up complimenting the team perfectly, and the team continued to attack, managing to make it three before the final whistle was blown. Who else but Cristo? The Spaniard received the ball from De Frutos on the edge of the box before immediately curling a shot past the goalkeeper’s reach for his 18th goal of the season. The whistle blew soon after to confirm a 3-0 victory.

Results elsewhere in the league mean that Castilla now fly back into the play-off spots! They have been gifted an amazing opportunity. If they can beat the practically relegated Rápido de Bouzas next week, then they will almost certainly make the play-offs. Just to put that game into context, Rápido de Bouzas lost 5-1 to Atlético Madrid B on Sunday. Atlético also take on one of Castilla’s main rivals in Pontevedra next week, meaning that one of those two teams will definitely drop points. Castilla then play Pontevedra themselves on the final day. They will never get a better chance than this. Man of the match for the Coruxo game was right-back Dani Fernández, who had his best game of the season and looked scintillating both in attack and defence. If you are a Real Madrid fan, and you are yet to jump on the Castilla fun bus, then it’s just about time that you should.

Goals: Sánchez and González x2.

Assists: García and De Frutos.

MOTM: Fernández.