Immediate Reaction: Real Madrid 4-1 Granada

Real Madrid 4-1 Granada (Marco Asensio, Nacho, Vinicius Junior, Ferland Mendy). Here is my immediate reaction, look out for: press conferences, player ratings and the post game podcast.

From the off, this game looked like it had goals in it. Granada sported a very loose defensive line with plenty of space between the center and full backs for Vinicius and Asensio to charge into. After a handful of half chances and false breaks, Madrid managed to take their lead with their first clear chance at goal. The move started with Vinicius sneaking up on a Granada midfielder and winning back possession, the ball falling to Toni Kroos who played Marco Asensio through on goal.

Los Blancos’s number 11 superior pace took him away from the Granada defense and he managed to squeeze a shot home despite a decent initial stop by Luís Maximiano.

Things flowed a little nicer for Madrid after gaining the lead, their efforts, once again, aided by a very suspect Granada defense. Nacho doubled the away side’s lead in the 25th minute from a well worked short corner routine, the finish was quite a spectacle.

When Granada attempted to respond with a corner routine of their own a few minutes later, Madrid countered with brutal efficiency and could have walked into the dressing room home and dry if it wasn’t for a dictionary definition goal line clearance on Asensio’s final shot. Perhaps this first real denial from the Granada defense rubbed Madrid the wrong way because the hosts began to find their rhythm a bit more, especially after Luis Suarez’s deflected shot halved their deficit going into the second 45.

One way or another, the flat finish didn’t stop Los Blancos from restoring parity in the second half. Once again attacking from a failed Granada corner, Casemiro was able to set Karim Benzema free. In spite of his 33 years, the French forward was able to find a surprising turn of pace and had plenty of time to pick out Modric at the back post whom charitably knocked the ball back to Vini to tap home into an empty net.

The evening got a little worse for Granada when former Barcelona midfielder, Monchu, decided he had seen enough of Vinicius’s rippling jersey number. The scything slide tackle was certainly reckless on Monchu’s part, though the red still came as a bit of a surprise. Shortly after, Ferland Mendy finished the scoring for Madrid with a neat pass-shot into the bottom corner.

Courtois was called into two challenging saves towards the end but the game was long over as a competition by then. Madrid head to Moldova with another big league win under their belts, though they were more than helped by the quality of their opponent. Player ratings, post match quotes and (of course) a post game podcast coming your way. Stay tuned!