Revisiting The José Juan Masterclass Vs Real Madrid

It seems like longer, but just 10 months ago — in 2021! — Real Madrid suffered a shock 2 - 1 defeat against Alcoyano in the Copa del Rey first round knockout stage. Then managed by Zinedine Zidane, Los Blancos rested some players, but fielded still a very strong XI: Lunin; Odriozola, Militao, Chust, Marcelo; Valverde, Casemiro, Isco; Vazquez, Mariano, Vinicius. That team should’ve got the job done.

And to be fair, it was a freak game. Real Madrid opened the scoring through Militao on the stroke of half-time, and outshot Alocyano 26 - 5. 41-year-old keeper José Juan had a game that any goalkeeper would dream of having against the Madrid giants. He kept his team in it, and Alcoyano, having equalized in the 80th minute, took the lead deep into extra time (115’) — and that was after going down to 10 men in the 110th minute due to a red card.

This is an excerpt from Sam Sharpe’s immediate reaction that night:

Alcoyano were well organised, and their 41 year old goalkeeper was notably impressive with his safe hands and surprising acrobatics. It was interesting to see former Real Madrid academy player Alberto Rubio start, and play well on the right-hand side after I had completely forgotten about his existence. Real Madrid saw an immense amount of possession, but it came with very little impact. The goal just before half-time was well taken, with Marcelo putting a good ball into the box and Éder Militão connecting well to score his first Real Madrid goal.

And below, you can see the José Juan highlight package (which, admittedly, seems less spectacular now, given that most of Real Madrid’s shots were straight at him, but nevertheless, a great night for him):

Real Madrid have drawn against Alcoyano again in this year’s Copa del Rey. Surely they won’t drop the ball this time. Revenge is on the cards.