Open Thread: March 21, 2021

The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Real Madrid 3 - 1 Celta Vigo

The squad maintained a fierce mentality again today in the face of injuries, a busy schedule and a combative, skilled opponent in Celta. Celta gained the upper hand in the second half with the substitution of Asensio not helping much with control of the pitch. Regarding this period, Zidane even mentioned ‘suffering’:

To give credit where it is due, however, Asensio’s goal in extra time finished the game off and was a great note to finish on. The highlights from this match:

This win makes it three in a row in LaLiga. Taking another peek at the table:

Benzema’s brace puts him in 4th place for Real Madrid goals in LaLiga

This means he has pulled level with Carlos Santillana (who played 19 seasons at Real Madrid, 1971-1988) and is third in this year’s Pichichi race. The Frenchman is tearing it up in LaLiga Santander with 17 goals, 8 in the last 6 games.

Coach Zinedine Zidane remarked about how Benzema’s omission from Les Bleus is unintelligible to him, but from his club’s point of view it has the advantage of keeping him rested and healthy.

The three players with more LaLiga goals than Benzema: Cristiano Ronaldo (312), Raul Gonzalez (228) and Alfredo di Stefano (216). That’s quite a short list to be part of!

Kroos tops the LaLiga assist leaders

Madrid Xtra puts the German sniper’s form into perspective:

The referee of the game, Melero López, explains the yellow card to Modric

(Via Madrid Xtra)

This is a strange explanation because Modric simply passed the ball successfully while going to ground (which is allowed) and made no kicking out motions. Real Madrid’s Emilio Butragueño made this remark about the play:

“Luka passed the ball. We were really surprised by that. Up in the box we looked at each other in amazement. And he was booked... Very strange. Knowing what he is like, his reaction says it all. He was as surprised as we were. ” It is difficult to see what the referee is talking about on that play.

Nacho had a message to the potential Real Madrid players in the making

(Via Infinite Madrid)