Éder Militão introduces Real Madrid disaster evening; champions game against Barça on May 14


Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 11:55 PM• Rian Rosendaal

Real Madrid suffered a painful 2-0 defeat at Real Sociedad on Tuesday evening. Éder Militão made a terrible mistake after the break with a far too hard back pass to Thibaut Courtois, who could not prevent Takefusa Kubo from scoring easily. The Japanese wing attacker assisted under contract for years The Royal, but never broke through. Leader Barcelona won 1-0 against Osasuna earlier this evening and is now fourteen points ahead of Real Madrid. The Catalans, who still have five matches ahead of them in LaLiga, can become champions against rival Espanyol on May 14.

Ancelotti could not use the injured Ferland Mendy, David Alaba and Luka Modric Vinicius Junior and Eduardo Camavinga were suspended and Karim Benzema was rested in view of the diptych with Manchester City in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Mariano Díaz was therefore the attack leader, flanked by Rodygo and Marco Asensio. The diaphragm was formed by Dani Ceballos, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Toni Kroos. Éder Militão and Antonio Rüdiger formed the heart of the defense, with Nacho and Dani Carvajal on the flanks. Courtois defended Real Madrid’s goal as expected.

Sociedad, which will almost certainly enter the Champions League next season as number four, smelled that there was something to be gained in-house on Tuesday evening. The first real warning came after fifteen minutes: Martín Zubimendi hit the crossbar after good preparatory work by Alexander Sørloth. Courtois made a skilful save a few minutes later on a shot from David Silva. Real Madrid only bit off midway through the first half with an Éder Militão header that flew wide. Both teams kept looking for the goal, but goals did not result before the half-time signal.

Shortly after the break, things went completely wrong for Real Madrid, who played poorly. Éder Militão played back too hard on Courtois from the turn, who could no longer prevent Kubo from scoring. After an hour of play it got even worse when Carvajal was shown his second yellow card for a hard foul, and thus a red card. Sociedad wanted to exploit the surplus situation in the final phase and succeeded. Ander Barrenetxea managed to find the bottom left corner on a pass from David Silva: 2-0. A disastrous evening for Real Madrid, which can definitively put the title aspirations on hold.

No. Team m W G v +/- Pnt
1 Barcelona 33 26 4 3 49 82
2 RealMadrid 32 21 5 6 39 68
3 Atletico Madrid 32 20 6 6 30 66
4 real society 32 17 7 8 12 58
5 Villarreal 32 16 5 11 13 53
6 RealBetis 32 14 7 11 2 49
7 Athletic Club 32 13 8 11 11 47
8 Girona 32 12 8 12 5 44
9 Osasuna 33 12 8 13 -6 44
10 Rayo Vallecano 32 11 10 11 -3 43
11 Seville 32 11 8 13 -9 41
12 Real Majorca 32 11 8 13 -4 41
13 Celta de Vigo 32 10 9 13 -7 39
14 Almeria 33 10 6 17 -16 36
15 Cadiz 32 8 11 13 -19 35
16 Real Valladolid 32 10 5 17 -26 35
17 valencia 32 9 6 17 -4 33
18 Espanyol 32 7 10 15 -15 31
19 Getafe 32 7 10 15 -13 31
20 Elche 33 3 7 23 -39 16