Just imagine: Alaba, Huijsen, Militão, Carreras, Mastantuono, Bellingham, Ceballos, Camavinga, Rodrygo, Mbappé. Looks like an amazing starting XI, right? Wrong: these are all the players who weren't available for last Friday's match against Celta Vigo at the Balaídos stadium. Ten players out for injury or suspension. Absolutely crazy. So Arbeloa had no other choice but to put an unusual XI. The team didn't play well and suffered Celta a lot but in the end they could get the three points with some luck.

Matchday 27: Focus on Brahim Díaz

Brahim Díaz was a starter again after more than one month. Honestly, this wasn't his best match. He was meant to form an unusual attacking duo with Vinícius Júnior, but since none of them is an actual striker the team lacked consistency and showed poor attacking potential. Questionable decision by Arbeloa to bench the only real striker, Gonzalo García...

Brahim mainly played in his favourite position on the right wing, but also moved a lot, dropped back and came inside. He also switched positions with both Alexander-Arnold and Valverde, recovered many balls and was always ready to help circulate the ball and create chances, but it just wasn't his best night. Good connections with all his teammates but none of them led to an actual chance to score. The first Madrid goal was scored by Tchouaméni with a great shot on a corner kick by Güler.

In the second half, probably Arbeloa noticed that Vinícius was performing poorly in such a hybrid position (basically out of his usual position) and that the attacking potential of the team had to improve dramatically. Brahim started coming inside more often, so that Vinícius could finally play more on the left wing and become the main source of attacking power. The result was that Brahim was less and less involved in the game, but at the same time Vinícius couldn't find enough space to be decisive.

Brahim was subbed off at minute 76 and Gonzalo finally entered the pitch. Unfortunately, it was too late to change the dynamics of the match and the winning goal by Valverde came at the very last minute of the additional time, after a long shot that was deviated by Marcos Alonso. In my opinion, a very lucky goal that led to an undeserved win for Real Madrid. Obviously, that was a crucial match and a win was the only possible result in order not to lose sight of Barcelona, that continue their winning streak. But honestly if Real Madrid want to beat Manchester City in the Champions League match tonight they will have to play way better. I'm not really confident about tonight's match, but who knows? Let's hope the atmosphere of a Champions League night at the Bernabéu will work its magic...

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Did you watch the match? Which player impressed you the most? Hit reply and let me know!

See you next Tuesday!

Marta