If you have been following Real Madrid's games lately you would understand why this win was a big one. Madrid has been off since the resumption of the league. Facing Villarreal away has always been a huge task for Madrid no matter the type of form they are in.
Facing them at the Bernabeu is a different situation but facing them at their home is a whole new scenario. Real Madrid has not been able to beat Villarreal at their home since 2017. The last time we faced them at their home they defeated Madrid by 2 goals to one but in all sincerity, that match should have ended by maybe 5 or 6 goals to Villarreal. Madrid was soo bad that day that it didn’t even look like those guys who won the league the previous season.
Well, things haven’t been working out since the World Cup. Madrid faced Valladolid and won by 2 goals to nil but I was not convinced. We won but we didn’t play well. Against Valencia, they won but it was the same bad play. And then they faced Villarreal in the league and our worries were confirmed. But then against Barca, they were soo bad. They didn’t even wanna fight for the ball and as a result, they were outplayed and beaten easily.
Facing Villarreal for the second time was not something I wanted. This time around there was more pressure since we were beaten in a final. We had to go there and win against a very strong rival who do not only play good football but knows how to beat us.
The game started as feared it will. We were getting outplayed and within the first 5 minutes, we conceded. I was not surprised cause I knew what was gonna happen. Villarreal could have gone ahead and buried the game in the first half but could only get a second. Courtois was up to the task if not it would have been a total thrashing.
All hopes were lost, I thought that was it but then Vini gave us hope. He scored from a through ball and the momentum moved to Madrid.
Ceballos was brought in and boy he was what we needed. It was like he knew how to play the game and help us win. A few minutes in we grabbed our second and it was all square. Then I believe that we were gonna win.
We had outplayed them and were threatening to get the third. In no time we got the third through a Ceballos beauty and that was it. We finished them off and boy am I relieved we did. Getting knocked out of the Copa Dey Rey would have been a disaster since we couldn’t win the super cup.