Real Madrid appeased the pressure with a victory before the break in the Spanish League for the World Cup in Qatar.
Eder Militao and Toni Kroos scored the goals with which the reigning champion beat Cádiz 2-1 on Thursday, after having given up the lead on the previous date.
Militao scored his third goal of the championship — the Brazilian defender’s second in games — by hitting a sharp header off the post from Kroos’s cross in the 40th minute.
The German midfielder sustained his first goal of the season in the 70th minute with a superb shot from outside the area, which entered the goal at mid-height.
Lucas Pérez tightened the duel by sending a rebound from goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to the nets at 81.
Alfonso Espino was close to equalizing in replacement time with a header that barely went over the merengue goal.
“We played a good game, except in the last 10 minutes. We were able to put in the third and suffered. It is a well deserved victory. We controlled the game and we had chances”, commented Kroos.
The white team came out of a bad moment after stringing together two dates without a victory — a 1-1 draw against Girona and a 3-2 defeat against Rayo Vallecano — to have 35 points, two less than the leader Barcelona, which on Tuesday solved with a 2-1 win against Osasuna to open the 14th day.
Meanwhile, Cádiz is penultimate with 11 points.
Madrid put a face to this last game before several of its players attend the calls of their teams for the World Cup.
“The break is good because there is nothing else to do. We signed a well-done start to the season and we have arrived a little fair, but we have fulfilled, now it’s time to rest”, commented the Marid coach, Carlo Ancelotti. “Thirty-five points are more than last year considering that we have missed the Ballon d’Or (Karim Benzema) in many games and that he scored 50 goals last year”,
Benzema, the winner of the most recent Ballon d’Or and who will join France’s concentration in Qatar, missed his fourth consecutive matchday — seventh of the championship — due to muscle fatigue.
Militao’s header was a breath of fresh air for the hosts, who had been bogged down in a difficult first half, in which they saw three yellow cards: Militao, Vinicius Junior and David Alaba.
Luka Modric missed out on a clear chance for a third goal down the stretch when he received a diagonal pass from Vinicus, who shot wide to the open door. The public in the stands of the Santiago Bernabéu chanted the name of the Croatian veteran after lamenting lying on the field.
Minutes after that failure came Pérez’s goal that made the meringues suffer in the final stretch.
VALENCIA BEATS BETIS
Andre Almeida, Hugo Guillamón and Justin Kluivert improved the goals in the complement with which Valencia thrashed Betis 3-0, which threw away the opportunity to climb to third position.
The team of the Chilean strategist Manuel Pellegrini crashed in this visit after staying with 10 elements due to the expulsion of Édgar González with half an hour to go, after seeing a couple of yellow cards in a period of eight minutes.