The less-fancied Eibar dismantled Real Madrid 3-0 and claimed its first-ever win over its visitor at the Ipurua stadium in an early La Liga kick-off on Saturday.
Eibar, which had previously only scored two goals against Los Blancos , inflicted Santiago Solari’s first managerial defeat in the five matches since taking charge.
Eibar manager Jose Luis Mendillibar stated that his side did not fear Real Madrid and that Solari’s side appeared to have similar problems which plagued his predecessor Julen Lopetegui.
Crucial Cucrella
Dani Cucrella, the 20-year-old on-loan winger from Barcelona, made a telling contribution in all three goals. In the 16th minute, Cucrella sliced through Real’s centre at pace after latching onto a loose ball inside his own area.
The winger’s cross from the left channel inside the Real box was saved well by Courtois but Dani Cabellos’ on-the-turn clearance hit Escalante and rolled into the net. Celebrations were put on hold when the linesman ruled the goal offside but resumed after VAR overturned the decision.
The home side maximised the compact playing surface to its advantage by closing down Real’s forwards and midfielders quickly and denying them any kind of rhythm in the opening half.
Disastrous
The second half proved to be disastrous for Real as Eibar scored in the 52nd and 57th minutes to triple its advantage. Cucrella showed good strength to dispossess right-back Alvaro Odriozola near the edge of the box before playing in an unmarked Sergi Enrich, who smashed it past Courtois, for the second.
For the third, Cucrella reacted quickest to a cross from the right and swung in an inviting cross from the left into the six-yard area where Kike had the simple task of slotting in ahead of Raphael Varane.
Solari threw in Isco, Vinicius Jr. to spark a revival but soon Real was resorting to lumping the ball up-field in the hope of disrupting Eibar’s back four.
Eibar’s supporters, probably to their disbelief, began the ole chants with the result a foregone conclusion. Eibar is now in the top half of the table in seventh two points behind Real, which would have much to ponder over the manner of the defeat.
The results: Eibar 3 (Escalante 16, Enrich 52, Kike 57) bt Real Madrid 0; Leganes 1 (En-Nesyri 42) bt Alaves 0.
(The writer is in Eibar on an invitation from Eibar and LaLiga.)
