Sevilla 1 – 2 Real Madrid (Mir; Rodrygo x2). Here’s our quick reaction at the final whistle. Still to come: Player ratings, post-game podcast, stats reviews, post-game quotes, and much more.
In a bit of a humdrum at Sanchez Pizjuan, Real Madrid go to Sevilla and take care of business. A brace from Rodrygo Goes — two absolute golazos — sunk Mendilibar’s men before their Europa League final vs Roma on Wednesday.
Ancelotti travelled to Sevilla without two of his starting attackers, as both Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr were nursing injuries. Another key offensive contributor, Marco Asensio — who is on his way out of the club — also sat out because of an injury.
A lot of speculation was made about who would start in their absences. Would Alvaro Rodriguez get the nod? Would Eden Hazard get a are cameo?
Instead, Ancelotti went with nearly every available midfielder — packing the midfield with Aurelien Tchouameni, Fede Valverde, Luka Modric, Dani Ceballos, and Fede Valverde. Rodrygo was the only forward on the team-sheet:
The game got off to a poor start for Real Madrid, after Rafa Mir opened the scoring after just three minutes, taking advantage of some poor tracking:
But Real Madrid did grow into the game. They should’ve scored an equalizer shortly after through a Rodrygo point blank miss. In the 29th minute, Rodrygo made amends by scoring a beautiful free-kick:
In the 69th minute, Rodrygo scored the winner. Toni Kroos played a perfect pass in transition, and Rodrygo’s calm dribbling and finishing put the game to bed:
Perhaps the biggest victory tonight — apart from the three points — was that no player got injured badly. Sevilla’s players were playing quite dirty off the ball, going in with ugly late challenges over and over again. One of them resulted in a red card in the 83rd minute for Marcos Acuña for a shocking challenge on Dani Ceballos. Shortly after, Oliver Torres went studs in on Eduardo Camavinga’s calf, and he was lucky to escape a red card.
We’ll break this down in much more detail in the coming hours.
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