Record-breaking Real Madrid get serious in quest to return to the top

They have conceded the fewest league goals out of any club in Europe's top five leagues and have a goalkeeper in form as they prepare for the derby
It all changed after Son Moix.

Real Madrid started the season in erratic form, still stinging from the 7-3 pre-season thrashing by Atletico Madrid, and hurt further by needless draws with Real Valladolid and Villarreal.

Then, in their first real test, Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Zinedine Zidane’s side 3-0 and it could have been worse, with Madrid’s defence dismantled by the French club’s second-string strike force. Neymar was suspended, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani were injured, but PSG laid siege to Thibaut Courtois’s goal. The Belgian’s last clean sheet was back in February and he looked barely half the goalkeeper who made his name across town at Atletico and at Chelsea.
 

After Club Brugge shredded the defence again at the Santiago Bernabeu in a 2-2 draw, Real Mallorca beat Zidane’s side 1-0 at Son Moix and the crisis talk that had been softly bubbling below, reared its head. There were serious doubts about Zidane’s future. Even Jose Mourinho was mentioned as a replacement. That’s how bad it got.

"The game in Mallorca was a turning point," said Lucas Vazquez on Wednesday night after Madrid thrashed Real Zaragoza 4-0 in the Copa del Rey. "It has brought good performances and good results."

The winger wasn’t lying. Real face derby rivals Atletico on Saturday at the Bernabeu sitting top of La Liga. After Mallorca’s victory at Son Moix, Madrid have gone 20 matches unbeaten. In that time they have conceded just nine goals, scoring 45, winning the Spanish Super Cup along the way.

Zidane’s team have become ‘serio’ - serious, sober. They aren’t messing around any more, tightening up remarkably, and unpredictably. For the first time since Zidane won the double in 2016-17, Madrid are a force.

To win three consecutive Champions League titles was a remarkable achievement, but it was obtained without convincing for large swathes of time. League performance is a better barometer of a team's real level. Zidane knows it, having expressed his frustrations at their impotent domestic display upon leaving the club in May 2018, despite European success.





GOAL