MADRID • Thibaut Courtois overcame the toy rat insults and Gareth Bale delivered a timely reminder of his talents with his 100th goal for Real Madrid in Saturday's feisty derby victory that reignited their LaLiga hopes.
The 3-1 over Atletico Madrid - their fifth straight league win - helped Los Blancos leapfrog their city rivals into second place for the first time since September.
They are on 45 points, five behind Barcelona, who played at Athletic Bilbao in the late game yesterday.
Real continued their revival under Santiago Solari in another impressive performance at the Wanda Metropolitano, aided by some fortunate decisions.
"LaLiga is there to fight for, there are a lot of points to win and any team can make your life hard," said Real captain Sergio Ramos.
"Winning the league motivates us, it's a really balanced competition and we have to keep fighting for it and make life difficult for Barcelona."
Bale had been left out of the starting line-up for the second time in four days, after he was also a substitute against the Catalans in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
He ended the hosts' hopes of a comeback on 74 minutes after Ramos' penalty put Real in front at half-time, with Antoine Griezmann earlier cancelling out Casemiro's acrobatic opener.
The Welshman's goal was not lost on Solari, even if his celebration drew criticism, after he appeared to make an insulting gesture towards the Atletico fans.
"It's great for Gareth," said the coach. "He was very happy and happy about his goal, which helped decide the game, because the game was alive and he finished it."
By the time Atletico's Thomas Partey was sent off with 10 minutes left, the game was up and Courtois could have been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief at the final whistle. The Belgian, who spent three years at Atletico, was playing in the white of Real for the first time at the home of his former club.
He was whistled during the warm-up and before kick-off, as the Atletico ultras behind the goal hurled dozens of toy rats towards his head. A sign read, "Thibaut - Rata", just to underline the point.
Alvaro Morata had gone the opposite way, also via Chelsea, after starting out at Real. He was cheered and, despite a quiet game, would have scored but for the video assistant referee (VAR) ruling out an impressive lob in the second half for offside.
The system was also involved in the penalty incident which saw Jose Gimenez dive in from behind on Real midfielder Vinicius.
The foul might have been outside the box, but the VAR disagreed.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
Tottenham striker Harry Kane has suggested that he will be ready to play against Liverpool in the Champions League final later this month after spending the end of the season on the sidelines. The England striker has been hit with a few injuries this campaign, with his latest one keeping him out for
Tottenham's Kane has been ready to play for 10 days - espn.com
Mad Hatters Tea Party. To host a mad hatters tea party is a very easy thing to do. Let your imagination run wild and be inspired by anything whimsical and enchanting and of course Alice in Wonderland.
70 Short Welcome Speech Samples To Address any Event
Qatar's Abdulaziz Hatem scored with a stunning late strike as the 2022 World Cup hosts upset Son Heung-min's South Korea 1-0 to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Cup for the first time on Friday.
Asian Cup 2019 roundup: Holders Australia knocked out by
Sports Rescuers 'fear the worst' in search for footballer Emiliano Sala and missing plane. A player who had just become Premier League side Cardiff City's record transfer was on a plane that went
On this day: Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra hits back at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger… Benjani's pal keen to sign for Blues
2019 Sell, Release, Keep or Try to sign: Midfielders - owtb.co.uk
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 26, 2019, with the headline 'Two other defiant goalkeepers'. Print Edition | Subscribe.
Two other defiant goalkeepers - theworldnews.net
37 Inspiring Quotes About Working Hard and Achieving Big Things In honor of hard workers everywhere, here are some of the most inspiring quotes about working hard and watching it pay off. By Bill
cardiff skipper dedicates goal to sala Cardiff City captain Sol Bamba dedicated his goal and a 2-1 victory over Southampton to Emiliano Sala after an emotional match for the Welsh club. Round 38
I know Sala was watching - Bambav | FOX Sports Asia
Posts filtered by tags Blog - Football Asia . India fell into the trap of playing for the draw that would have taken them through to the knockout stages, and in the end it cost them as captain on the night Pronay Halder gave away a penalty in the first minute of stoppage time.
Qualifiers - Latest News on Qualifiers | Read Breaking News
Lions must want the ball: Yoshida, Football News & Top
Pep Guardiola is not concerned about the way his Manchester City players use social media, despite a post from Kyle Walker that appeared to mock Premier League title rivals, Liverpool.
Guardiola not worried about Manchester City players' social
Impressive Burnley fight back to beat Bournemouth 3-1 Burnley's English striker Ashley Barnes heads the ball during the English Premier League match against Bournemouth at the Vitality
Impressive Burnley fight back to beat Bournemouth - Freedom
Translate text from over 50 languages! Quick setup. Simple use to quickly translate multiple lines of text with just a few clicks. Many extra tools including virtual keyboard, language definitions, word of the day and much more.
0 comments:
Post a Comment