After flirting with relegation last season, Deportivo La Coruna were not expected to prove a very significant challenge for Real Madrid as they opened their La Liga campaign on Sunday, and the Estadio Riazor in Galicia proved to be a comfortable site to begin their title defense for Los Blancos.
Gareth Bale returned to the starting XI for Real, and the match was effectively over when the side from the capital scored their second goal in the 27th minute. A 2-0 lead with over an hour still to play shouldn’t really equate to a game being done and dusted, but the degree of control, teamwork and overall quality oozing from Real’s second must’ve been enough to utterly annihilate any notion of a response from Deportivo.
If you watch a condensed highlight of the goal, you’ll see defensive midfielder Casemiro tapping in a low cross from Marcelo inside the six-yard box. The relative ease of the finish shows you the gulf between the two sides, but what you don’t see is a 44-pass move beforehand that involves all 11 Real Madrid starters.
Here are all the passes, as well as the numbers of the players involved — you’ll see a lot of involvement from the midfield of Toni Kroos (8), Luka Modric (10) and Isco (22).
44 - There were 44 passes in the build-up for Casemiro's goal, the most before a goal in La Liga since at least 2006/07. Tiki-taka. pic.twitter.com/QgTTjfEieZ
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) August 20, 2017
Real Madrids second goal had 44 passes in the build up,
Football can be so simple yet so beautiful pic.twitter.com/0NGgqPyRR7— The White Jerome (@jeromeroe96) August 21, 2017
Real Madrid face a sterner test next Sunday as they host Valencia, who opened their season with a 1-0 victory over Las Palmas thanks to the eternal Simone Zaza.
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