Although Real Madrid entered today’s match against SD Huesca with 10 games still remaining in LaLiga, a 15-point deficit to Barcelona at the top combined with a 10-point lead over fifth-place Alaves has rendered the rest of the season somewhat inconsequential for Zinedine Zidane’s men.
Regardless, it’s interesting to watch how the team performs following the French manager’s return, particularly restored players like Isco and Marcelo as well as the ongoing drama that is Gareth Bale. Extra spice was added today when Zidane elected to start his 20-year-old son Luca in goal.
This was Luca’s first senior appearance since starting the final match of last season’s campaign, and the opponent looked like the perfect tune-up for the young keeper — visiting was last place Huesca, a club that’s celebrating its first-ever season in LaLiga and consequently, a first-ever trip to the famed Santiago Bernabéu.
But things couldn’t have started worse for young Luca. With just over two minutes on the clock, Huesca opened the scoring after Ezequiel Avila got the better of Nacho out wide and set up 19-year-old Colombian attacker Cucho Hernández for a great finish.
The lead lasted 22 minutes, but some great work from Karim Benzema eventually led to Brahim feeding Isco for the equalizer.
Special shoutout to Benzema at the end of the play. Ray Hudson joked that “Benzema looks like my dog after he’s got an itchy bum.”
I'm just trying to be as happy as benzema pic.twitter.com/KJrQ1uhiWH
— pootie tang (@bb_ptr) March 31, 2019
But that wasn’t enough to stop the whistles from raining down throughout the Bernabéu at halftime.
One man central to the jeers was Bale. He was hardly involved in the first half.
However, the Welshman proved influential in Real’s second goal when delivering a searching cross with the outside of his left boot. Benzema read the flight of the ball and sent his header back across goal for Dani Ceballos to tap in.
Bale was then presented with a tap-in himself, and he should’ve secured all three points for Los Blancos but somehow managed to shoot over from a couple yards out.
That miss looked massive when Huesca grabbed an improbable equalizer in the 74th minute.
But in the 89th, Benzema scored the winner with an outstanding finish to highlight his man of the match performance.
Despite the victory, this was another disappointing outing for the heavily scrutinized pair of Isco and Bale, and the jeers that met the full time whistle were largely aimed at the Welshman.
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