It went off the rails in Madrid, so it was only fair the journey resumed from there. Real Madrid’s season started with a shock 1-1 draw with Valencia at the Santiago Bernabeu in the season opener, following which they lost two times in their next three La Liga matches to trail Barcelona by eight points.
“I changed two players at half-time,” said Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho after their 0-1 loss to Sevilla on September 15. “But I wanted to change seven”.
When the Spanish champions met English champions Manchester City for their midweek Champions League group stage match, Sergio Ramos and Mezut Ozil, ever-presents in the Madrid line-up, were dropped. Madrid went on to win 3-2, showing more purpose and intent than they had showed all season.
Monday’s match against Rayo Vallecano was supposed to be the moment when Madrid shook off their slumber and resuscitated their title charge. Barcelona were 11 points ahead and all Madrid, who have won a record 32 Spanish titles, had to do was see off their inter-city rivals, who have never finished higher than ninth in their history.
Yet, they made a show of it, labouring to a 2-0 win. This win was in stark contrast to the City victory, which was a battle of relative equals. While Madrid showed intent and hunger for the ball against City, they seemed uncomfortable to confront an adversary in Rayo that simply refused to lie down and be run over.
However, Rayo failed to convert the chances they created in the first half, and Madrid ultimately prevailed. "The most important thing is that we won the game,” said Pepe, the Madrid defender. "The season has really started for us now. We have a number of important games coming up and we have to show the same focus that we displayed against Rayo”.
One possible concern for Madrid as they resume their season will be the right-back position, where Alvaro Arbeloa has not convinced in recent games. Against Rayo, with the score still 1-0 in favour of Real, he nearly cost his side a goal through a disastrous backpass to Iker Casillas, the goalkeeper. Sergio Ramos cleared the ball before any real damage could be done. Against City, too, Arbeloa was caught out of position a couple of times, though he got away with it.
As they pursue a Barcelona side that sits atop the La Liga table with five wins out of five, Mourinho will recognise he has little room for error. One more mis-step, and they could as well be chasing the wind.
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