The League returned, Real Madrid returned and two returned to which many already They weren’t expecting, but they’ve come to try to stay: Hazard and Bale. The two were Headlines in the first meeting of the whites, in Mendizorroza against Alavés (1-4), curdling very decent performances and showing an interesting level of involvement, a detail nothing less in two players who seemed more outside than inside Madrid.
Carlo Ancelotti I had to choose, but in the end pulled gallons to make his first eleven of the season. Rodrygo had been the only white scorer in the friendly preparation and also the finest attacker, but stayed in the dock and the companions of Benzema in the offensive trident were Hazard and Bale. And the bet was round to the Italian, who found in both good solutions to open the rival defense and to finish plays, an endemic disease that Madrid suffered from last season and that impaired their scoring ability.
Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard stats.
BeSoccer Pro (BeSoccer Pro)
Hazard has returned of the Eurocup in good shape, and that’s already news. In the past two summers joined the preseason with overweight and far from his best level, in this case did not get carried away during your rest days And that has ended up having a prize: it is the first time that he can start on the first day of the League, in the two previous years he suffered muscle injuries that prevented him from doing so.
Already in the match, the Belgian showed great connection with Benzema, a link that has been sensed several times during these past two years, but always remaining in sparks that did not completely light the fuse. It will depend on the next few weeks whether the same thing happens now or not, for now Hazard gave his first assist of the course before him Alaves, with a heel shot inside the area that Benzema made it 0-1. Minutes later he was able to repeat the action, but Pacheco avoided it.
Benzema and Bale.
Getty Images
To this Hazard added a good shot that just left from the front, 34 good passes out of 37, three scoring chances created (the most from Madrid), three recoveries, only four losses, full of good dribbles (two out of two) and most importantly, one good football time which ended in a change due to technical decision, and not due to injury. The Belgian’s main mission is now Ward off entirely the ghost of their physical problems, a task in which the white physical trainer, Antonio Pintus, walk very close to him. He, meanwhile, convinces himself that it is all a thing of the past: “The ankle is already out of my head.”
Bale, the finisher
What of Bale it is most surprising, if it fits. When It was to Tottenham yielded last year, everything indicated that I would not play in white again. But Zidane left, Ancelotti arrived and a discarded like the Welshman ends up being the owner on the first day, with good critics on the part of his new technician, Ancelotti, with whom he already shone in his first stage at Madrid: “I do not know if he is more committed, I was not in the previous seasons. Now, he is like everyone else. Gareth has done well and he is going to improve, his condition is not optimal at the moment. He’s motivated. “
The Welshman left good sensations in his 68 minutes on the field, although he could not score or assist. Topped off three times, one of them at goal, and on another occasion it was night when he was about to shoot Pacheco. His was pure completion: he barely gave 12 passes, eight of them good. He put two centers in the area (from one of them Benzema’s 0-1 was born), lost seven balls, and hit one of the two dribbles he tried. His best virtue was play completion at a time, at the beginning of the game, in which Madrid suffered to dominate and was exposed to counterattacks. Bale, like Hazard, starts the 2021-22 adventure with a privileged place at the head of Carletto.