With the league being the least important competition at the moment for Real Madrid, it was no surprise to see Morata and Kaka in the starting lineup. A match that could have gone in a very different direction after Sergio Ramos got sent off, but eventually didn’t need anyone to step up, not even Cristiano Ronaldo, to pick up a meaningless win.
Maybe chasing Atletico does have some substance to it, but it feels like Jose Mourinho would give up playing in the La Liga if he knew it would give him some sort of advantage in the upcoming matches against Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey and Manchester United in the Champions League.
And Mourinho now has more reason to continue his feud with Sergio Ramos. Now that Iker Casillas is injured, he has only one player and enemy in the dressing room to direct his wrath upon. Mourinho pretty much blamed Ramos for not beating Manchester United in the Champions League, forgetting all of his tactical mistakes, as usual. Ramos did score the goal that gave Real Madrid a 2-0 lead in the win over Rayo, but was also sent off after 34 minutes. Double trouble – more reason to be angry with Ramos while speak about the referees, as Aitor Karanka continues to be the voice for Jose Mourinho, with his special reasons to ignore the media.
When it comes to actual football, there wasn’t much to tell. Alvaro Morata got a chance to start and scored the opener after two and a half minutes, his second goal this season. Real Madrid fans are anxious to finally get a home made star, something that hasn’t happened in quite a long time. Morata got the chance to play instead of Karim Benzema, and while not showing too much throughout the match, scoring the opening goal for the 20-year old is pretty much the best you can ask at the moment from a home grown player at a club that’s always about buying huge stars instead of creating them.
It’s an interesting situation for Real Madrid, with the league actually disturbing the only thing that really matters anymore, to both the team and Jose Mourinho, obsessed with becoming the first manager to win a third Champions League trophy with a third team, something no one has ever done. In his world, it seems like some of his own players (Ramos?) are trying to deny him this achievement. Real Madrid? That’s not his problem. He’s doing this for himself.
Cristiano Ronaldo, playing next to Kaka, which makes you remember what was the basis of the Galacticos 2.0 team being assembled didn’t do anything worth mentioning. So did(n’t) Kaka. When things happened, it had to do with Mesut Ozil playing well and getting creative, although Real Madrid hardly tried to make anything happen that was worth mentioning. The league couldn’t be any more boring or intrusive for a team that has one match at the end of February, with the entire weight of the season resting upon the result.