Real Madrid weather early storm to give Solari brief respite

Real Madrid put one of their worst weeks in recent history behind them and ran out comfortable 1-4 winners against Real Valladolid in Estadio José Zorrilla. That said, they had to weather a 30 minute Valladolid storm and were lucky to only find themselves one goal down. After that, it was fairly plain sailing for Santiago Solari's side. 

The match was in doubt at one point when the floodlights went out and the players were forced to warm up in the dark. Just like the ground's floodlights, Real Madrid took their time to warm up, but once they turned up, they did their job perfectly. Real Valladolid dominated the opening half hour of the contest and before they finally scored, they could have opened the scoring on three further occasions.

In the 10th minute, Valladolid got a penalty after Alvaro Odriozola pulled back Oscar Plano. Ruben Alcaraz was given the responsiblity of putting the home sude in front, but his penalty travelled well over the crossbar. It was an inexplicable miss given that the ground did not seem to give way under his feet. Just three minutes later, Sergio's men thought they had opened the scoring when Sergi Guardiola tapped in from inside the six-yard box. Unfortunately for him, Alejandro Hernández Hernández, the VAR, spotted that Keko was offside in the build up.

In the 18th minute, Sergi Guardiola had the ball in the net once again after he headed home a corner which was initially taken short. However, he was in an offside position and the linesman on this near side detected it. Finally, in the 29th minute, shortly after Benzema and Reguilon had had two good chances for the away side, Valladolid finally broke the deadlock. Keko Gontan sent in a brilliant cross to the far post, the outstreteched Sergi Guardiola managed to reach it and divert it across goal for Anuar to tap in. 

After the goal, Valladolid still had the upper hand, but Real Madrid levelled the scores in the 33rd minute through Raphael Varane. Toni Kroos delivered the corner, Sergi Guardiola could only head it towards to his own goal, Jordi Masip tried to punch the bouncing ball, but Real Madrid's Nacho got their first. It was a bit scrappy, but Varane was there to pick up the pieces.

From then on, Solari's side grew into the game and looked the more dangerous for the rest of the half. Casemiro came the closest with a header at the far post from a Kroos corner and then with a long range shot on the stroke of half-time which was knocked away by the goalkeeper. 

The second half started in the same vein as the first. Valladolid were by far the brighter and they nearly scored in the 47th minute after a lovely run by Keko, who played really well, he laid off the ball to Antoñito, but his cross was slightly too high for Anuar. Anuar was denied two minutes later by Thibaut Courtois before disaster struck. 

Oscar Plano panicked and fouled Odriozola inside his own penalty area when there were plenty of covering defenders. Benzema tucked away the resulting penalty by sending Jordi Masip the wrong way and from then on, Real Madrid never looked back. In the 59th minute, two minutes after Ceballos nearly doubled their lead, Karim Benzema headed home a Kroos corner from the middle of the six yard-box. That was a fatal blow for the hosts who were made to pay for poor finishing and lack of defending at set pieces. 

Luka Modric put the icing on the cake five minutes from time with a beautiful goal after receiving a pass from Benzema and beating Joaquin after performing a few stepovers before firing into the far corner. There was one blemish on the Real Madrid performance though. Casemiro was needlessly dismissed in the 80th minute for a second yellow card when he would not retreat at a free kick. In the end, Real Madrid ran out deserved and comfortable winners.