Diomande relieves Madrid against Villarreal

There were a few seconds, maybe a minute, a happy blink, during which everything seemed to return to its place in the tormented Santiago Bernabéu. Vinicius scored, who had started on the bench for the first time this season, and the event suggested that the Brazilian was at the end of an intricate path of internal search. The general liberation explosion was thunderous. Mourinho walked fifty meters from the bench to the south end to join the wild celebration. And suddenly, Vinicius went from reborn footballer to expelled player. The VAR found that the Brazilian had pulled Saliba's hair in his run towards the area and the referee sent him off with a red card. Madrid, which had just felt at peace again, was frozen and with more than twenty minutes left to hold on to the lead from Diomande's goal.

And he held on, supported by the energy of Valverde, the success of Courtois and a moving exercise in collective resistance closed with a defense of five. They managed to stay six points behind Barcelona and one behind Atlético, but they did not clear the dark clouds around their football.

Real right now is something like the result of dropping a Meccano construction to the ground. The pieces have been scattered around the room, disconnected, sometimes functioning more or less on their own. On the left wing Diomande tries against Freeman. Mourinho decided to seat Vinicius, in his case disconnected from himself, from the overwhelming and dominant version with which he dazzled Europe so long ago. Instead, the Ivorian was finding ways to escape, routes to the baseline. But once there, all that effort came to nothing. He couldn't connect with anyone in the area.

On the other side were Arda Güler and Trent, two exquisite passers with fangs, who managed to give Mbappé a clear field to score. The Turk connected in the area with Carreras, who left the ball to Mbappé. But the Frenchman threw her out. The Englishman then gave him another even cleaner chance, a ball behind his back with half the field to run and nothing more. No complications. Pure speed to the goalkeeper. Mbappé stepped into the area, threw a shot at Pau Navarro and shot at Gulasci.

Madrid's disjointed machinery is conducted in a tremendously laborious manner, with Tchouameni and Valverde in the middle as if waiting for someone who is no longer there to appear. And despite everything, although nothing suggests that a plan is being followed, Real generates very clear situations. You can barely see him taking the initiative, chewing up plays. There is no trace of that team from a few years ago capable of governing games with various records, in any scenario. It is now a lost and increasingly desperate group. Especially when faced with a creature like Villarreal, with criteria, order, footing and daring.

Íñigo Pérez's brave team set the pace for several sections with effective pressure from the top and the criteria of Foyth, Gueye and Moleiro in the center. They didn't worry Courtois too much, but they turned Madrid into a merely reactive group, which with the ideas he was allowing to emerge was perhaps even the best for them.