Real Madrid suffers its worst defeat of the season against Alcoyano!

To be honest, I didn't even know this team called Alcoyano existed before this match. This is a team that usually plays in the Third Division and Second Division B, which is lower than the regular Second Division. This is obviously a very small and humble team. The only chances they have of playing official matches against important teams is through the Spanish national cup, also known as Copa del Rey, which means The King's Cup in Spanish.

This is why they celebrated when Real Madrid was chosen as their rival team. It didn't matter their chances of defeating Real Madrid were close to zero because the recognition they would earn just by playing against Real Madrid is valuable enough. This recognition would obviously multiply itself several times if they accomplish the miracle of defeating Real Madrid and kicking them out of the competition. This is exactly what just happened a few hours ago.

Zidane decided to lineup several players that are usually on the bench, but this is a normal strategy for big teams. Using players that usually don't participate on a weekly basis against much weaker teams in the national cup is healthy for the squad and allows the main players to enjoy more rest.

There were still several important players in Real Madrid's lineup such as Casemiro, Valverde, and Vinicius. I was also expecting to watch Odegaard but apparently, he requested to leave the team on a loan and won't be able to play for Real Madrid until next season. This is a real shame because this player is one of the most promising members of Madrid's new generation.

I am honestly feeling more and more doubtful about Zidane's management of the squad. Not only because Odegaard isn't feeling confident but because the same happened with Jovic, who just got loaned back to the same team that sold him to Madrid 2 years ago. Militao isn't participating in enough matches, Brahim got loaned to Milan at the beginning of the season and he is doing an awesome job there as the right-wing and he could be doing just that in Madrid, in summary, I feel that Zidane isn't developing the necessary confidence in young players to succeed in Real Madrid.

I started to think this wasn't going to be an easy match for Madrid when they were unable to create dangerous goal attempts despite the fact they were controlling the ball and approaching Alcoyano's penalty box time and time again. Real Madrid has been suffering from a lack of goal-scoring capabilities, but I never imagined they would have trouble scoring goals against such an inferior team.

Most Real Madrid attacks were crosses from both sides of the pitch and shots from outside the penalty box. Vinicius didn't cause any danger, and Lucas Vazquez only did ineffective crosses and ineffective shoots. I think Mariano didn't even have 1 goal attempt. I mention these 3 players because they were the ones responsible for Real Madrid attack since the beginning of the match. Later on, they were replaced.

The minutes went on and Madrid had still 0 goals scored. This changed in the last minute of the first half when one good cross from Marcelo allowed Militao to scored a cool header. But even after that goal, Real Madrid's performance wasn't convincing in the least. The second half began and the match didn't change, except for the fact that if Alcoyano managed to score a lucky goal, they would have a high chance of reaching the penalties and with a bit more luck defeat Real Madrid. Alcoyano wasn't attacking that much but they only needed 1 lucky ball to tie the match, and at the 80-minute mark, they had it.

The second goal of the match came after a corner kick from Alcoyano. Real Madrid defense didn't provide proper coverage to an Alcoyano's player at the second post. All the players were located at the first post, and when the ball went to that player he easily scored. It was a very silly behavior from Madrid's defense but it can happen at any time. There were 10 minutes remaining but unsurprisingly Madrid was unable to score despite the fact they were moving the ball all around the pitch.

When the 90 minutes ended and the match went to extra time Zidane did more changes. Asensio and Hazard went to the pitch, and since Benzema was already there the new attacking players were the ones Zidane considers as the most important for the team. Kross was also on the pitch in exchange for Isco. And all of this wasn't enough to score one more goal against Alcoyano, but this wasn't the worse for Madrid.

Well into the extra time, at around the 110-minute mark, Alcoyano suffers a red card and is forced to play with 10 players against Madrid's 11 players. Have in mind that Madrid players are supposed to be much better, some of them are very fresh because they just went inside the pitch, and they now have 1 extra player which should allow them to find more empty spaces to create good goal attempts. Things weren't looking good for Alcoyano after that expulsion but inexplicably, 5 minutes later, they scored a goal in a great counter-attack and that pretty much knocked Madrid out.

This is what's fun about football, the small team always has the opportunity to beat the big team. What makes everything even more heroic for Alcoyano is they not only scored 1 goal but 2 of them and the second one was after suffering a red card! 1 goal can be dismissed as simply luck, but 2 goals means they had a proper mentality and enough discipline to compete against Real Madrid.

It is very worrisome for Real Madrid their constant lack of goal, and I think it is fair to say that this season will probably be one of the worst ones for Madrid in recent years, maybe even worse than the 2018-2019 season. I don't see Real Madrid competing in the Champions League, and the national league is extremely difficult thanks to the current 4 points lead Atletico is now enjoying while also having 2 fewer matches, which means their potential lead could be 10 points.

I don't see how Zidane can continue as Madrid's coach next season, and I hope the squad goes through some deep changes, making room for new promising young players that are hungry enough for trophies and glory. The leaders of this squad have earned a lot of trophies over the last decade and it is possible they aren't as incentivized as before. Plus, they are getting older which affects their physical prowess.