Real Madrid emerged victorious by a 1-0 score over Rayo Vallecano in their final home match of the 2018 calendar year on Saturday evening.
Real Madrid beat Rayo Vallecano 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday evening in their La Liga Santander match, thanks to Karim Benzema’s wonderful finish in the first half. It was a hard fought and laborious win for Los Blancos who are now going to content the FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
However, in spite of the score line and the slender margin of victory, the most important thing was that they did manage to get the three points especially after CSKA Moscow mauled at them by a 3-0 score earlier in the week. With that said, Real Madrid would have comfortably won by a bigger margin but lacked the finishing touches on a few chances.
Santiago Solari will certainly be happy nonetheless with his side’s performance. For the Club World Cup, he will be able to count on Casemiro and Sergio Reguilon, whereas he would be hoping that Mariano Diaz and Gareth Bale make their recoveries as well. Karim Benzema was substituted later after he was in pain with his ankle, but it did not look serious, thankfully.
Let us take a look at how every Real Madrid player performed in the game.
Goalkeeper- Thibaut Courtois- 8/10
Birthday boy Keylor Navas was left out on the bench even on his special day and it was a routine start for Belgium international Thibaut Courtois. In Santiago Solari’s eleventh match in charge of the team, Courtois ensured that the boss could boast about a seventh clean sheet. The former Chelsea goalie made four saves throughout the game. The first one was simple, the second one of a wickedly curling shot and the final two being from almost point blank range in stoppage time.