Our title hopes are all but finished after tonight’s 2-2 draw in the Bernabeu. A bit of bad luck including several shots to the post and a missed penalty by Cristiano left us with just the Champions League for any hope of silverware this season. Diego Alves, Valencia’s goalkeeper, was brilliant on the night.
We actually played a decent match but Valencia took advantage of the few chances they had to go ahead in the first half. Alcacer put away a cross from Gaya to put the Che ahead 1-0 and Javi Fuego got on the end of x-Madridista Dani Parejo’s free kicked to go ahead by 2.
Kroos went off before halftime with an injuried hamstring and Ancelotti replaced Coentrao and Arbeloa at half time for Marcelo and Carvajal.
All seemed lost midway into the second half when Pepe slammed home a corner. Precious minutes continued to slip by when suddenly, out of nowhere, Isco scored a brilliant curling shot right into the corner of the net from outside the area. For the last 15 minutes of the match Real poured on the pressure and the Bernabeu livened up.
Unfortunately the third goal never came and the title is lost, barring a bizarre double-slip by Barca.
After the match Ancelotti remarked that we deserved to win. He also commented on how unlucky the team was in the first half:
“Winning the league is much more complicated now. We have to win the last two matches.”
“We have to take away the positive things from this match and learn from the expensive mistakes we made. It was a poor result but the match itself was quite different. If we play this way on Wednesday we have a good chance to win.”
“We’re disappointed about the result but the team gave their all and we’re confident going into the next match.”
“Iker played a good match like the rest of the team.”
Iker was heavily whistled by the whole stadium and apparently left the field visibly angry.