Real Madrid lost for the first time this season, while Osasuna once again held their own at the Bernabeu. Benzema missed a penalty and rivals Barça are now the new league leaders.
Barcelona had gone ahead in Mallorca – and so Real had to win against Osasuna to regain the lead in the standings. And they did so without their regular goalkeeper: Courtois was out with a pinched sciatic nerve, Lunin stood between the posts. In addition, Ceballos was preferred to the in-form Fede Valverde, while Benzema celebrated his comeback from a thigh injury as expected.
Real were strangely subdued in the early stages. The royals, who up to that point had a clean sheet, were only dangerous once after a corner: Tchouameni got his head to the ball in front of keeper Herrera, but Benzema, who was under a lot of pressure, was unable to put the ball in the net (6th minute).
With Real lacking wit, generally ponderous offensively and defensively fragile, Osasuna began to see their chance – and created chances. Abde fired at the outside of the net (16th), Nacho Vidal tried a volley from the best position (22nd). Both attempts did not look too good – luck for Real.
Even more so in the 35th minute, when the royals ran into a counterattack after their own corner. Abde’s shot from 14 metres on the half-right was well struck this time, but a little too inaccurate.
Vinicius lucky, Kike Garcia brilliant
Only now did Real finally wake up. Vinicius was through on the left and chipped the ball across the penalty area to Benzema. The Frenchman took it full on the right – and missed the goal by a hair’s breadth (39.). The fact that Real still took the lead was thanks to chance: Vinicius crossed into the penalty area from half field, several Real players who were offside moved towards the ball, but none of them was really close to it. In the end, it flew into the far corner as if in slow motion, with keeper Herrera reacting too late.
But Real never really looked confident – and so Osasuna struck in the second period. A cross from the right half of the field seemed harmless, but Kike Garcia’s conversion was a stroke of genius. With the back of his head, he sent the ball exactly into the corner of the goal from twelve metres, Lunin had no chance and Rüdiger was just a touch too late for the header (50th). The Osasuna striker almost scored a brace, but his close-range effort was just blocked (52).
Ancelotti responded with a double change, but Madrid initially created chances with their old personnel. Alaba’s free-kick just missed the triangle (58.), Rodrygo aimed a touch too high after Benzema’s magic pass (62.).
Benzema misses out on victory
After that, however, Real did not score much against the now deep-lying visitors, who had already scored at the Bernabeu in pre-season. In the final phase, however, things got turbulent: David Garcia clumsily pushed Benzema, who had been superbly played in by Camavinga, from behind, and after VAR intervention he was shown the red card for an emergency stop. But to everyone’s amazement, Benzema, who was actually an extremely sure shot, hammered it against the crossbar (79th) – Osasuna were allowed to continue stonewalling.
And did so successfully in the end. The royal team almost got a cold shower, a shot from distance by Moi Gomez had already been seen by many in the Bernabeu. However, Mariano and Benzema had excellent chances in injury time to prevent the first loss of points this season. In the end, however, Osasuna deserved the draw – and Real lost the lead in the table to FC Barcelona.
