With Atletico Madrid and Barcelona facing off this evening, Real Madrid headed into this match hoping to close the gap on their rivals at the top of La Liga. By full time, though, the capital side were left counting the cost of yet another damaging defeat.
Eibar took the lead after 16 minutes, via the help of a VAR review, with Gonzalo Escalante’s scruffy finish from close range allowed to stand after an initial offside decision had been made against Marc Cucurella.
From that point on, Eibar were dominant, doubling their advantage six minutes into the second half, with Cucurella robbing Alvaro Odriozola of the ball on the edge of the box before playing through Sergi Enrich, who finished into the bottom left-corner.
The game was over as a contest by this point, but Eibar made sure of the points with a third as Kike Garcia finished into an empty net after a Cucurella cross had caused mayhem at Thibaut Courtois’ near post.
The result leaves Real Madrid languishing in sixth spot in the table, some four points off league leaders Barcelona having played a game more.
TALKING POINT - Will the real Gareth Bale please stand up?
This season was supposed to be Gareth Bale’s big chance, the opportunity he’d been waiting for show that he could be the main man for Real Madrid after the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus in the summer. But the Welsh winger was once again anonymous against Eibar, continuing his poor run of form in recent weeks. Bale has no excuse to fall back on now. Real Madrid need him to start turning up because this isn’t good enough.
MAN OF THE MATCH - Marc Cucurella (Eibar)
The mass of hair on the 20-year-old’s head makes him eye-catching to begin with, but even more eye-catching was his performance here. Real Madrid couldn’t cope with the energy and drive of Cucurella down the left side, demonstrated perfectly by the second Eibar goal, for which the Catalan attacker won the ball high up the pitch having pressed Odriozola into a panic. Cucurella embodied this display from Eibar.
PLAYER RATINGS
Eibar - Riesgo 6, Pena 6, Ramis 5, Oliveira 6, Cote 7, Escalante 8, Jordan 6, Orellana 7, Cucurella 9, Enrich 8, Kike 8. Subs - Charles 6, Alvarez 5, De Blasis 5.
Real Madrid - Courtois 7, Odriozola 5, Varane 4, Ramos 5, Marcelo 5, Ceballos 5, Kroos 4, Modric 4, Bale 4, Benzema 6, Asensio 6. Subs - Isco 5, Carvajal 5, Vinicius 5.
KEY MOMENTS
3’ Off the woodwork! Almos a stunning start for Eibar! Kike struck a bouncing ball on the looping half-volley, Courtois was beaten, but the ball comes back off the underside of the bar!
8’ GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... NO! What a strike from Bale, who finds the back of the net from about 20-25 yards out, but the flag is up and the replays show it was the correct decision. He was offside.
13’ Cleared off the line! That was a big chance for Real Madrid to take the lead. It was good work from Asensio, some nice skill from Benzema, but Cote was back to make the clearance!
18’ GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... NO! Now Eibar have a goal chalked off! There will be a VAR review, Cucurella might have been offside when the pass was made, before he crossed for it to be bundled home.
18’ GOAL! Eibar 1-0 Real Madrid: It's a goal! VAR was used and it has been used well to decide that Cucurella was onside and Escalante was on hand to bundle home from close range after Courtois had made the save from Kike. It was a scruffy goal, but it could be a big one!
51’ GOAL! Eibar 2-0 Real Madrid: Real Madrid are in real trouble now! Eibar have a two-goal lead! Cucurella robs Odriozola of the ball, plays it central to Enrich, who finds the bottom left-hand corner of Courtois' net! What a mountain Real Madrid have given themselves to climb!
52’ From bad to worse! Now it seems that Odriozola has picked up a hamstring problem. He might have sustained that injury in the challenge with Cucurella that led to the second Eibar goal. Carvajal will replace him.
57’ GOAL! Eibar 3-0 Real Madrid: Can you believe this? Astonishing stuff from Eibar, who are now three goals to the good! Cucurella's cross almost found Enrich in front of Ramos at the near post, the ball popped out for Kike, who had the simple task of finishing into the empty net from close range!
63’ Courtois saves Real! That could, and perhaps should, have been a fourth goal for Eibar! Orellana cut inside and was through, but Courtois pushed up a hand to make the save!
KEY STATS
Only Huesca have conceded more away goals (19) than Real Madrid (16) in La Liga this season.
Before today, Eibar had only ever scored three goals in their entire history against Real Madrid.
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