It was a party that demanded Xabi Alonso to the maximum. The Spanish coach faced a hard setback against Pachuca: Play with a man less from minute 7 for the expulsion of Asencio. An authentic fire test, especially considering that, in these first training, he had not yet worked on numerical inferiority situations.
But Xabi Alonso He played all the right keys against Pachuca and achieved his first victory as coach of Real Madrid. A prestigious triumph in the Club World Cupa coach triumph thanks to the decisions he made during the 90 minutes, all successful and that discovered a more complete Madrid than the one seen before Al Hilal. Keep taking small steps, but sure, Madrid.
The initial approach of Xabi Alonso jumped through the air after seven minutes of the game with the expulsion of Asencio. “It is a mistake that conditions the game, there it is better to let it mark and start 1-0 losing. We will talk to Raúl,” Alonso said at the end of the meeting, after changing the entire plan on the march.
The meringues were replaced after the expulsion of Asencio and beat Bellingham, Arda and Fede
First, and there was his first success, he left the controls and kept Gonzalo in the attack. And the two worked great. The Turk wants to eat the world and signed an almost outstanding game, carrying the weight of the game and being lethal for the rival goal. “He has a lot of danger near the area,” admitted the coach, delighted with the first days of Arda. With Gonzalo, three quarters of the same thing: the boy responded in all parts of the field and participated in the first two goals.
Xabi's merit was to retouch the team with ten players without making changes, being brave and not doing what most would have done: Remove Gonzalo to put Rüdiger. Xabi opted to delay Tchouaméni, put Gonzalo on the left and put Vini of nine. The plan to Madrid, which was more compact and that began to grow with the arrival of its midfielders to the rival area. The goals were no accident: first Jude, then burns and to end Valverde.
Xabi Alonso: “Rüdiger has told us what has happened and FIFA is investigating it”
“You are not in a hurry!”, The clear order to rest
The goals of Bellingham and Güler in the first part gave some air to the white team and allowed Xabi Alonso to take advantage of the rest to send several messages and an order to their players. In the 15 minutes of costumes, the Tolosarra repeated a key slogan: “You are not in a hurry”, a phrase that he used to ask for calm and control despite the numerical disadvantage. He also insisted on another instruction: “Remove the ball played”a task that until then was costing the team. During the first half hour, no player dared to take responsibility for starting the game from behind, which made the creation phase difficult. Therefore, Xabi introduced a change to rest: Brahim for Gonzalo, in search of greater control and fluidity.
The talk paid off. The team went to the second part with the ideas much clearer. In addition, Xabi Alonso insisted on the need to look for Tchouaméni (who had delayed his position to cover Asencio's decline as central) to avoid scares in the face of the foreseeable thrust of Pachuca, forced to react by the result. “Look for Tchouaméni”. Therefore, in the 'Cool Break' of the second part both the technician and members of his 'Staff' went to look for the Frenchman to continue along the same line.
Fede Valverde's goal in the 70th minute brought the definitive tranquility to the Madrid bench. A Speed Fire Test In this second club of the Club World Cup, The most demanding for Xabi Alonso so far.
