Jorge Almirón’s team drew 1-1 with the White House and cut a five-game winning streak.
On Wednesday, Elche managed to stop the triumphant march of Real Madrid (1-1) after a game in which the Elche team knew how to recover from the good first half of its rival, which was from less to more.
Those led by Zinedine Zidane were clear dominators in the first 45 minutes, but after the local draw, marked from a penalty, the white club was blocked and was already unable to overtake goalkeeper Edgar Badía, who made several saves that deserve.
The meeting started according to the planned scenario. Madrid took over the ball’s monopoly against a retired Elche who had Lucas Boyé as his only offensive reference.
Zidane’s team, which had already threatened in the second minute with a Kroos header, set a slow but steady hunting pace, continually hitting the ascents of their sides to try to open the local defense.
The Madrid team finally found the prize after a loss of the ball by Elche. Asensio took advantage of the space to go deeper and fired again into the crossbar, but this time the recovery was taken by Luka Modric to pass with his head behind the net.
The goal did not change the drift of the game, comfortably controlled by Real Madrid, which without too much fuss reached the second goal several times. He was about to have a penalty in favor of possible hands from Victor, an action immediately corrected by VAR.
Only Rigoni, who knew how to exploit Marcelo’s weaknesses, showed some rebellion, but the Argentine did not find partners to shake the Madrid defense.
Elche, with a more offensive position, managed to balance the game in the first minutes of the second act. Following this improvement, Carvajal’s penalty came against Barragán, converted into a goal by Fidel.
The draw woke Madrid, who was in a chase, and gave confidence to Elche, who was about to score second with a shot from Boyé that hit the bar.
Zidane called on Hazard, Valverde and Vinicius to reactivate their attack and Madrid came to completely dominate the game in the last minutes, with Sergio Ramos as central striker, but Elche defended with order and sacrifice.
Bad result for the white house that remained with 34 points and now sees how its rival in the city, Atlético de Madrid, is the leader with 36 points and two games less.