Real Madrid Shows Champion’s Spirit in a Draw Against Valencia

With El Clasico around the horizon, Real Madrid met with Valencia in an attempt to go to the top of the league. However, in spite of their best attempts they couldn’t get the three points. In fact it was a struggle from the Galacticos to even muster a point from a fixture which has proved out to be tricky for them in recent years. And at last they required a heroic performance from Thibaut Courtois. As the Belgian keeper performed attacking duties in  addition to his usual display as a goalkeeper. 

It wasn’t a bad performance from either side. It was purely a competition between teams doing what they do best. Real Madrid knew Valencia would defend with a low block, and they did. Valencia knew Real Madrid would try to attack using all of their attacking armoury, and they did. 

It was about who lets it loose first. And Real Madrid it was, they left Carlos Soler unmarked as he punished them by dispatching home a Daniel Wass cutback.

With the top spot at stake, Madrid was forced into urgency after they went behind. And so they did, though nothing materialised for the former European champions. Until the 95th minute when Thibaut Courtois went up to the opposing half to attack a corner. And then came the wonder moment when Courtois superbly forced a save from Jaume Domenech, only for Karim Benzema to score the equaliser

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane was left spellbound by his team’s spirit. The Frenchman was quoted saying, “This shows you what we are, we fight until the end. We fight and what we want is to get a good result,

“We never give up. We got it with the courtesy of Courtois and Karim. I’m glad for them because it has been a tremendous effort from everyone.

“You have to be proud of the game. When in such a difficult stadium, you concede a goal a few minutes from full-time, you can fall apart, but we still thought that something could be achieved, and we achieved it.”