Zidane Hits Real Landmark As Madrid Embarrass Eibar To Close Gap On Barcelona

Zinedine Zidane took charge of his 200th game for Real Madrid and led Los Blancos to an excellent 3-1 victory over Eibar at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano on Sunday evening.

A Messi-inspired Barcelona thrashed Mallorca 4-0 on Saturday to establish a five-point lead over Los Merengues. But Zidane’s men slashed the difference to just two points with a fine win at the rarely used stadium.

The Santiago Bernabeu is currently undergoing renovation work.

Real Madrid are unbeaten at home in La Liga this season, and the home side got off to a fantastic start in their first game since coronavirus forced football out of our lives in March.

It took Madrid all of 183 seconds to open the scoring on their return to action when Toni Kroos sent a delightful first-time shot over Eibar’s goalkeeper Dmitrovic and into the top-right corner from the edge of the box.

It was two to the homers on the half-hour mark courtesy of Sergio Ramos. The defender started and ended a scintillating Madrid counter to double the home side’s tally, off an Eden Hazard assist.

Real made it three, seven minutes later, when Marcelo slammed a loose ball home after Hazard had failed to beat Dmitrovic in a one-on-one.

Zidane’s side took a commanding three-goal lead into half-time after a dominant first-half display that had Eibar reeling.

Real, however, took their legs off the throttle in the second half, and Eibar made them pay on the hour-mark, with Bigas getting the visitors on the scorer’s sheet. 

But Real Madrid had done enough during an excellent first half to deserve the win and bag the three points that take them to within two points of Barcelona.