Bailly red-carded for horror flying tackle in French Cup
Football
Villarreal defeated La Liga holders Real Madrid 2-1 on Saturday afternoon – but they will be wondering how it wasn’t 3-1.
Los Blancos entered the match knowing that a draw or a win would have moved them above Barcelona to the top of the division, but they were overcome by Quique Setien's side.
The Yellow Submarines opened the scoring through Yeremi Pino, but Karim Benzema grabbed a 60th-minute equaliser from the spot.
Spanish striker Gerard Moreno netted a penalty of his own three minutes later to decide the encounter in favour of Villarreal.
Bailly red-carded for horror flying tackle in French Cup
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However, the home side should have been celebrating a 3-1 lead in the 98th minute – the final minute of injury time.
Carlo Ancelotti's side won a corner and up came their goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois searching for another equaliser.
But they decided to go for a short corner to the edge of the box to Marco Asensio who completely messed up his lines which gave Villarreal the perfect opportunity to counter.
Arnaut Danjuma then received a pass from his teammate and he ran towards a completely empty Real Madrid goal.
But the Nigerian-born Dutch forward squandered the golden opportunity by missing an open goal with his effort from the halfway line as Courtois was stranded deep in opposition territory.
Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti has blamed Real Madrid’s poor defending for their shock loss to Villareal which dampened his team’s chances in the La Liga title race, Marca reports.
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FootballThe veteran Italian coach admitted Real Madrid made mistakes at the start of the game which made getting back not easy for the reigning La Liga champions.
Real Madrid will next be flying to Saudi Arabia for their Spanish Supercopa semi-final clash against Valencia in midweek.
Earlier, Sports Brief reported Carlo Ancelotti is not pleased with the referee’s decision to award two penalties in Real Madrid’s surprise 2-1 defeat to Villareal on Saturday, January 7.
Los Blancos suffered their second loss of the season following a 2-1 defeat to the Yellow Submarines at the Estadio de la Ceramica but Ancelotti was more concerned by the penalties awarded.
Centre referee Cesar Soto Grado made two big calls after he awarded both sides a penalty each for handball in the box and Ancelotti believes both calls did not have strong merit to be given.