When Benzema's shot was blocked, Ronaldo was lying in an offside position. He got up, won the ball and scored.
I'm surprised that Garrido didn't drop to a 451 after all of that pressure, injury, and tiredness. They should've been playing for the 2-2.
THey were. He did that when he took out Ruben and put in a defender in his place. They only had 1 forward while it was still 2-2. Didnt help though.
But that's exactly what he ended up doing. It was still 2-2 when he took out Ruben leaving Rossi as the lone forward. It absolutely didn't work.
Thought Jozy would have made a good 2nd half sub. With RM playing with 3 backs Jozy could have created opportunites, plus helped maintain possession, which in turn would have helped the defense.
I thought Villarreal had a flawed game plan in the second half. You can't have a line up that is on their third game in a week try to bunker down and defend an onslaught. They looked gassed the last 30 minutes and after CR's offside goal they came unglued.
I thought Khedira (and Villarreal fatigue) made the difference. Lass and Xabi are great if you have the ball, but they couldn't get the ball off the VCF midfield. It was a really impressive possession performance. RM needed Khedira in there to disrupt things, which he did well. I'm not sure who they usually play but Xabi/Khedira seems like a good pairing.
Xabi and Khedira are the usual defensive midfield pairing. Khedira is just back from injury and Lass has been the pairing for the last few weeks.
A defender blocking the ball does not matter...if the defender had had enough control of the ball to 'play' the ball then he would not have been offside, but a block/deflection is not considered playing the ball by the defender. Would have been a great game for Jozy if the right back had not had to have been subbed out for injury
I believe the US laws use the phrase "posses and control" - An attempted trap by a defender gone awry - posses and (poor) control - no OS. A cross that deflects off a leg - no possession or control - OS.
No wonder Bruno got called up for the Spanish national team. What composure and soccer IQ on that guy. Wonderful player.