In a match that will hardly stick in the mind of a lackluster Santiago Bernabeu Stadium crowd on a cold evening in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid defeated lowly Granada 2-0 on Saturday in La Liga.
With the victory, Madrid moves up to the top of the La Liga standings with 38 points, one goal clear of Girona, who earlier on Saturday defeated Valencia 2-1.
With 31 points each, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, who play each other on Sunday, are ranked third and fourth.
Madrid showed no signs of weakness even though they were without many regular players due to injury. Granada, who are now in second place on seven points with one victory in 15 games, did not offer a danger.
With 71% of the ball possession, the hosts controlled the game from the outset, while Granada managed only one shot on goal.
With a deft one-two with Toni Kroos, Brahim Díaz gave Madrid the lead in the 26th minute. He collected the German’s ingenious pass to evade the offside trap and sent the ball past goalkeeper Raúl Fernández with joy.
“It was a magical pass from Toni [Kroos],” Díaz said. “He sees things that others do not. I would be delighted to assist the team in any way I can. Better still if it’s starting the scoring.
Above all, I’m incredibly pleased with the game we played. We won the game handily. And for my part, I’m glad to score and give Rodrygo the opportunity to score.”
After Madrid failed to exert any pressure, the game was almost over until Díaz returned in the 57th minute to contest a ball on the left side of the box and won the tackle to cross for Jude Bellingham, whose beautifully saved point-blank attempt by Fernandez.
But Rodrygo was in a great position at the far post to seize the rebound from the goalie and give the home team an additional goal. In all competitions, the Brazilian has now scored in five straight games, totaling seven goals and four assists during that span.
Rodrygo is “back to his best level, scoring a lot of goals,” according to Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti. “People think he only scores on the left, so I believed he would have more room on the right, so I placed him there in the second half.
“He scored after a great move with Joselu, Bellingham, Brahim, it was a good goal.”
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