BEVERLY HILLS, February 06, (THEWILL) – There are not that many feelings that come close to what it feels like for a professional footballer to score the goal that digs his or her team out of a mucky embarrassing mire after having waited for a year for a goal. It is even more so when he or she does not just get one but two at once, each one just as vital as the other.
That was what happened with Real Madrid’s hero on Saturday, Raphael Xavier Varane, the lanky French centre back who turned out a Man-of-the-Match performance in what was unarguably his most productive game in a while.
The 27-year-old, whose last goal for Madrid came in January last year, picked the most auspicious moment to lace his scoring boots and produce his first goals of this season to take the contest against Huesca in Madrid’s advantage.
The Frenchman became his side’s unlikely hero as Los Blancos had to struggle from behind to beat the obdurate charges of Huesca 2-1 at El Alcoraz. The defending champions were behind early in the second half through Javi Galan’s stunning volley and appeared to not get much out of a closed-out Karim Benzema, as Huesca worked hard to keep him contained.
That was when Varane switched to a higher level and with his brace, successfully turned the contest on its head. He took his chances and, as a result, Madrid returned home with all three points in the bag and effectively cut the gap of La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid to seven points.
This will certainly hurt the hosts, who put up a valiant effort which earned them their goal. But, they could have scored more and deserved to. They played as a compact unit, implementing the drilling from the training ground on how to keep Madrid in pockets of space but closed down while advancing forward.
However, La Liga’s bottom-placed team did not fathom with the heroics of Varane. And, if they learnt anything from Varane’s first, it did not show for the Frenchman’s second.
In all, even Zinedine Zidane, Madrid’s coach, will testify to the timeliness of the goals from Varane, which came in a fixture that was witnessing a far from vintage Madrid performance. At times, it felt like the Spanish champions were on the brink of suffering a knockout blow in terms of their fading title chances, and in terms of the job security of their gaffer.
Zidane, who had been under pressure in recent weeks with results that were not reflective of the status Madrid commanded, must have imagined the worst as time continued to slip away. But, the final result and full three points proved that the entire squad was behind the coach and were prepared to battle it out to the end on his behalf.
This was not the first time the team doubled down on effort and passion to get Zidane the result that kept him his position. They almost always emerged with a win when the manager desperately needed one. On Saturday night, Varane was the one who elected to answer the call to edge on of a win for his club, to open his scoring account for the season and to give Zidane the cover from censure that losing to the rock bottom side could have warranted.
Huesca opened the scoring, struck the woodwork twice and threatened to blow away the defending Spanish champions to bits. But for the saves of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Huesca might have won this match by the hour mark with a disturbing gap against Madrid. Yet, Varane still was the hero, as he cut the deficit with one goal and gave Los Blancos all the points with the second.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
