Looking Forward to The 'Pool, Real Madrid Gets a Dousing
Sometimes, dress rehearsals can go off the rails.
Maybe that's why they're dress rehearsals.
Still, those events don't ususally have a packet of points on the line, and that's what Real Madrid apparently forgot.
Not that Los Merengues can catch Barcelona for La Liga's title. That ship sailed months ago. But still.
From Real's perspective, this one sure did.
For the club's league finale, manager Zinedine Zidane lined-up his probable Starting XI – excluding the 'keeper – to face five-time Champions League winners Liverpool in Kiev next weekend.
It looked pretty good for a half. Dudes were 2-0 up at Villareal after the first half but ended up bottling it.
El Submarino Amarillo -- that's right, the Yellow Submarines -- torpedoed Real in the second 25 to manage a 2-2 draw.
With Isco, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale forming an imposing strike force, Real's first half was impressive, if not bloody amazing.
Dudes had nothing to fight for at La Ceramica Stadium, except maybe their pride. That looked to be enough, though, for as soon as the 11th minute, Bale received a nifty pass and scored a rare right-foot goal:
Everyone seemed to be happy for the Welshman. After all, he'd been suffering from a string of injuries.
20 minutes later, after receiving a magnificent cross from Marcelo, Ronaldo -- alone in the box -- made it 2-0 with his strongest asset: a header:
By that point, this had the look and feel of a friendly, especially for Zidane's son, Luca Zidane, who was debuting for Real.
Until the 70th minute, anyway, when the Colombian Roger Martínez connected with a powerful shot. There was nothing the young 'keeper could do.
15 minutes later, after a long ball, Samu Castillejo showed up face-to-face against Luca.
The kid's got a few things to learn yet, as Yellow Submarine's No 10 equalized.
Not exactly the tone Real wanted to set going into the Champions final.
If they're gonna notch their 13th UCL title, they'll have to do better than this.