Neither Benzema nor Bale deserve more credit than Asensio - 7M sport

Neither Benzema nor Bale deserve more credit than Asensio



Posted Monday, February 19, 2018 by Marca.com

Neither Benzema nor Bale deserve more credit than Asensio

Marco Asensio enjoyed his return to the Real Madrid starting line-up, and after scoring a brace against Real Betis neither Karim Benzema nor Gareth Bale deserve more credit than the Spaniard.

Los Blancos emerged victorious from a match that wasn't one for the defensive purists at the Estadio Benito Villamarin.

There were seven goals and Asensio scored two of them.

Zinedine Zidane's charges looked tired in part, which shouldn't be a surprise after their midweek exertions against Paris Saint-Germain.

After his 12-minute cameo in the Champions League, Asensio is riding the crest of a wave of form, and has given the French coach plenty to think about ahead of the second leg.

It couldn't have come at a better time for the former Real Mallorca star, his 2017/18 campaign had seen a significant drop in production from his debut season.

Benzema ended his own goal drought in injury time, however, Asensio is currently outperforming both the French forward and Bale.

Marcelo is another of Los Blancos' stars who now face a battle against the clock to be fit enough to face PSG in the French capital.

The Brazilian played on Sunday and suffered an injury, joining Toni Kroos on the treatment table.

In nine of the club's last ten matches, Real have failed to keep a clean sheet reflecting their poor title defence.

This defensive fragility forces the club's forward players to score multiple goals in one match just to be able to relax and have the points secure.

Quique Setien spent much of his pre-match press conference on Friday making clear that his players had been working on a compact defensive shape in training in the hope of stifling Los Blancos.

His work can't have done much good as the Seville based club shipped five goals at home, although in attack they looked spectacular in some phases of play.

Finding a balance has been challenging for the former Las Palmas coach, and the team's abysmal defensive record threatens to undermine all the positive work he has overseen this term.

Despite living through arguably the most joyous moment of his season, Asensio showed his humility in celebrating his second goal as he made his way to the bench and celebrated with Dani Ceballos.

The 21-year-old had previously been insulted by supporters in the warm-up.



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