A few hours ago I was able to watch the match between Real Madrid and Granada and it was entertaining. Granada is a small team but they currently sit in position #7 and they have only 3 points less than Barcelona.
I was expecting to see a very orderly Granada and a Real Madrid having difficulties scoring goals and this is what happened. Zidane hasn't been rotating that much in the past few weeks so it is expected for these players to have some fatigue. The attacking players in Real Madrid were Rodrygo, Benzema, and Vazquez, the same as the previous match, and in the midfield, we had Casemiro, Kross, and Valverde. Modric didn't play because he has a small injury from the previous match. The defensive players were the same as always.
Real Madrid dominated the match but it wasn't anything overwhelming. In the first half there weren't that many goal opportunities, and to make things worse for Madrid, Rodrygo got injured and had to be replaced by Asensio. I thought Madrid's chances of scoring a goal were lower with Asensio on the pitch but I was mistaken. For the first time in the entire season, Asensio participated in a goal with a good assist.
The goal happened in the second half, it was a play on the left side of the pitch where Mendy gives a pass to Asensio and then he crossed the ball and there is Casemiro appearing with a majestic header. It was a simple but also a good goal. Casemiro's header was unstoppable and the poor Granada's defensive player Vallejo didn't have a chance against Casemiro.
Before giving that assist Asensio almost scored a tremendous goal with an aerial backheel shot but it hit the post, it would have been really an excellent goal. The following minutes weren't that exciting, there were a few shots from Madrid's players from outside the penalty box but nothing too dangerous.
In the last 15 minutes, Granada decided to try and tie the match and they began to make riskier decisions. They had some chances but Courtois didn't have an important save today, which says a lot about the aim of Granada's players when shooting the ball. It was in a Madrid counter-attack in the final minute of the match when the second goal came. Since Granada was more focused on attacking than on defending, there weren't that many defensive players guarding their goalkeeper, only 4. And Benzema had a good shot from outside the penalty box to seal the result.
Real Madrid is now in position #2 with the same points as Atletico Madrid but with 2 extra matches already played, which gives Atletico a potential 6 points advantage over Real Madrid. The team has won all matches this month with the exception of the first match against Shakhtar on December 1. The next match for Real Madrid will be another national league match on December 30 against Elche.