Image: AP Photo/Angel Fernandez
Sevilla bested Real Madrid on Saturday thanks to a late-winning goal from Stevan Jovetic. This may not normally seem like a big deal, but that match ended Real Madrid’s 40-match unbeaten streak. How impressive is this streak for Real Madrid? Well, taking a brief look back, the streak ran through 5 different competitions, 30 different teams, and 9 months. Could you imagine not losing a single match for 9 months? That’s an incredible accomplishments from one of the most historically dominate clubs in world football.
Madrid is one of those clubs where you know that any club they play will have a tough task at hand to get any kind of result. When you look across the line and see players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale as the front three for a dominate footballing side, you know that bags of goals are coming and are coming fast. In fact, if you take a look back at some of the scores from the streak, it is not uncommon to see Real scoring 4, 5, or even 6 goals some games.
The goals came, but the defense also held their own (normally). Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Pepe, Rapheal Varane, Danilo, and Dani Carvajal are regulars in the defense for Real and are all extremely well known names around the globe. On occasion, Real would concede multiple goals which put loads of pressure onto the attacking players to pull out a win in the end of matches. But the front three were always up to the task. Whether they could manage to pull out a win or settle with draws, the team managed to avoid putting a loss by their record for a substantial amount of time.
For me, I think the true point that Madrid realized that they are capable of such a streak was winning the Champions League title and then taken that victory and has dominated since. One key factor that helped Real to the impressive run that they are having is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar won nearly every trophy he could have won this year, which was of course capped off by winning the Ballon d’Or trophy as the best player in the world. Having a star like Ronaldo terrorize defenders across Europe will increase any team’s chances to go undefeated in 40 straight.
If you are unaware, the 40-match unbeaten streak is the Spanish record, breaking Barcelona’s streak of 39 matches last season. Real Madrid’s included 30 wins and 10 draws. The run was of course ended 1 game after the record was broken by a match that included an own goal from Sergio Ramos and a wonder strike from Sevilla’s Jovetic.
After such an impressive run, will we see another type of run from Real Madrid or Barcelona? I don’t think we will see such a high number, but I expect Real to continue their impressive from for the rest of the season.
