La Liga: Real Madrid win to close in on Atletico
What's the story
Casemiro's goal helped Real Madrid gain a crucial win in gameweek 24 of the Spanish league season. Real have cut down Atletico Madrid's lead to just three points with a win over Real Valladolid. Atletico lead the proceedings in La Liga, having also played a match less. They suffered a shocking 2-0 defeat at home against Levante. Here are the details.
Real Madrid
Real get the job done
It wasn't a convincing performance by Real but they will be happy to get over the line and collect three crucial points. Los Blancos saw Casemiro score in the 65th minute with a header after being assisted by Toni Kroos. Prior to that, he had missed two chances. Meanwhile, Real goalie Thibaut Courtois pulled off great saves to deny Fabian Orellana and Saidy Janko.
Kroos
Kroos impresses for Real Madrid
Mid-fielder Toni Kroos had a superb match for Los Blancos. The German international dominated the numbers. As per Opta, he made four key passes, completed 73 passes out of 83, put in seven crosses, won all of his seven duels, and made nine recoveries. Notably, all these numbers were the highest in this match. Kroos now has five assists in his last five games.
Information
Real race to 52 points
Real registered their 16th win of the season from 24 matches so far. They have raced to 52 points and trail Atletico (55) at the moment. Notably, this was Real's fourth successive league win. Valladolid stay 19th at the moment. This was their 11th defeat.
Atletico
Levante boss scripts a special record after win over Atletico
Earlier, Atletico were humbled by Levante. The result saw Atletico hit a roadblock. As per Opta, Levante manager Paco became one of three managers to win a La Liga away game against both Atletico and Real Madrid in a single season in the last decade. Luis Enrique (2015-16 and 2016-17) and Pep Guardiola (2011-12) are the other two managers.