Real Madrid’s Casemiro the unlikely hero in hard-fought victory over Sevilla

Holding midfielder Casemiro was the unlikely match winner as Real Madrid kept pushing at the top of the La Liga table with Saturday’s 2-1 victory at home to Sevilla, with his two-goal contribution showing the range of useful options available to coach Zinedine Zidane when all his big-name forwards were out of action.

Madrid were fortunate to be 0-0 at the break – Sevilla’s Luuk de Jong had a headed goal ruled out when VAR caught a slight block on his marker Eder Militao – and visiting coach Julen Lopetegui was very much enjoying his return to the Estadio Santiago Bernab​eu.

The breakthrough then came from a source few were expecting. Casemiro broke forward from his usual post near the halfway line to supply a neat dinked finish over Sevilla keeper Tomas Vaclik after stand-in Madrid centre-forward Luka Jovic opened up the visitors’ defence with a surprise back-heel.

De Jong quickly equalised amid more VAR debate and Casemiro did not waste time putting things right, almost immediately popping up again in the Sevilla box to head home a Lucas Vazquez cross for 2-1, with neither opposition centre-back noticing his arrival until it was too late.

The Brazilian also went about his usual duties successfully – drawing a warm round of applause when he was booked for a trademark tactical foul to stop a dangerous late Sevilla break, which was not his first intervention of that kind in the game.

That helped Madrid see out some late pressure from Lopetegui’s side, and the three points ensured they maintained their challenge to Barcelona atop the La Liga table.

“Two goals from Case is not normal, but I am delighted for him,” said coach Zinedine Zidane at the post-game news conference. “We know that in offensive areas, any of our players [have the ability to] make a difference.

“His first goal, breaking from the second line, was especially not expected. But I am happy for him and for how we played, above all, in the second half.”

They were both excellent finishes from Casemiro and showed the general high level of all-round technical ability throughout Madrid’s squad. But even still it was, as Zidane said, “not normal” for him to score twice, let alone in 12 minutes. Prior to Saturday, he had netted just two times in his 25 appearances for Madrid across all competitions this season. He had also not bagged a double in any of his previous 386 senior games as a player for Sao Paulo, Madrid, Porto or Brazil.

“I have to say thanks for Jovic’s spectacular pass,” Casemiro said in the Bernabeu mixed zone afterwards when reminded of these stats. “That’s why I celebrated with him, it was a ‘cinematic’ pass. And Lucas Vazquez’s cross was also like he put the ball on my head with his hand.”

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Casemiro’s double was especially useful given Madrid’s XI was missing all of Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard, Sergio Ramos and Fede Valverde. Jovic, a €60 million summer arrival, produced his best moment in a Madrid shirt yet with his assist, but Zidane must be concerned that Madrid’s last eight goals have been scored either by midfielders, defenders or the opposition goalkeeper.

“I’m happy not just for the goals, but that the team was rewarded for all the hard work we put in,” Casemiro said.

It was also very unusual to see Casemiro get forward so much into the opposition box, and quite possible that the same tactical decisions that gave Lopetegui the upper hand over Zidane in the first half later put Casemiro into a position where he could try his luck at scoring.

Lopetegui changed his usual midfield by adding another defensive-minded player in Nemanja Gudelj, pushing playmaker Ever Banega forward to the tip of a midfield triangle. Banega is not a No. 10, however, especially at this point of his career, and he kept roaming deep to get involved. These extra numbers near the halfway line helped the visitors to control the first half, and frustration at the Bernabeu was mounting.

As the deepest of Madrid’s midfield three, Casemiro’s primary job therefore was shutting down Banega, the player with more passes than any other midfielder in La Liga this season. He then followed the Argentine when he dropped deep, and so found himself in unfamiliar areas, especially when Madrid won the ball back pressing high in the second half. From there he kept going and ended up in the Sevilla penalty area at just the right times.

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Zidane himself said such aggressive pressing had been talked about at half-time and was key in turning the game in their favour.

“Sevilla played very well for sure, above all in the first half,” the Frenchman said. “We lacked a bit of everything, legs too. If you let them play, they are very good. In the second half we pressed better up front, and the game changed. We know that [pressing] is what we must do, and we are happy as it worked for us today.”

The match-winning performance looked confirmation that Casemiro, 27, is in the best period of his career at the moment. Being the almost-permanent Brazil captain also shows his status. But he still gets a lot less publicity than fellow midfielders Toni Kroos and Luka Modric and his strong performances have been outshone so far this season given the (quite deserved) hype around the Bernabeu’s new favourite, Valverde.

Acclaim for Casemiro’s performance on Saturday was also pushed aside post-game by all the debate around the VAR calls – especially the TV officials picking up Gudelj’s basketball-style block on Militao, which left De Jong free to head in what he thought was the opener. Although the Serb’s movement was so clever that it went unnoticed at first, Militao’s histrionic reaction helped draw attention to what had happened, and the officials were probably correct to rule it illegal. It was less clear how they missed a handball by Munir El Haddadi when De Jong equalised in the second half.

During the game, cameras appeared to catch Lopetegui saying “It’s a disgrace, always the same here” to Sevilla sporting director Monchi when De Jong’s header was disallowed. But the Basque was calmer at the post-game news conference, during which he noted his appreciation for a relatively warm welcome by the Bernabeu crowd on his first return after being sacked just 139 days into his time as Madrid coach last season.

“I feel frustrated as I don’t understand the decision,” Lopetegui said in answer to one of eight different questions about the performance of referee Juan Martinez Munuera. “I’ve seen it back. I’ve been in football for many years, and I didn’t see anything. I’d like them to explain. It was a key moment in the game. Going in at half-time at 1-0 would have been very important.”

Monchi, with no ties to the Bernabeu, did not bite his tongue when asked if he thought the officials had “evened things out” by allowing De Jong’s second-half strike to stand. “If they’d disallowed that goal for a Munir handball, I’d have gone down to the pitch and taken the players off,” he said on Movistar TV a few minutes after the final whistle.

Sevilla’s complaints were understandable, if in the end misplaced. The final irony was that Lopetegui’s very well thought-out set-up for the game had caused Madrid a lot of problems, that was until it pushed the game’s unlikely surprise hero onto centre-stage.