Real Madrid are on top of La Liga and undefeated in league play, but if that surprises you to see that’s not something you should feel bad about. While Real Madrid have had some big performances, they’ve too often struggled to perform at the same level in big matches, and that’s lead to a feeling that the good times won’t last forever.
Real Madrid vs. Leganes 2016: Start time, live stream, TV schedule, and 3 things to know
Real Madrid aren’t happy about their midweek struggles, and they’re going to try to take it out on
Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images
So Real fans will be happy to see a struggling side in Leganes coming to the Bernabéu, a team that’s lost their last three league matches and has yet to look particularly convincing this season. Their leading scorer, winger Alexander Szymanowski, has scored a whopping three times this season — and he’s scored a full third of Leganes’ goals through ten league matches. If their defense was stellar, they could get away with that, but at 19 goals allowed this season, they’re just shy of a dreadful two goals per game given up this season.
Even with how Real Madrid haven’t looked much like a juggernaut and came frightfully close to losing to Polish side Legia Warsaw this week, as long as they pay attention and actually play the match through, Real should win this easily. Of course, they came frightfully close to losing to Legia because they didn’t pay attention and play the match through, so hopefully that served as a wakeup call of what not to do going forward.
TV: beIN Sports (U.S. - English), beIN Sports en Español (U.S. - Spanish), beIN LaLiga, Movistar+ (Spain)
Online: beIN Sports Connect (U.S.), beIN Sports Connect España (Spain)
Match Date/Time: Sunday, 6 a.m. ET, 12 p.m. local
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain
Three big things to know
- Cristiano Ronaldo has been decidedly not Cristiano Ronaldo for much of this season. He’s had his outbursts of goalscoring, to be sure, but they’ve been more the exception than the rule. Sure, he’s coming off a big injury, but that injury seems to have only hastened the slow decline that Ronaldo has been dealing with the last couple of years. In big matches, he’s tended to be a shell of his former self -- but Leganes are the kind of opponent that Ronaldo has typically looked good against this year.
- At the same time as Ronaldo’s struggles, though, Toni Kroos has quietly emerged as Madrid’s best player so far this season. At a time when numerous other major players have struggled, Kroos has been continually efficient and effective, at times carrying the team through moments or even entire games when they otherwise are playing badly and wouldn’t be as competitive without him as the final result ends up being.
- Marcelo has, not so quietly, been pretty great himself. Coming off a couple of seasons when he drew more criticism than praise from many observers, Marcelo has been had to criticize this season, becoming a major force in their attack and taking a big step up in his defensive game as well. He’s been reliably excellent just like Kroos, and he helps bring dimension and width that Real would otherwise be struggling with given how they’ve played.
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