On Saturday, Real Madrid made history as the Spanish and European champions named a starting line-up without one single Spanish footballer for the very first time, in their 4,436th match across all competitions.
Yeremy Pino handed Villarreal the lead midway through the second half of their La Liga contest, but a controversial handball call against Juan Foyth allowed Karim Benzema to level from the penalty spot for Los Merengues.
Foyth subsequently won a penalty of his own after David Alaba handled in the area, with Gerard Moreno netting what proved to be the winner.
Real Madrid’s starting XI was composed of three Frenchmen (Aurelien Tchouameni, Ferland Mendy and Karim Benzema), two Brazilians (Vinicius Junior and Eder Militao), alongside two Germans (Antonio Rudiger and Toni Kroos), a Croatian (Luka Modric), a Belgian (Thibaut Courtois), an Austrian (David Alaba) and a Uruguayan (Federico Valverde).
Whilst they now hold an impressive club record, unfortunately for Real Madrid fans it came coupled with yet another defeat in La Liga as Barcelona remain top of the standings based on goal difference ahead of Sunday’s El Clasico clash at Atletico Madrid.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
