Casemiro saves Real Madrid blushes to down Las Palmas – Zidane worried by directionless Los Blancos

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MADRID, March 14, (Agencies): Casemiro scored in the 89th-minute to earn Real Madrid a 2-1 win at Las Palmas in the Spanish league on Sunday, keeping his team on course for an automatic spot in next season’s Champions League.

Casemiro headed the winner from a corner just two minutes after Las Palmas equalized with striker Willian Jose to ignite the local fans in the Canary Islands. Sergio Ramos had put Madrid ahead with another header in the 24th, before being sent off in injury time.

Las Palmas played better most of the match and goalkeeper Keylor Navas had to make several key saves to keep Madrid in the game.

It was Madrid’s third league win in a row, leaving it 10 points in front of fourth-place Villarreal, which lost to Sevilla earlier Sunday.

Defending champion Barcelona routed Getafe 6-0 at the Camp Nou on Saturday to maintain an eight-point lead over second-place Atletico Madrid, which kept pace by defeating Deportivo La Coruna 3-0 at the Vicente Calderon Stadium a few hours later.

Madrid is 12 points off the lead and virtually out of contention for the title with nine rounds left, but it needed the win on Sunday to stay ahead in the race to secure the final automatic spot for the Champions League. The fourth-place club has to play an extra qualifying round.

Madrid started well and moved ahead with Ramos’ firm header off a corner, but Las Palmas took over and created several chances until finally breaking through with Jose’s shot over Navas after a bad pass by Mateo Kovacic near the area. The hosts seemed satisfied with a draw, but defensive midfielder Casemiro was left unmarked near the far post to seal the victory.

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane admitted he is concerned by his side’s form after squeezing past Las Palmas on Sunday thanks to Casemiro’s injury-time winner.

Zidane’s men were outplayed by Las Palmas for large spells on their first visit to the Canary Islands in 15 years, but made the hosts pay for poor marking at set-pieces as Sergio Ramos and Casemiro both netted from corners.

“I go away happy with the result, but a little worried with what I saw in the second-half,” said Zidane.

Victory closed the gap on La Liga leaders Barcelona to 12 points, but with only nine games to play, Madrid’s remaining realistic hope of a trophy this season is the Champions League.

The 10-time European champions progressed to the quarter-finals with a similarly unconvincing display to see off Roma in midweek, but Zidane insisted his side’s standards must improve dramatically if they are to go further in the Champions League.

“We aren’t thinking about the Champions League. The players were thinking about what they had to do in the game today, but the truth is we gave away the ball an incredible number of times,” he said.

“If we want to aspire to something in the future, we have to play better. That is clear because playing like this we won’t go anywhere.”

“I don’t think football is unjust because we scored from two set-pieces and that is part of football too,” added Zidane.

“Las Palmas did very well and caused us a lot of problems, but it is our contribution that bothers me.”

Standings

            P              W             D              L              G              A              Pts

Barcelona               29             24             3              2              84             22             75

Atletico  29             21             4              4              45             12             67

Real      29             19             6              4              83             28             63

Villarreal                29             15             8              6              35             23             53

Sevilla   29             13             9              7              43             31             48

Bilbao   29             14             5              10             47             37             47

Celta Vigo              29             13             6              10             41             51             45

Eibar     29             10             7              12             41             41             37

Malaga   29             9              9              11             28             28             36

Sociedad                29             9              8              12             37             40             35

Real Betis              29             8              10             11             27             39             34

Valencia 29             8              10             11             33             34             34

Deportivo,              29             6              15             8              37             42             33

Espanyol                28             9              4              15             28             54             31

Las Palmas             29             8              6              15             31             42             30

Rayo Vallecano       29             6              9              14             39             61             27

Getafe    29             7              6              16             27             51             27

Granada  28             7              5              16             29             53             26

Sporting Gijon        29             6              6              17             30             51             24

Levante  29             6              6              17             27             52             24

Note: Standings read as played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points.

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