Luka Modric and Toni Kroos lead steady Real Madrid versus Villarreal
Real Madrid remain a point behind Barcelona and Atletico in the Liga standing after a comfortable 3-0 victory over a half-steam Villarreal at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night. The visitors had never beaten the hosts in Chamartin and rarely looked like doing so in the absence of Roberto Soldado and Samu Castillejo, the primary facilitators of Cedric Bakambu's 12 goals this season.
Zinedine Zidane again fielded more or less his preferred 11, with Danilo replacing Dani Carvajal at right-back and Isco and James Rodriguez relegated to the bench after the 5-1 victory over Getafe at the weekend. At the back, Real were afforded a night off from their traditional set-piece concerns, Villarreal being the side with the fewest headed goals across Europe's top five leagues this season.
The victory was Real's eighth in a row and nearly matched their goals-per-game average of 3.75 during that run. More importantly, a difficult match on paper was ticked off with the minimum of fuss as Zidane's side aim to keep the pressure up on the two teams just in front of them.