Ronaldo Hits 30 for Season, but Casillas Saves Real Madrid vs. Villarreal

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 30th league goal of the campaign, but Real Madrid still had Iker Casillas to thank for two important saves that helped them to a 1-1 draw at home to Villarreal on Sunday.

Carlo Ancelotti had spoken of the threat posed by the visitors in his pre-match press conference, describing Villarreal as a team “with a lot of quality,” who are “well organised and have good players.”

Those virtues were very much on show at the Bernabeu, as despite a number of changes to their regular starting XI, Marcelino’s side gave Madrid a tough evening. They were largely solid in defence and always carried a threat on the counter-attack. Gerard Moreno proved a reliable target man, while Joel Campbell and Mario Gaspar combined well down the right-hand side.

In a fairly even first half, it was Villarreal that created the best opportunity. Moreno expertly controlled a mishit shot inside the area before producing a stabbed effort on goal that the diving Casillas did very well to save. Had he been a little more confident on his right foot, Moreno may have swept the chance home more emphatically; as it was, his momentary pause allowed Casillas to spread himself and make a vital stop.

The 33-year-old was forced to watch on from the sidelines as Madrid’s pursuit of last season’s La Liga title faltered through March and May 2014. But saves such as that one show this is a worthy No. 1 this time around.

"

Without Casillas we would have zero points. Thank you @CasillasWorld

— SocialRMadrid (@SocialRMadrid) March 1, 2015"

At the other end of the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo was not enjoying such a good time. Per Carlos Forjanes of AS, the Portugal international had gone 85 days without scoring a league goal at the Bernabeu prior to Sunday’s match and didn’t look likely to break that streak during the opening 45 minutes of play.

He had a poor effort well wide from the edge of the area following Isco’s nice first-time flick, fired a relatively weak effort to the near post that was comfortably saved and then struck a long-range free-kick over the bar in stoppage time.

The 30-year-old otherwise saw very little of the ball for a Madrid side that struggled to maintain any attacking rhythm during the first half.

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Yet despite those struggles, it should have come as little surprise that it was Ronaldo who opened the scoring early into the second period. He had notched 10 goals in his eight previous appearances against the Yellow Submarine—making him the top scorer against the club in La Liga in the years since their initial promotion to the Primera Division in 1998—and scored his 11th from the penalty spot after being dragged down inside the area by the otherwise impressive Eric Bailly.

With a little more space to work in as Villarreal pushed forward in search of an equaliser, Ronaldo had an excellent chance to double Madrid’s lead minutes later, but he was denied by a very good save from Sergio Asenjo after being slipped into the area by Gareth Bale.

The Portuguese forward then produced a couple of off-target efforts that were more indicative of his largely inaccurate shooting on the night, as illustrated by the following graphic from FourFourTwo's Stats Zone:

Courtesy of FourFourTwo Stats Zone

Shortly thereafter the away side got a deserved equaliser through Moreno, who fired in an unstoppable low effort from the edge of the area. Ronaldo nearly replied with a flicked header from a Bale cross that Asenjo did very well to keep out, but in a flurry of late activity it was Casillas who produced another valuable intervention.

Villarreal broke forward down the left, with Moreno providing an excellent near-post cross that Luciano Vietto met with a diving header ahead of Raphael Varane. His effort was destined for the corner until Casillas produced an impressive reaction save to keep his side in the game.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

It does feel like after tearing their way through a 23-match winning streak earlier in the season, Madrid and Ronaldo have run out of a steam a little since the turn of the year. Results have still generally been good, but neither the team nor their top scorer have reached the same heights as earlier in the campaign.

Ancelotti did, though, see reason for optimism in Sunday's performance, despite the weekend's results having seen Barcelona close to within two points of Madrid at the top of La Liga.

"I think the team is improving," he said in his post-match press conference, as per Manu Sainz of AS. "Two points of advantage are nothing but we have to enjoy them and look ahead because we have a difficult game coming up.”

But even on his off days, Ronaldo still offers a goal threat. And if Casillas can make the sort of key saves at key moments that he produced on Sunday, then Madrid will still be confident of domestic and European success during the final stretch of the campaign.