REAL MADRID broke 121-years of tradition by fielding a starting XI without a single Spanish player for the first time ever.
Real named the shock side to take on Villarreal in a key LaLiga clash.
Carlo Ancelotti became the first manager to leave all of his Spanish players on the bench, despite having the likes of Nacho, Marco Asensio, Jesus Vallejo, Lucas Vazquez and Dani Ceballos to call upon.
Incredibly, over that time they’ve played 4,436 matches with at least one Spaniard appearing from that start in every game.
Ancelotti opted for his usual 4-3-3 formation with Belgian Thibaut Courtois between the sticks.
Brazilian Eder Milito was chosen at right-back with Frenchman Ferland Mendy on the other side.
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Austrian David Alaba and German Antonio Rudiger teamed up at centre-back.
German Toni Kroos, Frenchman Aurelien Tchouameni and Croatian Luka Modric linked up in midfield.
And Uruguayan Federico Valverde, Brazilian Vinicius Junior as well as French captain Karim Benzema spearheaded the attack.
The historic squad didn’t get the job done as they lost 2-1 to Villarreal at the Madrigal and dropped to second place in the LaLiga table.
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Quique Setien’s team opened the scoring on 47 minutes with Yeremy Pino.
Benzema equalised for the visitors in the hour-mark from the penalty spot.
But Villarreal earned a spot-kick of their own that Gerard Moreno converted just three minutes later.
Ancelotti ultimately brought Asensio and Vazquez on from the bench but the Sapin duo couldn’t help Real come back.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
