In the last of our two-part UCL final support cast profiles, Real Madrid’s Lucas Vazquez is put into focus with the biggest match of his career on the horizon – an El Derbi Madrileno in the 2016 European Cup final.
Could the stakes be any higher? The answer, at least in the context of club football goes, is no. Undecima is at stake, as well as the pride of one of the world’s true footballing cities, Madrid.
The Galician-born winger is a graduate of the now dissolved Real Madrid C, and Real Madrid Castilla, before impressing then-manager Rafael Benitez to earn a place in the first team set-up for season 2015-16.
The 24-year-old’s transition from loanee with Espanyol to first-teamer with Real Madrid has shown initial promise. Vazquez has made 38 appearances in all competitions, notching up four goals and nine assists despite only starting 15 times.
It is unclear how much game time will be afforded to the winger, but positive league form, particularly in the month of April, works in his favour.
Vazquez’s introduction off the bench away to Rayo Vallecano was decisive. Zinedine Zidane called upon the winger after 41 minutes to help turn the game around after Real had gone down 2-0 without star players Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Madridistas’ problems were compounded when Karim Benzema went down injured after 41 minutes – enter Vazquez.
Gareth Bale began the fightback as the Welshman glanced a header home from close-range following a Toni Kroos corner, before Vazquez’s ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ reply saw the Spaniard, who stands at a mere 5’6″, beat a covering defender to head Danilo’s cross into the top corner past Rayo ‘keeper Juan Carlos.
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This goal helped Real on their way to a 3-2 victory with Bale netting the 81st minute winner. A result which helped the club to keep the pressure on league-leaders Barcelona, who had lost three consecutive matches earlier in April, to allow Real within a point of the Catalan outfit.
Vazquez’s positive performance was preceded by a brilliant solo goal in the 3-0 win against fourth placed Villareal a week prior where he replaced the injured Gareth Bale in the starting XI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqn_adHSQjA
In the 69th minute with only a slender 1-0 lead intact, Vazquez played a neat one-two with Benzema and charged toward the penalty area, albeit on a highly acute angle to blast past Sergio Asenjo in the Villareal goal. This strike effectively ended the staunch resolve of the Yellow Submarine, with Luka Modric netting a third six minutes later to kill the contest once and for all.
Vazquez’s aforementioned graduation from the Real Madrid youth set-up was followed by a loan spell with RCD Espanyol in the 2014-15 season under the tutelage of Sergio Gonzales Soriano.
The Periquitos finished in 10th position with Vazquez playing a key role making 30 appearances in La Liga, as well as six in the Copa Del Rey, where the team advanced to the semi-final stage of the competition, only to be knocked out by Basque outfit, Athletic Bilbao.
Much like Atletico Madrid midfielder Saul Niguez, Vazquez’s rise to prominence came the hard way through proving himself in a lesser team.
Both players meet on Saturday night, and while Vazquez’s contribution should come from the substitutes bench compared with Niguez’s almost certain starting spot, two highly promising Spanish prospects have the chance to state their case for a spot in Vincente Del Bosque’s final squad for Euro 2016 as well as a shot at European glory at club level.
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