1 win, 2 draws, 2 losses: Real Madrid let La Liga get out of their hands in a month | OneFootball

For the last few years, most observers and fans have started to expect Real Madrid to start performing at their best level in the final few months of every season.

Irrespective of how their season has gone up to that point, the Merengues are expected to get to their best level from February onwards, as they start facing the most crucial tests in the business end of a season.

However, this season, one can argue that their form has dropped even further in the month of February, and things are not looking too good going forward either.

The last month was not entirely bad, and one of the highlights for Los Blancos was their 6-3 aggregate win over Manchester City in the playoff round for qualification to the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

Similarly, they also got over Leganes in the Copa del Rey and currently enjoy a 1 goal lead over Real Sociedad in the semi-final tie of this competition, after Endrick scored the lone goal in the first leg at the Anoeta.

However, the last month was devastating for their La Liga aspirations, as they lost up to 7 points in the league in February, and lost 3 more in their first league match in March.

Real Madrid started February with a game against RCD Espanyol, a match that they were expected to win without many troubles keeping in view the quality in their squad. However, the Catalan side was able to spring a surprise as they beat the Merengues with a 1-0 scoreline.

There is no doubt that this was a highly controversial match with several referee decisions going against Los Blancos, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side should still have gotten the full three points.

After the Copa del Rey tie quarter-final tie, Real Madrid returned to La Liga with the Madrid derby. This match also saw a controversial penalty going against the Merengues, but they were able to salvage a draw with a Kylian Mbappe strike in the second half. However, 2 more points were lost with this game.

The story remained quite unchanged as they again returned to La Liga after the first leg of the UCL tie against Manchester City with a match against Osasuna. The main highlight of this game was the red card shown to Jude Bellingham for his alleged verbal abuse against the referee.

Despite going ahead early in the first half, Los Blancos saw the game tied as Osasuna were also awarded a penalty in the second half, which they successfully converted to draw the game.

The only league win for Real Madrid in February came against Girona, right after they had eliminated Manchester City from the UCL. Goals from Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior allowed the Merengues to win and remain on equal points with Barcelona on the league table after their previously dropped points had allowed the Blaugranes to overcome the 7-point deficit they had back on matchday 21.

This was the last league match for the Merengues in February, but things remained the same at the beginning of March, as they fell to another defeat against Real Betis in an overall poor display.

Thus, the 28 days from 1st February to 1st March saw Los Blancos squander their healthy lead at the top of the La Liga table, as they currently stand third in the standings, behind both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

Hopefully, Carlo Ancelotti will be able to change the course of results in the coming weeks to ensure his team remains alive in the competition in the last 12 matches.