1 assist, 10 accurate long balls: Real Madrid veteran continues to impress with another start against Rayo Vallecano | OneFootball

After falling to a defeat against Real Betis in their last La Liga game, Real Madrid had a crucial match scheduled against Rayo Vallecano on matchday 27. It was essential for the Merengues to win this game to remain in contention for the league title as they were trailing Barcelona by three points at the top of the table.

Right before the start of this game, Los Blancos saw another of their rivals for the La Liga title, Atletico Madrid, suffer a surprise defeat at the hands of Getafe. With the Blaugranes’ match postponed on Saturday, they had a chance to go back to second place, equal on points with the Catalans, if they won against Rayo.

Although the White team’s performance was far from their expected standards, they were still able to get the job done, as goals from Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior allowed them to get a win and the full three points from this game, despite the visitors remaining alive till the very end of the game.

Vinicius was the Man of the Match, mainly for his incredible goal in the first half, while Mbappe also ended his 3-game goal drought with another deadly strike.

However, it was once again the legend Luka Modric who impressed the most in this game, despite being 39 years of age. The Croatian magician remained on the pitch for the entirety of the game, and he also got an assist to his name for Vinicius’ goal, despite the fact that the Brazilian had all the work to do to score the goal after beating several Rayo defenders.

Still, as has been the case in most of his starts this season, Modric pulled the strings from the midfield and contributed well both in the attack and the defence.

According to Sofascore data, he got on the ball 86 times in this game, and completed 63 of his 70 attempted passes, thus recording a 90% success rate. His influence on the pitch was quite apparent from his 11 attempted long balls, of which 10 were successful, while he also put in 4 key passes in this game, creating 1 big chance.

The Real Madrid icon was also involved in 12 ground duels, winning 8 of them, and also won the only 1 aerial duel he was involved in.

He was also quite active defensively, as he put in 2 interceptions and 4 tackles, while also blocking 1 shot from Rayo Vallecano.

Thus, this was another very good performance from the veteran midfielder who continues to perform at a very high level despite his advanced age. The Merengue fans are lucky to see him still play at this level and should enjoy his highly entertaining displays as he might not be able to continue putting such performances for many more years to come.