After taking a first-half lead against the Yellow Submarine, Zinedine Zidane’s men drew because of Gerard Moreno’s equaliser 

Mutiu Adepoju has stated he is pleased with Real Madrid’s performance in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Villarreal despite the absence of Sergio Ramos.

Captain Ramos, 34, was ruled out of the game having picked up a hamstring injury in Spain’s game against Germany and will also miss fixtures against Inter Milan and Alaves.

In the tight affair at the Estadio de la Ceramica, Zinedine Zidane’s men settled for a point after leading for 74 minutes.

Mariano Diaz, who made a return into Los Blancos’ line-up for the first time in 18 months gave Zidane’s men the lead after just 107 seconds thanks to an assist from Daniel Carvajal.

However, the hosts levelled matters through Gerard Moreno from the penalty spot in the 76th minute after goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois felled substitute Samuel Chukwueze in the box.

Reacting to the outcome of the game, the Nigerian football great and ex-Real Madrid midfielder agreed the Santiago Bernabeu giants missed the ‘leadership qualities’ of the legendary defender and added that the team gave a good account of themselves.

“Yes! Definitely. Ramos is one of the best defenders in the world and his leadership qualities were missed, but I still feel the players who were on the field did very well,” Adepoju told Goal during Saturday’s La Liga watch party in Lagos.

“It was a very enticing game – very interesting. But teams did very well right from the blast of the whistle.

“Real Madrid got their goal in the first half after making use of their opportunity, while Villareal came out stronger in the second half to equalise as they bombarded Zidane’s team.”

With this result, Real Madrid sit in fourth position on the log after accruing 17 points from nine outings, with the La Liga ambassador warned that it would be prejudicial to rule the 13-time Champions League winners out of the 2020-21 Spanish top-flight title just yet.

“That’s too early,” he continued. “You can’t rule out any team now even Barcelona because this is the 10th week and we still have like 28 more matches to go.

“There are so many points to play for and everyone, as it stands, has an opportunity to be crowned as champions at the end of the season.”

source:- goal