Carlo Ancelotti makes history with Real Madrid lineup vs Villarreal
Carlo Ancelotti made history by naming a Real Madrid starting XI without any players born in Spain for his side's La Liga meeting with Villarreal on Saturday afternoon.
Real Madrid's international lineup lost 2-1 away to a Villarreal side which had eight Spanish players out for the first whistle. Both of the scorers for the Yellow Submarine, Yeremi Pino and Gerard Moreno, have appeared for the Spanish national team at senior level.
Karim Benzema cancelled out Pino's opener with a penalty on the hour mark shortly before Moreno quickly restored Villarreal's advantage with a spot kick of his own.
The Italian coach sent out an XI with a Belgian between the sticks (Thibaut Courtois), Austria's captain at the back (David Alaba), Croatia's skipper in midfield (Luka Modric), an Uruguay international on the right (Fede Valverde), two Germans (Antonio Rudiger and Toni Kroos), two Brazilians (Eder Militao and Vinicius Junior) and three Frenchman (Ferland Mendy, Aurelien Tchouameni and Benzema).
Dani Ceballos, Nacho Fernandez, Jesus Vallejo and Luis Lopez were unused Spanish substitutes on the day. Lucas Vazquez - a native of Galicia - and the Majorcan forward Marco Asensio both came off the bench in the second half to restore a thread of Spanish presence to Madrid's set-up but history had already been achieved at kick-off.
0 - At Villarreal, @realmadriden will no have Spanish players in their starting XI in a single @LaLigaEN game for the first time in 21st Century (or since Opta manage this data). Historical. pic.twitter.com/xUzaancetw
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 7, 2023
According to Opta, it was the first time in the 21st century that Madrid had lined up without a Spaniard in the XI for a La Liga match.
However, other statisticians went one step further, claiming that this is the first official match in Real Madrid's entire history - spanning almost 121 years and 4,436 games - without a single player born in Spain in the starting XI.
The Spanish right-back Alvaro Odriozola was sidelined with a muscular complaint while his compatriot Dani Carvajal also missed out through physical discomfort. Carvajal was one of just two Real Madrid players Luis Enrique selected in Spain's squad for the Qatar World Cup. That represented the lowest tally of Los Blancos players in a World Cup party for Spain since 1950 when Luis Molowny was the sole representative.
The lack of Real Madrid presence in the Spanish squad was highlighted as one reason for the lacklustre support the national team has received across recent tournaments. However, as Saturday's starting XI highlighted, there isn't an abundance of Spanish talent to pluck from Madrid's increasingly cosmopolitan ranks.