On Saturday evening, Arda Güler scored his first goal of the season for the “Royals” in Real Madrid’s LaLiga away game at Girona FC, thus breaking his personal goalless curse.
Arda Güler’s start to the season at Real Madrid has been disappointing overall. After a strong final phase of the past season and a very eye-catching European Championship performance from the 19-year-old, it was actually expected that Arda Güler would get more playing time at Real Madrid, but the young creative player found himself on the bench most of the time.
The Turkish international only started playing regularly thanks to the injuries to wingers Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo. On Saturday evening in the league game against FC Girona, Arda Güler was able to break his goalless curse so far this season with a remarkable goal and make lasting impressions for coach Carlo Ancelotti.
Difficult season so far for Real Madrid
At Real Madrid, who became Spanish champions last season and won the Champions League, things are not going quite so smoothly this season. Star newcomer Kylian Mbappé still has difficulty accepting his role as a center forward and the absence of Toni Kroos as a leader and thinker in the midfield is felt everywhere. With a very confident 3-0 win against last year’s surprise team from Girona, Real Madrid was able to regain some self-confidence.
Arda Güler with a good game against Girona
A player who also gained a lot of self-confidence in this game was Arda Güler. Once again deployed on the right wing, the left-footer was supposed to move into the middle again and again and castle in the offensive with Kylian Mbappé, Brahim Díaz and Jude Bellingham. This worked well, so Girona had major problems getting the “Blancos” agile attackers under control. Güler was able to show his qualities in dribbling and passing and overall played a very eye-catching game.
Jude Bellingham DJs for Arda Güler
In the 55th minute of the game the time had finally come. Jude Bellingham, who had already made it 1-0 and had become the absolute leader of the Spanish record champions in recent weeks, passed a cross pass from the center circle directly to the front, where Arda Güler had started attentively, the ball despite the pressure took great action and didn’t lose his nerve in front of the goal, but casually pushed the ball right next to the right post into the inside goal net to make it 2-0.
The hit obviously had a liberating effect on Arda Güler
You could immediately feel the pressure being lifted off the young Turk’s shoulders and many of his teammates ran up to him to congratulate him on his first goal of the season. You could tell that his colleagues warmly appreciated the goal for the high-class technician. So far this season, Arda Güler has looked a bit unhappy, especially in front of the opponent’s goal, which may have further undermined his already weakened self-confidence. After the goal, however, the 19-year-old seemed much more relaxed and seemed to be enjoying the game more.
Longer conversation with Carlo Ancelotti when substituted
In the 89th minute of the game, Arda Güler was substituted, with head coach Carlo Ancelotti giving him a remarkably long arm hug, congratulating him on the goal and his performance and obviously trying to explain the difficult situation for the teenager. Güler accepted this with a nod and moist eyes, thanked his coach and finally high-fived his teammates. After the final whistle, the Turkish top talent appeared relaxed and smiled, something he has rarely done on the bench in recent weeks.
Fotos: Alex Caparros / Getty Images
