Real shoots itself in the foot

'Tis the season for giving, but Osasuna, as ever, barely gave an inch at El Sadar, where Real Madrid relapsed after beginning to bury some of its demons as of late. Despite recent morale-boosting victories in Pamplona, yesterday's match adhered to the old script and the tension that made the fixture famous.

Real Madrid slipped up and was on the verge of slipping to defeat in a game defined by high intensity, poor build-up play and some highly debatable refereeing decisions. Equally questionable was Carlo Ancelotti's response to being reduced to ten men following Sergio Ramos' sending-off, at a time when draws feel like defeats for any of the title contenders.

On another day, Osasuna would have been jubilant after holding Real Madrid to a draw. This time around, however, it has been left ruing what could have been, having moved two goals to the good and been boosted when Ramos was sent for an early bath.

Real, which displayed sharpness and authority early on, lost its head as Osasuna forged ahead and in the face of the refereeing. It began to rush things, got the tempo wrong and fell apart. Ancelotti failed to remedy the situation either, not making any substitutions after Ramos' red card. Instead, he pushed Alonso back to centre-back and kept on all three forwards – Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale –, none of whom helped out defensively.