84:16 reads the clock. Valencia 1-0 Real Madrid, the score. Luka Modric has the ball.
Luka Modric is 39 (and a fair bit) years old now and it's been showing. Once indispensable, he's been used sparingly this season, Carlo Ancelotti looking to preserve those veteran legs for as long as he can. Of the 18 LaLiga games he'd played before this Valencia one, he has started only seven (and done the whole 90 in just four). It's reflected in his numbers too: 3 assists and no goals in those 18.
But at the Mestalla on Saturday, Ancelotti needed him. Valencia, battling relegation already and stuck in 19th were playing out of their skins and giving not one inch. The young superstar Galacticos tried -- Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham -- but it just wasn't clicking. So, when Vinicius was sent off in the 79th minute, Ancelotti chucked on Modric immediately. Do something, you wily old magician, he seemed to implore.
Modric moves it on to Eduardo Camavinga before floating forward into a pocket of space. Camavinga pushes it forward to Brahm Diaz and goes for the overlap down the left flank. Diaz fakes giving him the one-two and moves back inside, and despite a heavy touch, keeps control under heavy pressure. Modric is still in that pocket, floating around, invisible to the men in Valencia black-and-white.
Within moments of Modric's introduction, you could sense a shift in momentum. It ought to have been in the negative given Madrid were a man down, but somehow on that cramped Valencian pitch, Modric was finding space where earlier there had been none. Somehow, he had Madrid playing further up the pitch, with a faster tempo, even when he was not on the ball.
Brahim feigns a shot and passes it forward to Jude Bellingham... the centre-backs Cristhian Mosquera and Cesar Tarrega are drawn to the pass, to Bellingham, but with a sublime first touch, Bellingham deflects the ball forward. Where Modric has come alive.
Mbappe had broken through this resolute fortress a bit earlier with a similar run, but he'd been offside -- a bane all season. Modric, though, wasn't. While all eyes will be drawn to Bellingham's exquisite pass when watching the goal, take a moment and focus on Modric. When Brahim has the ball, he's already half-turned, body open to receive the ball and take a shot. When Brahim instead chooses Bellingham, Modric doesn't just stop but immediately starts his run, knowing Mosquera has left a hole in the centre, trusting blindly Bellingham's ability to find him. There's no express pace, barely any pace really, but when you can read the game like this...
It's one of those qualities he's display over-and-over again in his decade plus at Madrid: when the going gets tough, Luka Modric will always be available, in space, for the ball.
�� @LukaModric10 scores a historic goal at the Mestalla!
��️ "Breaking records is always nice"#RealFootball | #ValenciaRealMadrid pic.twitter.com/gVWZbEBUay- Real Madrid C.F. �������� (@realmadriden) January 3, 2025
Once he gets the pass, he doesn't snatch at a shot, knowing that Stole Dimitrievski is well set in the Valencia goal. Instead, he lets the ball run past him, takes a touch with his left, rides a challenge from Dimitri Foulquier, ignores a sliding Yarek Gasiorowski and trivelas it gently past the advancing goalie off the outside of his right boot. It's as clean a finish as you'll see. 84:28 reads the time. Valencia 1-1 Real Madrid, the score.
Not only was the finish clean, it was also just as calm as you'd expect from the man wearing 10 for Madrid. Modric has never been the most prolific midfielder in terms of G+A but his clutchness has always been one of his great qualities. And so it was, as Madrid turned it on in the final ten minutes and Bellingham latched onto a mistake to score the winner ten minutes after Modric's equaliser.
That Modric goal set a rather brilliant record too: he's now the oldest player (at 39 years, 116 days) to score for Madrid in the league since a certain Ferenc Puskas.
For that, for reminding everyone of his magical ability, for dragging Real Madrid to yet another win, Luka Modric takes our moment of the week.