Tags
Related Posts
Share This
Real Madrid 7-1 Sporting Gijon
Real Madrid 7-1 Sporting Gijon
Real Madrid demolish Sporting Gijon.
Real Madrid have literally demolished Sporting Gijon as they scored seven goals to thrill everyone at the Bernabeu.
The star of the match was undeniably Rafael Van Der Vaart who scored a brilliant hat-trick. He also played an important role in most of the other goals.
Raul scored two goals, somewhat silences his critics
Captain Rau’l scored two goals while Higuan and Robben scored one each.
Bernd Schuster started with Casillas in goal, Torres on the right, Pepe and Cannavaro in the center of defense and Marcelo on the left.
The midfield consisted of Diarra and De La Red in the center – Robben and Van Der Vaart on the wings.
Upfront, Schuster started with Rau’l and Higuain as Van Nistelrooy was rested for the Champions League clash against Zenit.
Real stroke from the start. They really seemed into the game and didn’t stop attacking. Although, my prediction of sporting Gjon playing a defensive game with ten men behind the ball was proved wrong as Sporting came out to the field in the first half with an attacking mindset and attacked a lot, for the first 15 minutes it looked like, Sporting had learned from their mistakes last week when they were thrashed by Barcelona 1-6 at home.
But that is something which very few teams do and a team (like Sporting) do come out at the Bernabeu and attack, the result is always like this.
Anyway, De La Red once again looked great in the midfield creating great passes and helping the team to defend. This was probably his best match ever in the white shirt though I think he needs to work on his consistency a bit more as he didn’t take advantage of a lot of opportunities in the second half, made some miss placed passes which killed many attacking moves. So I think he can do better at not being casual, sometimes he looks so disinterested in the game.
I also liked about him was that he had that exceptional vision and fast reaction. In that regard, I think he is better than Gago and even Diarra – way better. Diarra has his own qualities but I am talking about vision here.
As for Van Der Vaart, he was so effective. Not because he scored three goals, but because he showed confidence, brilliance and comittment.
Van Der Vaart has exceptional individual quality which most Dutch players always have.
His first goal was a piece of magic. And oh his second – that was a work of art – and of course – De La Red assisted both of them. His second goal was a result of his brilliant thinking, he caught the keeper off guard when he received a pass from the by line into six yard box I think, instead of taking a touch Van Der Vaart backheeled it into the corner of the net, the keeper was left stranded.
As for his third goal, that was pure class as he placed the ball with his left foot into the bottom corner of the net from just outside the area when Higuain layed him with a juicy ball just outside the area, Van Der Vaart took it with so much ease and poise. Looked like Zidane for a moment.
Robben played very consistently throughout the match, something which you don’t see too often.
Robben was, as usual, dangerous. He was active throughout the match and played very well. Assisted Higuain who scored his second goal in La Liga (right?), made some shots on target (one resulted in Rau’l's first goal) and exhausted their defenders …. to say the truth he was awesome!.
Higuain scored, as I predicted, not with his left foot though.
Higuain also seems like he is finally getting a hang of things and now he is no more a fringe player. I think he is going to carry on the mantle of Raul whenever he decides to hang up his boots at the Bernabeu
The rest of the team played very very well. The defense has dramatically improved after the return of Cannavaro.
Diarra needs to keep on learning, he is getting back to his Lyon days.
Marcelo looked strong and in a good shape. But I think he also needs to improve on his consistency, many a times going forward he gave the ball too easily, he needs to work on his crosses and some pace as well if he wants to emulate Roberto Carlos who is the greatest left back of all time, its not going to be easy but hye, he can atleast try.
Saviola, Javi Garcia and Drenthe came in the second half. The “Rabbit” showed some good skills and could have scored a goal or two. Rau’l should thank him for that nice assist Saviola made in Raul’s second goal though the finish just dimished Saviola’s work in that move, Raul scooped the ball over the keeper while running with the ball and again the keeper was left stranded.
Overall a good performance but I think we should not get too excited with this as Sporting Gijon is not a standard La Liga team, they have just been promoted, it’s their first season in the big league for 10 years. Some of the goals they gave away were real naive.
The thing is, you cannot attack Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, no team does that, not Barcelona, certainly not Manchester United, noone. The one who does, well….. You just read what happened to that team.
As expected everyone has happy after the game, Van Nistelrooy must have been cursing Schuster for not letting him play this game and improve his goal tally. The Dutchman has scored 6 goals in 6 appearences, his best start since joining Real Madrid two seasons ago.
Bernd Schuster was proud with his men’s performance against Sporting tonight.
Schuster also having a kick during the match, haha
“The game unfolded as it had to. Everything was in our favour in the first half and we had ro continue exploiting that. Many people wanted to watch football tonight.”
“I greeted Quini. I am glad he travels with the team. It’s important for him because it’s his life. I hope to see him many more years.”
“I wasn’t disappointed by Sporting. They had a bitter defeat against Barcelona just before playing at the Bernabéu. We knew we had to put pressure on them from the start in order to grow confident. Sporting couldn’t have had an uglier start to the season; their schedule pits them against Sevilla, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Villarreal in the first weeks of the competition. The league is very long and it’s only just started.”
“Raúl, Van der Vaart, Robben… Saviola was practically the only one left to score. Strikers live off this. This result is good for them. I hope our goal-scoring streak continues.”
“I didn’t think about our match with BATE. I said I wanted my team to play differently once they are winning 3-0 and tonight they scored four more goals. I wanted them to do that against BATE, but at least we learned from the mistake of not doing so.”
“We are aware of the large number of games we have this year and everyone will have to play. Javi García, Torres and Saviola feel that way and they are ready to play. We have another game on Saturday and yet another on Tuesday. We keep an eye on the shape our men are in and find the best solution for this. I think we have done so for now.” Schuster said.
Well, now you see, Schuster has explained his decision of not playing key players in this match as I said in my earlier post that Ramos cannot possibly keep his energy levels up for the rest of a long season so in games like these I don’t think Schuster will use him in the future as well.
Here is what Robben and Higuain said. Isn’t it amazing how many players actually take interviews whenever Real Madrid win, I don’t read many interviews of so many players whenever Real Madrid loses.
Anyway:
ROBBEN
“It’s been a beautiful match for us and the fans. We missed many chances on goal against BATE Borisov, but we fixed that tonight.”
“I’m happy with how the game unfolded. It was incredible. We had many chances and scored seven goals in 70 minutes. I try to do a good job in every game. That’s all I think about. I notice fans like my style and that they have faith in me. I like that.”
“I think the team has been more confident in the last couple of games. We didn’t have a good start to the season, but we are in great form now and we want to carry on this way.”
“The whole team is happy for Raúl because he is our captain and therefore very important to us. He did a good job.”
“The match against Betis will be hard. They are a strong team, but we want to take the three points.“
HIGUAIN
“The goal I scored tonight is a reward for my work and I’m glad people acknowledge it. We were solid against Sporting and we used our chances on goal well. That’s very important.”
“All of us 24 players have to be fit all the time because we have many games this year and we will all have a chance to play. The good thing is many of us are scoring the team’s goals, as opposed to just one or two players.”
“Raúl had a great game and scored two goals. we are happy about that. He deserved it.”
Mijatovic also took his turn on this maginificant display of attacking football by Real Madrid.
“This is a very important victory. The team played well and scored many goals, but we shouldn’t go crazy about it. The team must continue to have the same excitement and the same attitude.”
“This team can score. It was the top-scoring side last year and it could be so again this year. We never doubted this. It was important for Raúl to score again. We have to take things slowly now and improve on everything.”
“We never doubted Raúl; his figures will be hard to equal. He suffered in the last few games because he is a great goal-scorer, but I’m sure he will net many more strikes from now on.”
“Van der Vaart is very imprtant to us. He was one of the top-scoring players on his previous teams. He felt well tonight. He’s scored in every game and we are very happy with him. We are very happy with all of our players.”
“We have to play many games each week and we must therefore count on every man on the squad. Rest is important. An important team has to work this way. I’m sure all of them will work hard to help the team achieve its goals.”
I don’t think Mijatovic never doubted Real Madrid goal scoring abilites. I think Sporting Gijon is not a team against which scoring goals is difficult . I still believe that if Real Madrid want to do well in Champions League then they will have to buy some big names in winter market which open in January.
