Real Madrid won 4-2 over Villareal. Or let me put that another way, Real Madrid won against a stubborn Villareal. I mean, they put 10 men behind the ball and defended deep and tried to close us down really quickly and (lots of AND’s, I know) tried to bully Ronaldo but no one messes with Ronaldo at the Bernabeu.
Both of Villareal’s goals were class goals, I ll give them that. First one was an extremely neat finish from a tight angle and the 2nd goal was a touch of class with a chip over Casillas but that does not mean that Real Madrid defense was under no fault. They were and that is why they conceded.
In conclusion, I would say Khedira played really well and he was probably our man of the match apart from Ronaldo because Khedira changed the game in the midfield and that allowed Ronaldo a bit more freedom in terms of his attacking plan.
The disappointment from this game is only Diarra. I rated him very high previously but looking at his last few performances, I think he is not up to the mark. I know he has not been playing that much but that is no excuse under Mourinho. If Mourinho gives you an opportunity then you must avail it and now I do not think Mourinho will trust Diarra and he might as well sell him to make way for Gago or Muhammadou Diarra.
Ronaldo scored 3 goals which puts him 3 ahead of Messi and that is great news for me. Ronaldo assisted Kaka in the fourth goal as well but that whole move was brought into existence by the pass Kaka made initially in the midfield to Ronaldo. Ronaldo was by far our most efficient player but he also missed a sitter in the second half when we were a goal down.
I was also not very happy with the way Real Madrid tried to play their final balls. Oezil had this great ability to make a killer final ball but even his are now getting intercepted which almost cost Real Madrid last night.
Di Maria worked hard. The kid has great speed and can dribble pretty good but when it comes to making important decisions, he almost always gets them wrong.
Benzema was also not impressive tonight. He worked hard, tried to change his position with Ronaldo a lot and set up the first goal, apart from that, I do not think I saw him do much apart from a few mis hits.
In the end, I think Kaka made the difference in the midfield. When he came on, suddenly our attacks were much more fluid and took seconds to built up.
Mourinho should be applauded that he brought on Kaka for Raul Albiol instead of some other attacking player and I think he got rewarded for it.
Xabi Alonso played well too, his (normally unnoticed) first time short passes were essential for Real Madrid when transforming the ball in the midfield to a ball on the attacking side of the pitch.
Real Madrid wasted a lot of chances and certainly we cannot afford to do that against bigger teams in Champions League or in the league (the only team bigger than Villareal is Barcelona I think).
Overall, I am happy we were able to break down this stubborn Villareal. I just hate teams that try to play negative football once they are in the lead. I mean, one can easily make a 1 hour movie with the theatrics Villareal performed last night after they went into the lead or even at 2-2.
I hope this short review was useful. Let me know your thoughts on the game. Do you think that Lass should be sold on the basis of his performances for the past few weeks or do we need another striker given that Benzema is so inconsistent.
I am all ears as always. HALA MADRID!!!!
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