La Liga Lowdown, Jornada 18: Cristiano clinical as Real Madrid sink Villarreal

11 Jan, 2011 Luke Colbourne Europe, Latest, Spain

“Villarreal are the best team to have come here and those who have come closest to winning,” admitted Real Madrid boss José Mourinho after his team’s victory over La Liga’s third-best team on Sunday. It was a hotly anticipated affair, with many looking forward to seeing how Juan Carlos Garrido’s attacking, inventive side would fare at the Santiago Bernabéu.

It turns out they fared pretty well. Unlike so many, they came to attack. They played without fear. They were also without three key players in Carlos Marchena, Marcos Senna and top goalscorer Nilmar. Garrido opted to bring in José Catalá at the back, with Bruno Soriano partnering Borja Valero in the centre of midfield. Valero’s shift into the middle meant that Cani played on the right of their Brazilian style 4-4-2/4-2-2-2, with Argentinean Marco Ruben taking his place alongside Giuseppe Rossi upfront.

An explosive start saw Villarreal take the lead after just six minutes, shocking the Bernabéu into further silence. Captain Santi Cazorla linked up with Giuseppe Rossi, who, as brilliantly as ever, slipped the ball through to Cani who then finished with a touch of class. But in a similarly explosive fashion, Madrid equalised through Cristiano Ronaldo after some intelligent play by Karim Benzema and Mesut Özil.

What followed shortly after that, though, was a piece of genius from Marco Ruben. Cani was once again involved as his through-ball sent Ruben clear on goal. Faced with an onrushing Iker Casillas, and a fairly tight angle, the Argentine managed to compose himself and pull off an exquisite lob to make it 2-1. It was a fantastic goal, fully deserved. Villarreal were much the better side for the duration of the first-half. They were quick, incisive and their wonderful attacking ability was on full display. They were a joy to watch.

Luckily for Real Madrid they had Ronaldo, and he equalised on the stroke of half-time with a header from a Xabi Alonso free-kick. “A fairer scoreline at half-time would have been 3-1 to Villarreal,” said Mourinho. And he was right. Something had to be done about it.

Madrid started the second-half with what turned out to be an important change, as Lass Diarra was replaced by Sami Khedira. The German offered a lot more, playing his usual dynamic and energetic game. It was a particularly bad day for Diarra though. Not content with being replaced, he decided he’d had enough and was spotted leaving the stadium long before the game had finished. Of course the club’s rules state that players must stay until the game has officially ended, although the Frenchman didn’t seem to care about that one. There were doubts over his future already, and Sunday’s incident may well accelerate his move away from the club.

Back on the pitch, Mou’s men had improved. Again though, it was down to one man – Cristiano Ronaldo. He had dragged his team back into contention twice already, but in the 78th minute he completed a “perfect” hat-trick to put Madrid in front. The Portuguese was unstoppable, unplayable, and his numbers incredible. It was Ronaldo’s fourth hat-trick since joining Real Madrid (the other three coming against Mallorca, Athletic Bilbao and Levante). Even more impressive is that fact that he’s somehow managed to score more goals than games played. Well, that is depending on who you believe.

According to Marca, Spain’s biggest daily sports newspaper, Ronaldo has 23 goals in 18 league games, whereas some sources say he only has 22. The reason for the confusion is due to the goal scored against Real Sociedad back in September, when Ronaldo’s free-kick went in via a deflection off Pepe. Apparently, the referee’s report says it was in fact Pepe’s goal, but that appears to have been ignored and we don’t seem to have proper confirmation for some reason. Anyway, if you believe his league tally of 23, his overall tally since joining Real Madrid would amount to 63 goals in 62 games. Ridiculous.

Soon the inevitable came, and Madrid put the game to bed with a fourth goal through the recently recovered Kaká (assisted by Ronaldo of course). Drama then ensued on the sidelines as Mourinho went and celebrated the goal directly in front of the Villarreal bench, much to the displeasure of Cani, who got up and threw a bottle at the self-proclaimed “special one”. But according to Mou, it wasn’t an act of provocation; he claims that he was just innocently celebrating the goal with his son, who was apparently sat conveniently behind the opposition bench.

Juan Carlos Garrido was an angry man after the game, ranting away for at least five minutes at the performance of the referee. He complained that there were two offsides during the third, decisive goal, and that the ref was afraid to make mistakes against Madrid, but not against his side. “We deserve the same respect,” he said. Despite the rants though, he did say that it was a very good game. “The first-half was very good; we played very good football and created many problems for Madrid.” He then concluded by congratulating Madrid on their performance.

All in all it was indeed a great game, the kind of game everyone had expected and hoped for. What was particularly impressive, though, was that Villarreal didn’t appear intimidated at the sight of the Bernabéu. They came for all three points, and stayed true to their own style of football – a difficult thing to do, true, but I wish teams would do it more often, instead of falling apart as soon as a goal goes against them. Villarreal are an example to follow.

Lower down the Lowdown

Real Madrid weren’t the only team to score four this weekend. Barcelona, Espanyol, Mallorca and Hércules were also in clinical goalscoring form – incidentally the 16 goals were scored by 16 different players.
Hércules hammered Atlético 4-1 at the Rico Pérez (without Royston Ricky Drenthe), with Nelson Valdez and David Trezeguet both getting on the score sheet again. As efficient as Hércules were, Atlético were equally dreadful all over the pitch. And for some reason Diego Forlán didn’t start – why, Quique, why?
The city of Valencia saw local rivals Levante and Valencia go head-to-head on Sunday night, where once again Juan Mata scored a late winner. But like last week, it was a controversial one, as Mata appeared to be in an offside position for the goal again – though it wasn’t quite as blatantly obvious as last week’s.
“Kanouté is doing wonderful things,” said Sevilla coach Gregorio Manzano after their thrilling 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Not only did the big Mali international score twice, he was a constant threat upfront and when he dropped deeper. Álvaro Negredo also played well, coming on as a sub and creating two goals for the Andalusians.

Results

Málaga 1-1 Athletic, Real Sociedad 2-3 Sevilla, Deportivo 0-4 Barcelona, Racing 1-1 Sporting, Osasuna 0-0 Getafe, Mallorca 4-1 Almería, Espanyol 4-0 Zaragoza, Real Madrid 4-2 Villarreal, Levante 0-1 Valencia.

Goal of the Week

Marco Ruben (Real Madrid 4-2 Villarreal)

(photo by Ryu Voelkel on Flickr)