First of all, feliz año nuevo a todos! I hope your New Year's celebrations
were nothing short of amazing and that your new year is full of love, health,
and happiness. Second of all, La Liga is back! Why else would I be here? 2011 ended for los Blancos with a 5-1 win against Ponferradina in the Copa del
Rey. Their new year began with
that competition as well, against Málaga at the Bernabéu with a 3-2 win. Tonight, Real Madrid faced Granada,
again, at the Bernabéu, at 22h.
Fun fact? Real Madrid has
not lost the first game of the year in La Liga for 68 years. Impressive, no? It was with hope that this Madridista
watched the match – hope that would continue with the "tradition" of
winning.
Madrid put a lot of pressure
on Granada in the first few minutes, pressing forward and coming close to
netting a goal on numerous occasions, with attempts from Sami Khedira, Karim
Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, and Raphael Varane. A goal was imminent. I have to hand it to Granada, though,
for their brilliant defending. El Graná had a chance of scoring at the
16' minute, Dani Benítez with a right-footed shot, but was saved in the bottom
left corner by Iker Casillas.
Benzema opened up scoring for los
Blancos at the 19' mark with a left-footed shot to the bottom right corner,
Mesut Özil at the assist. It
really was a beautiful play, from Cristiano to Özil to Benzema – absolutely
beautiful. However, the Madridista
high from scoring was cut short when Granada equalized at the 21', Mikel Rico
with a header, Ikechukwu Uche at the assist with a cross. Casillas was visibly displeased – kind
of hard to miss dressed in all that yellow – in his box.
Casillas had his reflexes
put to the test at the 28', again by Granada's Rico, but there was a reason he
was named Best Goalkeeper in the World for the 4th consecutive
year. Madrid upped the score in
the 34' minute with a header from Ramos, Mesut Özil at the assist with a cross. Benzema tried to make it 3-1 at the
40', but the strike was saved by Roberto Fernandez. Another fun fact?
Benzema scored his 50th goal in 106 competitive matches for
RM.
No idea what José Mourinho
said to his men during the descanso,
but it must have lit a fire. Madrid
upped the score at the 47' mark with a right-footed shot to the center of the
goal from Gonzalo Higuaín, Marcelo with the assist. And not too long after, Benzema scores his second of the
evening at the 49' with a right-footed shot to the bottom left corner, Mesut Özil
at the assist following a fast break.
Mourinho made his first substitution of the evening, retiring Benzema
for the evening due to injury for José Callejón. Benzema seemed to be in pain as he limped off the
field. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.
Higuaín was shown the yellow
for a hard tackle on Granada's Benítez, when he was merely fighting to get the
ball he had lost then back. Varane
did not receive a booking in spite of the opposing team's efforts – and by
efforts I mean rolling on the ground – for what was clearly a brilliant tackle
and not a foul. On a more positive note, Cristiano finally saw the back of the net after an
entire evening of missed and blocked attempts. The Portuguese international scored Madrid's 5th
with a right-footed shot to the bottom right corner following a fast break at
the 89'.
Los Blancos
end the evening with a 5-1 win. ¡Muchas gracias, Benzema, Ramos, Higuaín y
Cristiano! The men play their
2nd leg against Málaga next in the Copa del Rey on Tuesday, January
10th at La Rosaleda.
Until then... ¡Hala Madrid!
written by Gail Hidalgo
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