20.09.2014 » Deportivo 2-8 Real Madrid. Goal fest at the Riazor!
Questions have been raised about Real Madrid's approach to the new season after some bumpy opening performances. Ronaldo himself even questioned Perez's summer dealings after the sales of Angel Di Maria and Xabi Alonso. But despite those issues, Real Madrid fans should be able to rest easy, at least for the upcoming week. In two matches played this week, five different Real Madrid players have managed to score a total of thirteen goals. The Merengues started their Champions League campaign with a 5-1 win over Swiss football club Basel, which saw goals from all three of the dreaded BBC frontline, Bale, Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as a strike from the young new midfielder James Rodriguez. This weekend all the domestic leagues across European returned to action and not only Real Madrid ended up being tested at the Riazor, as we'll also have the chance to follow what promies to be an intense Manchester City vs Chelsea live at the Etihad Stadium.
Cristiano Ronaldo game photos in Deportivo vs Real Madrid
Deportivo 2-8 Real Madrid - Goals and highlights:
All Cristiano Ronaldo actions vs Deportivo:
Not content with scoring only five goals in a single match, Real Madrid traveled away to the Estadio Riazor, home of Deportivo La Coruña, hoping to silence some of the boos and whistles that the team has been receiving from Madridistas at the Bernabéu. Real Madrid dominated the match with ease, and managed to score no less than eight times. The starting XI has been more or less the same all season. Iker Casillas still has the full faith of Carlos Ancelotti as goalkeeper. Summer signings Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez continue to join up with seasoned veteran and midfield lynchpin Luka Modric, while Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo all remain at the top of attack.
Only the defensive line has seen real tinkering from Ancelotti, and it appears Ramos is the only defensive player guaranteed to start. The main victim of Real's poor start to the season appears to be Pepe, who was subbed off for French defender Varane during the CL match against Basel and who didn’t feature against Deportivo. Raphael Varane started the league match today and made a convincing case for himself to be a regular starter with a good performance.
Arbeloa played right-back, replacing Nacho who put in a solid performance during the midweek Champions League match. Marcelo kept his place on the left side of the pitch, and it’s clear that Ancelotti isn't going to let pressure from the fans interfere with his attempts to make the starting XI get comfortable with one another after the summer's changes.
The match against Deportivo turned into a goal-scoring spectacle, and brought the team a much-needed 3 points, finally ending in a 2-8 win for Real Madrid. The Merengues had to work hard for their first goal, which didn’t come until the 28th minute when a luxurious cross from Arbeloa met an even more luxurious header from none other than Cristiano Ronaldo. Over the course of the match, Ronaldo managed to bag his first hat trick of the season, moving him to the top spot of La Liga goal scorers with 5 goals in 3 matches.
Real Madrid now has 6 points from their first 3 La Liga matches. Once Ronaldo broke the deadlock at the 28th minute, it was goals galore. Colombian midfielder and winner of the Golden Boot at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, James Rodriguez, made good under pressure and scored a fantastic strike across goal from distance just seven minutes after Ronaldo's opener.
Five minutes later, Real Madrid ran a counterattack when Deportivo's Argentinean goalkeeper German Lux, managed to strip Benzema of the ball with a tackle midway between the goal and the halfway line, but Ronaldo quickly scooped up the loose ball and with his first touch, he was able to artfully direct it into the back of the net after it rolled away from the keeper and Benzema. Deportivo came out fighting at the start of the second half, and just five minutes in were awarded a dubious penalty after the ball made contact with Sergio Ramos's arm inside the box.
After the match went 1-3, the home fans began to hope that a comeback the likes of Real Sociedad's 4-2 win over the Galacticos was possible. Ancelotti saw the Galician side start to press harder though, and made a tactical substitution in the 58th minute, bringing on the somewhat unfamiliar face of former Sociedad defensive midfielder Asier Illaramendi for Karim Benzema. Switching his formation to a 4-4-2, this appeared to help Real Madrid's momentary lapse in control of the match, as seven minutes later they hit the net again, this time from a left-footed shot by Gareth Bale, who received the ball in the box after a superb through ball from Marcelo.
With the game seemingly in the bag, Ancelotti rested Croatian talisman Modric by introducing Isco. The Spaniard's fresh legs had an almost immediate impact, providing Bale with a through ball into the box on the left side of the pitch that resulted in an almost identical goal to his first. It was basically an instant replay. With forwards Ronaldo and Bale both on a hat trick pursuit, Ancelotti used his last substitution to bring in Real Madrid's final summer signing, former Manchester United striker and Mexico international Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez. Bale's hat trick was not meant to be, but Ronaldo sealed his hat trick minutes later with a left-footed shot low across goal, after a nice pass from number 10 James Rodriguez.
Deportivo managed to pull one back after a cross into Madrid's box from former Barcelona player Isaac Cuenca resulted in a well placed goal headed past Casillas. But with the score at 2-6 and only seven minutes remaining, Real Madrid weren’t under any real pressure. Just three minutes from time Javier Hernandez scored the first La Liga goal of his career, which proved to be what many will consider the goal of the match, which is pretty impressive when you consider there were 10 goals in total. Isco assisted Chicharito's superb curving strike from outside the backthat nestled high in the corner of Deportivo's net, out of reach of even some of the best goalkeepers. To cap off a comprehensive domination by Real Madrid, and to prove that his midweek proclamation that Manchester United didn't believe in him might be the truth, Hernandez scored a second goal from a Marcelo pass.
Neither of Chicharito's goals were the clinical, uninspired tap-ins Manchester United fans had gotten used to. They were both excellently placed, powerful, confident strikes from outside the box that few would've thought the little guy was capable of. Real Madrid fans can take the performances from this week as hope that the summer's tinkering was not to the detriment of the club and that the current squad will be able to pull together and dazzle the fans as well as the opponents. The emphatic win over Deportivo, with particular performance highlights from players who have been doubted recently, such as James, Isco and Chicha, should give the team a boost of much needed confidence for when they host Elche at the Bernabéu next Tuesday.
Author: Malachi Constant
Real Madrid line-up vs Deportivo La Coruña:
Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas
Defenders: Marcelo, Varane, Sergio Ramos, Arbeloa
Midfielders: Kroos, Modric, James Rodríguez
Attackers: Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema.
| Match stats provided by www.ronaldo7.net
|
||
|---|---|---|
Deportivo
|
vs
|
Real Madrid
|
2 |
Goals |
8 |
14 |
Shots |
19 |
5 |
Shots on goal |
13 |
2 |
Corner kicks |
3 |
8 |
Fouls commited |
9 |
1 |
Yellow cards |
1 |
0 |
Red cards |
0 |
40% |
Ball possession |
60% |
Cristiano Ronaldo next game for Real Madrid will be against Elche, for the 5th fixture of La Liga, on September 23. In the meantime, you can watch Real Madrid vs Elche, Levante vs Barcelona, Manchester City vs Chelsea, Leicester vs Manchester United, and Wolfsburg vs Bayer Leverkusen, all matches provided from our live streaming pages.
Real Madrid next game:
Real Madrid vs Elche kick-off time (23-09-2014):
Jakarta (Indonesia) | GMT+7: 01:00
Spain (Madrid) | GMT+2: 20:00
Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | GMT+1: 19:00
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | GMT-3: 15:00
New York (United States) | GMT-4: 14:00
Los Angeles (United States) | GMT-7 11:00
Beijing (China) | GMT+8: 02:00
Sources: ronaldo7.net / mirror.co.uk / realmadrid.com
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