Having seemingly overcome their early season jitters, Real Madrid took on Athletic Bilbao in a must-win match at the Bernabeu. Madrid’s slow start to the season had left them eight points behind arch-rivals Barcelona therefore slip-ups were now not an option.
With a trip to Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City just around the corner, Madrid would hope to make light work of Marcelo Bielsa’s side. With star midfielders Ander Herrera and Oscar De Marcos missing through suspension and Fernando Llorente not hitting top goal-scoring form for Bilbao, Jose Mourinho’s men must have been licking their lips. Despite picking up a nasty eye-injury against Levante last Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo beat the odds and was declared fit to face Bilbao – the Portuguese powerhouse on 18 goals for the season already. Luck then, it appeared, was on the side of Mourinho’s Madrid.
Despite missing key players, Bilbao looked ready for a fight in the opening exchanges with Iker Muniain leading the charge for the visitors down the flanks. Bilbao’s dynamism down the flanks caused Madrid problems at times in the match. It fell to Luka Modric to shift the balance of the game in Madrid’s favour. The Croat had had a stuttering start to his Madrid career but a wonderfully weighted ball which led to the opening goal will have gone some way to winning the Madrid fans over. At first glance Modric’s pass seemed to be tucked away by Karim Benzema but replays show it was a Bilbao own goal. Nevertheless Madrid were 1-0 up and with luck very much on their side.
Bilbao began to contain the Madrid threat but were mounting no sort of charge on the Madrid goal which caused a dull spell in proceedings. A quick burst of Madrid dominance changed that though as the home side tripled their advantage. Mesut Ozil relieved the Madrid fans, putting the ball on a plate for Sergio Ramous to head the ball home powerfully from a free-kick. It was a great effort from the Spanish defender but it was almost immediately upstaged by the in-form Karim Benzema. The French striker’s link-up play has improved greatly these last few months and this goal was another example of that. Fed by Jose Callejon with his back to goal, Benzema came back on himself before sending his effort spiralling into the far corner of the goal, snatching a 3-0 lead in the process. Madrid had certainly taken the initiative but Bilbao just weren’t at the races – even when they reduced the deficit to 3-1, Bilbao just didn’t look like a threat.
Goals from Ozil and Khedira late in the second half made it 5-1 to the home side but the match, as a contest, was over long before then. Despite the fact that Bilbao caused little threat to the Madrid rear-guard, this is a result that should worry Manchester City fans. Not because it was 5-1 but because of what was missing from the highlights. I can’t remember the last time Cristiano Ronaldo had such a quite game! If Madrid are beating teams like Bilbao by four goals without their talisman firing on all cylinders then Manchester City fans should be quite concerned. If Madrid are this clinical on Wednesday and Ronaldo is anywhere near his usual level then there’s trouble on the horizon for Roberto Mancini’s men.