Real Madrid 4-0 Copenhagen: Ronaldo & Di Maria doubles seal simple win

The Portuguese scored the opening two goals for the Blancos before his Argentine team-mate added a third and fourth to the scoreline

Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria each scored twice to give Real Madrid a 4-0 win at home to Copenhagen in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Copenhagen have endured a disastrous start to their domestic season and never looked like picking up only their second ever away win in the Champions League as Ronaldo opened the scoring after 21 minutes at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.

The Portugal star – who scored a hat-trick at Galatasaray on matchday one – added another in the second half after a magnificent piece of skill from Di Maria.

And the Argentine winger rounded off the win with a double of his own in the final 20 minutes to put the Blancos in firm control of Group B with six points from two games.

The Spanish giants suffered a Liga derby defeat to Atletico Madrid for the first time since 1999 last Saturday and coach Carlo Ancelotti responded by making five changes.

Fabio Coentrao, Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa, Isco and Diego Lopez dropped to the bench as Marcelo, Dani Carvajal, Raphael Varane, Luka Modric and Iker Casillas started, with the latter making his 129th Champions League appearance.

Copenhagen boss Stale Solbakken made three alterations from their own weekend defeat to Brondby, with Ragnar Sigurdsson, Rurik Gislason and Youssef Toutouh replacing Georg Margreitter, Cristian Bolanos and Fanendo Adi.

The visitors did a good job of keeping Madrid at bay in the opening stages, but the hosts eventually made the breakthrough in the 21st minute.

Marcelo’s deep cross evaded goalkeeper Johan Wiland, giving Ronaldo an easy headed finish at the back post for his first of the game.

Di Maria then wasted two great chances to double the lead and Copenhagen almost capitalised on the hosts’ profligacy.

Four minutes before the break Casillas failed to catch a corner, allowing Nicolai Jorgensen to head goalwards, but the ball hit the crossbar before dropping to Modric who cleared.

Ronaldo went close to getting his second in the 64th minute when his curling free-kick from the edge of the area landed on top of the net, but he was not to be denied a minute later.

Di Maria got to the byline to produce a cross with an outrageous piece of skill, and Ronaldo burst in front of his marker to head home again.

And with 19 minutes to play, Di Maria made amends for his first-half misses with a wonderful finish as he cut in from the right and hammered a shot past the helpless Wiland.

Real saw out the final stages with consumate ease and then scored a fourth for good measure.

Di Maria pounced on a loose ball, held off his marker before smashing a low effort into the bottom corner from just inside the area, rounding off an eye-catching display from Ancelotti’s men.

by Goal

• What an amazing performance from Real Madrid! The team continues his perfect start in UEFA Champions League. The Los Blancos is now at the top of the standings with 6 points. After the disappointing performance against Atletico in La Liga, Real Madrid won Copenhagen 4-0. In my opinion the man of the match is between was Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo. They both scored two goals and helped each other to score the goals. The assist in the second goal from Di Maria was done skillfully and with a perfect cross to Ronaldo to score a header

• Carlo Ancelotti began the starting lineup for the team differently from the last game in the league. Gareth Bale was injured in the last game and he was replaced in this match by Di Maria. The coach as he promised put Iker casillas as a goalkeeper instead of Diego Lopez. He successfully protected Real Madrid from many goals especially in the last two minutes of the game with three amazing saves. Overall, the team gave an amazing performance and we hope that they keep up the good work in the upcoming matches.

• Real Madrid vs Copenhagen 4-0 2013 Goals & Highlights (2-10-2013) HD

La Liga: Real Madrid looking for sixth win of the season away against Elche

The Whites, who have scored 10 goals in the last two matches, are unbeaten so far this season and play Elche 24 seasons after their last league meeting.

Tonight against Elche, Real Madrid will be looking for their sixth league win of the season (22:00, C+ Liga & Gol T). The Whites are having a brilliant start to the season in which they are undefeated, with five wins and a draw, and are improving the level of their play match-by-match. Ancelotti has both Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco available for the fourth away trip of the season, both of whom are in stunning form with 12 goals between them in official matches. They come up against Elche, last season’s second division champions with the best record in the division and that have not lost at home in this campaign, but after five matches, they have yet to get a win under their belts.

The Whites are having a near-perfect start to the season having racked up five wins and a draw in the six league matches they have played , and in which they have scored 18 goals, 10 of them in the last two matches, which is an average of three goals per match. The team is improving the level of their play match-by-match and the new faces in the squad are gradually becoming embedded with the rest of their teammates showing all of their quality and putting in great performances.

STANDINGS BEFORE MATCH DAY 6
HOME				AWAY
Pos.	Pts	P	W	D	L	P	W	D	L
R. Madrid	3º	13	3	3	0	0	2	1	1	0
Elche	17º	3	2	0	2	0	3	0	1	2

Carlo Ancelotti has picked 20 players to travel to Alicante. The Italian coach has a variety of resources to call upon and several of his players are in great form. Isco, who has scored four goals in five matches, is the highest scoring midfielder in the league, Ronaldo, who is the club’s fifth leading scorer of all time, has signed five goals in the last two matches and Benzema has added a further four goals this campaign. On the assists front, Di Maria is in blistering form, and has already made three assists for his teammates.

The Whites will play against Elche in the league for the first time since the 1988/1989 season, when they won both home and away. Of the 38 times that the teams have played in La Liga, Real Madrid have won 23, drawn nine and lost six, with a record of 96 goals for and 36 against . These figures make Real Madrid the team that have won the most matches and have scored the most goals against the team from Alicante in the league.

Elche were last season’s Second Division champions
Elche are back in the top flight of domestic football after a 24 season absence and host the Whites in the sixth match day of the season sitting in seventeenth place in the table after three draws and two losses. They won a deserved promotion last season after being leaders of the second division from the first to the last day. They also achieved the best record in the division, being the team with the most wins, fewest losses and that scored the most goals.

LA LIGA MEETINGS BETWEEN THE TWO TEAMS
TEAM	P	W	D	L	GF	GA
Real Madrid	38	23	9	6	96	36
Elche	38	6	9	23	36	96

The team coached by Fran Escriba, making his debut in the first division, has Botia, Manu del Moral, Javi Marquez, Stevanovic, Domingo Cisma, Lomban, Ruben Perez, Sapunaru and Tono as the main additions to the squad this season. The team led by the Valencian coach are unbeaten this season at home after managing two draws. Defender Edu Albacar, with two goals, is their top scorer.

by Real Madrid Official

• Personally, I believe this is going to be an easy game for Real Madrid. Even though the whites are playing away and several players are missing this game including Gareth Bale because of a minor injury, there is a huge difference in the players quality and skills. The players experience and the games history between Real Madrid and Elche will play an important role in this match and will give confidence to the players. and the Madridista are optimistic in winning this match with a minimal effort. Good luck to the whites.

• predicted lineups for the game

 

Real Madrid vs. Getafe: Final score 4-1, Real comfortable despite rocky start

Real Madrid came from behind to earn what turned out to be a fairly comfortable win against Getafe. Pepe, Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco all found the net en route to a 4-1 win, and after the hosts cancelled out Getafe early opener they never looked like getting anything but all three points.

It was an inauspicious start, however. The hosts lost record signing Gareth Bale during warmups, and Getafe added insult to injury by going ahead after just five minutes. Cristiano Ronaldo was dispossessed (unfairly, he thought), and while he was protesting Getafe pushed towards goal. Lafita then sent a deflected shot past Diego Lopez from outside the box.

The man who did the deflecting, Pepe, soon made up for it with the equalising goal. Getafe played a dangerous attempted offside trap on a free kick, and it didn’t work. That allowed Ronaldo to sneak in at the back post, and although his initial shot was well saved by Miguel Moya, Pepe scrambled in the rebound from close range.

Getafe didn’t learn their lesson, and came within inches of going behind from a similar situation — this time Ronaldo couldn’t get his effort on target. But the second goal was coming, and the Portuguese was the man to score it. His free kick was blocked in the box by Michel; the referee pointed to the spot and Ronaldo blasted past Moya to make it 2-1.

Karim Benzema could and should have made it 3-1 as the half came to a close. Daniel Carvajal did wonderfully on the right, beating his man and playing in a cross which bent just out of Alexis‘ reach, but Benzema didn’t manage to get clean contact and saw his bobbling ‘shot’ clawed off the line by Moya. Moya denied Benzema once more just after halftime, pushing away a crisp strike after the striker had been found by Ronaldo with a cutback.

Madrid needed a third, and if their centre forward wasn’t going to provide it, someone else would. And so Isco stepped up. Ronaldo played him into the box with a quick free kick, and Isco drifted inside before bending a delightful curling shot into the back of the net.

Benzema then embarrassed himself further, somehow contriving to miss an open goal from point-blank range after a lovely cross from Alvaro Arbeloa and then spurning another easy chance by hitting Carvajal’s delivery wide of the post.

But despite Benzema’s cavalcade of failure in front of goal, things got even worse for Getafe. Michel was shown a straight red for scything down substitute Jese Rodriguez in the 86th minute, and after going down to ten men the visitors had absolutely no hope of clawing back the deficit.

There was time enough to add some gloss to the victory, with Ronaldo backheeling in a cross with the final kick of the game to make it 4-1. All in all, and despite the early setbacks, it was an easy enough win.

Real Madrid starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Diego Lopez, Alvaro Arbeloa, Nacho Fernandez, Pepe, Daniel Carvajal; Asier Illarramendi (Luka Modric 77′), Sami Khedira; Cristiano Ronaldo, Isco (Jese Rodriguez 84′), Angel di Maria; Karim Benzema (Alvaro Moratta 80′).

Goals: Pepe 19′, Ronaldo 33′, Isco 59′.

Getafe starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Miguel Moya; Sergio Escudero (Roberto Lago 45′), Alexis, Lisandro Lopez, Alvaro Arroyo (Rafa Lopez 70′); Pedro Mosquera, Michel; Diego Castro, Lafita (Sarabia 45′), Pedro Leon; Miku.

Goals: Lafita 5′.

By SbNation

• It was unfortunate to not see Gareth Bale for the first time playing in the santiago bernabeu. All Madridista were excited when they saw Gareth Bale warming up few minutes before the game starts and prepare to play from the beginning, but unfortunately he got injured before the game and was substituted for Isco. Even though Isco was not prepared to play from the begining, he did a great job scoring the second goal and assisting the team to win. However, in my opinion, Angel di Maria was the best player in the game. Even though he didn’t score goals, but his tremendous performance made him the man of the match. He helped defenders to stop the enemy’s attacks, and helped Real Madrid’s attackers to score goals. Although he was a midfielder, he was everywhere in the field and was running after the ball all the time and that made the coach and Madrid fans proud of him.

• Real Madrid vs Getafe 4-1 All Goals & Highlights 22/9/2013

Champions League: Great Victory – Galatasaray 1-6 Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo hits a hat-trick as Real Madrid ran in the second half against Galatasaray to send a threatening message to the other teams about their ambitions in the Champions League with a 6-1 victory in Istanbul In the opening match of the tournament for the Los Blancos.

Galatasaray started the game with enthusiasm and threatened Real Madrid several times, but they crumbled after Isco scored the first goal after 33′ minutes. After the first goal, Real Madrid dominated the rest of the game and scored five goals in the second half two of them were by Benzema (54′, 81′) and three by Cristiano Ronaldo (63′, 66′, 90′). Six minutes before the end of the match Galatasaray scored their first and only goal in the game (84′). Gareth Bale started the match on the bench, but came on midway through the second half and created one of Ronaldo’s goals and made a great performance.

Iker Casillas was the goal keeper and started ahead of Diego Lopez after being told by coach Carlo Ancelotti that he would be the goalkeeper in Champions Leage while Diego Lopez plays in La Liga. However, his night soon came to a premature end when he took an elbow to the ribs from his colleague Sergio Ramos and was substituted in the 13th minute for Diego Lopez who did a great job in protecting Real Madrid from many attacks. Most of Madrid fans were disappointed when they saw the team’s captain leaving the match injured. Casillas spent a lot of time on the bench for technical reasons since his injury last season against Valencia. At that time, Real Madrid bought Diego Lopez to take over Casillas place temporarily until the Captain comes back from his injury. However that did not happen because of Diego Lopez’s Amazing performance and that is why Casillas lost his place and spent most of the games in the bench. This game was the chance to see the Captain of Real Madrid and Spain playing in competitive games again. After all, Madridista were happy of the victory and the great performance of the players.

Here is the game facts by eurosport.com

• Real Madrid have won more games (106) than any other club in the history of the Champions League.
• This was Real Madrid’s first ever win in Turkey in European competition, having failed to triumph in their previous three attempts.
• Cristiano Ronaldo now has 206 goals in 204 matches for Real Madrid

PLAYER RATINGS –

GALATASARAY: Muslera 6, Eboue 5, Chedjou 6, Dany 5, Riera 6, Selçuk 6, Melo 6, Sneijder 5, Engin 5, Burak 5, Drogba 6. Subs: Bruma 7, Amrabat 6, Bulut 7.

REAL MADRID: Casillas 6, Ramos 6, Pepe 6, Carvajal 6, Arbeloa 6, Khedira 6, Modric 6, Di Maria 8, Isco 8, Ronaldo 9, Benzema 8. Subs: Lopez 6, Bale 6, Illaramendi 6.

MAN OF THE MATCH – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid): The irrepressible Portuguese ace was in devastating form in the second period, netting yet another treble and a stunning third and final goal of the night.

• Galatasaray Vs Real Madrid 1-6 2013 All Goals and Full Highlights 17/09/2013

UEFA Champions League Draw

Recently, the UEFA Champions League Draw was held. 32 teams were divided into 8 groups. Each group has 4 teams and only two will advance to the first knockout stage. The team in third place in each group will be qualified to enter UEFA Europa League round of 32. the teams will play home and away against each other.

UEFA Champions League Draw:

• Manchester United, the defending Premier League champions should be happy with their draw. They were able to avoid the strongest teams and they will be able to easily take the lead in the group and advance to the next round. The other clubs will have to fight for the second knockout berth.

• Real Madrid and Juventus were drawn into the same group, This made Group B one of the hardest groups this year, and it didn’t get any easier when Turkish giants Galatasaray were added to the group. Madridista are very excited and ambitious of winning the 10th title after signing in really good players, such as Gareth Bale and Isco. On the other hand, Copenhagen considered the weakest team in the group and it will struggle to make an impact.

• Group C is an interesting group, as all four clubs could make a strong case to proceed to the next step. Benfica benefited for being with a mild competitive teams that have no big history of achievements in UEFA Champions League. Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain are also likely very pleased with their draw result.

• Bayern Munich and Manchester City have to be happy about the draw. Although being in the same group wasn’t the best case scenario for both teams, but they didn’t have another top club in the group in order to turn it into a true Group of Death. The other two teams are not so lucky for being with these strong teams.

• Chelsea won the Champions League title two seasons ago. Being in this group would almost guarantee them a place of the knockout stage . Even though Schalke and Basel are both solid clubs, the Blues are undoubtedly the best team in Group E.

• This is a tricky group and it is hard to predict which team is going to the next round. Arsenal has signed in one of the best midfielders in the world Mesut Ozil and that gave them confidence. Also, Napoli singed in several good players in different positions this year. On the other hand, Marseille has a lot of experience and proved that they are not an easy Competitor. Borussia Dortmund achieved the final of UEFA champions League, but they lost the title for Bayern Munich last season.

• Group G should be wide open. Porto, Atletico Madrid and Zenit should all be confident about their chances to move on, but one of them will be left behind. Austria Wien face an uphill battle, but could still have an impact and surprises the other competitors.

• While Barcelona and AC Milan will enter the final group expecting to advance, they can’t afford to overlook Ajax and Celtic. Ajax are the defending Dutch champions, and Celtic reached the UCL knockout stages last season. This is a solid overall group and each team has to work hard in order to go to the next round.