Its in the midfield that Schuster made the changes. As they showed against Barca a couple of weeks back they are no push over. Valladolid plays a high line in defense whether they are home or away. For the same reason he has Gago play in the holding role instead of Diarra in order to utilize the Argentines better link play and that he can put some good balls to the strikers over the high defense line. With Sneijder out injured it was going to be Baptista and Guti in midfield, Robinho on the left wing as usual, the crucial start was Robben in an attacking winger role on the right and Raul as the striker. Robben's natural position is on the left which is his strong foot also but then he was looking lively on the right.
It was the flying Dutchman who made the first action with a run on the right and faking a shot he made a superb pass to Baptista who was following up through to the penalty box, though his first touch was not the greatest the keeper stayed on his line that let him compose himself and make a shot to the left corner. 1-0 Real Madrid in the 7th minute.
For the next 23 minutes it was almost all Real Valladolid. The same performance they had against Barca in the past 20 minutes which helped them score the equalizer was almost happening here in the Bernabeu. To make matters more nervous for Schuster Robinho fell to the ground clutching his stomach and had to be replaced by Drenthe seemingly in lot of pain.
But i was telling my friend who was here that they are playing too high a line in defense and also playing too much attacking football for an away team. Rather they should have been focusing on choking the packed Real midfield. In the next 14 minutes it was raining goals and probably Valladolid did not know what hit them. On minute 31 it was a superb through ball from Guti that put Raul through one-one with the keeper, he rounded and made a cool finish with his right foot from a narrow angle. 2-0 Real Madrid.
With Drenthe in, Robben had traded places with him on the left wing. Just a minute from the Raul goal it was the high line the Valladolid defense was maintaining that let them again. Guti again found Robben on the left with a super cross field through ball that just set him off. It’s a treat to watch him full speed, the close control he has on the ball even at such speeds is just amazing. The Valladolid did come out and make himself big trying to narrow the angle for Robben who has a natural left foot. He squared his body faking a shot across the goal but went for the near corner a small space the keeper had left. Superb finish for a 3-0 score line. This was Robben's first goal for Real Madrid in the La Liga since joining the Spanish giants in the summer of 2007.
Guti with another superb through ball this time to "the beast" Baptista whose screaming run into the Valladolid box ended when keeper Asenjo brought him down. The referee immediately pointed to the spot and it was Raul with the responsibility. He made no mistake with a shot to the left corner. The keeper guessed it right but it was too well placed. 4-0 Real Madrid in the 38th minute.
The provider supreme Guti turned goal scorer when he was put through by Drenthe with a nice ball on the right side of the midfield. Again with the high backline it was Guti one-one with the keeper and he smashed a ball into the roof of the net. 5-0 Real Madrid at half time.
Llorente who scored the equalizer in the match against Barca was always on the prowl. There were occasions he had on goal. The Real defense looked much better organized especially Marcelo looked good defending. There was minimal attack by Valladolid on the left side and that made Salgado's life easy. When Real struck 5 times with a poor offside trap and high defense line from Valladolid, Real Madrid caught Valladolid strikers offside 5 teams in the first half.
Madrid came out in the second half and i did not honestly expect a lot of action except that they would hold on to the ball and maybe look at hitting their visitors on the break. The damage had been done. On 58 minutes Schuster was forced to make a change to the backline with Sergio Ramos niggled he did not exactly have a center back on the bench. Instead he put Diarra to partner Cannavaro. Except for a mistake on a back pass game with Casillas which almost led to a Valladolid goal he looked good.
Casillas made a poor gather which fell kindly to Valladolid, Cannavaro made the first tackle, it fell again to Llorente whose shot at open goal was saved on the line by Salgado.
Real Madrid were in no mood to settle for a 5 star performance they wanted more. It was Robben again on the left side of midfield, inside the penalty box, just squared a good pass to Guti who was just joining in on the top of the penalty box. It was a difficult shot to take, he still did take it and it somehow went in off a little help from the cross bar. 6-0 Real Madrid in the 62 minute.
Schuster replaced Gago with the striker Soldado on 72 minutes. It was a smart move by Schuster i think to give the youngster some playing time. With Van Nistelrooy injured and Robinho also a casualty he might actually need a Striker to partner Raul in the next match. With the introduction of Soldado, Raul started pushing deep into midfield and putting some long balls into the striker. It was one such pass that was cleared weakly by the Valladolid defense with Guti coming in close to the penalty box, made a clever headed through ball to Drenthe, who had little time and space to finish but still was able to with a cool sliding finish. 7-0 Real Madrid.
It was around the same time last year that Real Madrid lost a home match. It was to a solo goal from Henry in the Champions league fixture against Arsenal. What a way to celebrate a whole year of going unbeaten at their home ground. Guti scored 2 goals in the match, more importantly he made 4 assists in the 7 goals. He heads the assists chart in the Spanish La Liga. It was one of the days that Guti was all over the pitch and was not making one pass wrong. With Baptista on the ground it allowed Guti more space and how much more dangerous can he be with wingers like Robben on the pitch, with Valladolid playing such a backline. It was as though Valladolid offered Guti a canvas and provided him the paint, and Guti made the master strokes.
At the end of it all i felt as though i had almost a repeat of Ghana V Brazil in the 2006 world cup when the Africans also made the same mistake of playing a high defense line against the quickness of Ronaldo and Adriano. Brazil only scored 3, but Real Madrid were in no mood to be kind.
Real Madrid lead the La Liga with 56 points, Barca in second position with 48 points, and Villareal with 42 points. It is Real Betis next week for Real Madrid before the all important Champions League fixture against AS Roma.
Here are the match highlights:
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