That left Real Madrid hosting Villarreal who was third in the league to follow. Real Madrid had earlier visited Villarreal and come out with a 0-5 drubbing earlier on in the season. But Villarreal has since then recovered and started getting some goals through Rossi the Italian striker the former Man U man, and the Turkish international Nihat. When Real Madrid had 50 points from 20 games Villarreal had 38 points from the same number of games a huge 12 pts separating 1st and 3rd in the league, very unusual in the Spanish La Liga. Last year till the penultimate week Sevilla who was third placed was just one point away from 1st and second Real Madrid and Barcelona who finished with the same points.
Real Madrid coming off with a hard fought win last week in the Madrid Derby was still missing many players due to injury. Pepe, Metzelder and Heinze are still injured leaving Schuster with minimum choices in defense. Sergio Ramos and Cannavaro in the center, Torres and Salgado in the wings. With Diarra away for African Cup of Nations playing for Mali, Gago was lining up in midfield along with Guti. Schuster rested Sneijder who had a phenomenal game against Atletico and brought in Baptista. The most feared strike force in Europe of Raul, Van Nistelrooy and Robinho were to look for the goals.
Villarreal did not exactly make a fluent start and looked a bit shaky in creating some consequtive touches on the ball. Either they did not do a good homework or they did not expect Guti to start, because with Guti having three forwards in front of him was already trying some deadly through balls. Marcos Senna did not do a great job marking Guti as the Madrid second captain received a ball from Gago and reading Robinho's movement he made a stupendous pass with Villarreal players ball watching. The Brazilian finished with a first time shot to the right corner of Villarreal goal. 1-0 Real Madrid in the 9th minute.
The goal was a shot in the arm for Villarreal as they came out attacking full strength. Ramos was marking Rossi and was making some strong tackles. But it was some wing play from Cani that created the chance for Villarreal. Some poor positioning from Ramos who went in to attack the wing play found Cannavaro all alone with two strikers and it was Rossi who came in and finished off a fine shot to the top corner past the helpless Casillas. 1-1 Villarreal in the 15 the minute.
Gago was doing an excellent job marking Nihat and also making some valuable contribution in the playmaking department. He almost had more than 90% pass conversion along with Guti. Well the next best chance for Real Madrid actually came from a source that really surprised me....ya lot of points for guessing, it was Michel Salgado. I am not a big fan of Salgado and have written numerous times that as a wing back the only place he runs at is "his own goal". But this time Guti receiving a ball inside the right side of the Villarreal box instead of passing across the goal made a cute touch to Salgado who made a decent shot at goal which was saved by Diego Lopez, the Villarreal goal keeper who is a former Real Madrid man who was to make more spectacular saves. Half time it was 1-1.
Real Madrid came out focused on playing some good football in the second half and Villarreal trying to get the surprise winner got a corner. But it was the superb young blood of Ramos who ran the entire pitch and squared it was Raul who had already made a run in the right side of the penalty box, instead of passing it back, the Captain shot at goal only to be saved by Diego Lopez, but he got a second bit at the apple as the ball fell back to him, but this time he opted to pass but Ramos could not connect with a shot as there was some pressure from defender Cygan, and it fell to Guti whose powerful shot at goal was saved again by Diego Lopez, but the third time Villarreal were not lucky as it fell to Robinho, who ran square and created the space to finish off into the right bottom corner of the Villareal net. 2-1 Real Madrid. Robinho scoring his 8th goal in the La Liga.
I was thinking that once Real went ahead they had to score and increase the safety net and ensure the victory as Villarreal were a constant threat when it got to scoring. Van Nistelrooy was not looking exactly the sharpest but was digging deep to run wide and create some plays especially on the right side of midfield. Raul was making all the efforts to get in striking positions but was constantly getting himself ahead of play and in offside positions. There was a couple actually which were touch and go and on another day those runs would have been dangerous for Villarreal. But against the run of play Villarreal scored and it was Capdevilla who scored from a corner. Again a bit of questionable marking from Real Madrid. 2-2 Villareal in the 75th minute. Schuster made the change in bringing Sneijder and the Dutchman decided the match with almost his first significant touch on the ball. Its praise for Raul who battled with Cygan and the french defender could only head it out for a throw. With the Villarreal defenders still complaining for a foul, Robinho smartly did not wait for Torres to come restart the match with a throw in, instead took it himself and found Gago, the Argentine in turn scooped in a delightful ball to Sneijder who got ahead of the defense and with the in form Diego Lopez to beat Sneijder no mistake. After his terrific start in Spain, 4 goals in 3 games Sneijder has only notched one more goal following that and man did he look happy after scoring his 6th. 3-2 Real Madrid.
The defending Champions went through some nail biting final minutes, free kicks, corners in the favor fo Villarreal but it was Real who cam out winners, 3-2 the final score and they lead the pack by 9 points.
Here are the match highlights:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=44458362569187930
Last week after Real battled to a 2-0 away victory against Atletico Madrid i heard one of the football analysts on Fox Soccer Channel say, "7 points lead? i don’t know how this is happening as Real Madrid are not playing the best football"
I agree with him to a certain extend as Real may not be the fluent best, but there are lot of changes that Schuster has made to the style of play. Under Capello Real were focused on defending close to their penalty box, especially playing two defensive midfielders and Raul in a withdrawn role. Now under Schuster Real seems to be playing up the field and mark plays down in the midfield and back. He is playing one defensive midfielder and is playing Raul as a striker. With new players coming in this season, Schuster has succeeded in keeping the crust of the team together just fine tuning the positioning on the field to get better results.
I saw a few details on Realmadrid.com which i think is worth sharing here:
* After 21 games in the Spanish La Liga Real Madrid have 53 points, which is a record 9 more than second placed Barcelona and 15 more than third placed Villarreal.
* Real Madrid have won 8 consecutive games now and the record in place is 15 set by Real Madrid team in 1960/61.
* Real Madrid's 53 points are even the best in Europe. Having completed 23 games in the EPL, Arsenal and Man U have clocked 54 points; The German Bundesliga will restart only on Feb 1st, having completed 17 games both Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich have 36 points. In the Itaian Serie A having completed 20 games Inter Milan lead with 50 Points. In the French Ligue 1 Lyon lead the pack with 46 points from 23 games. In the Dutch League PSV lead with 46 points from 23 games.
* Real Madrid goal keeper Iker Casillas went 594 minutes without conceding a goal with some extra ordinary performances.
* Real Madrid have the best scoring record in La Liga having scored 46 goals.
* Real Madrid are unbeaten in their home ground in the Spanish la Liga for 16 games now.
* Real Madrid's three strikers in Raul, Van Nistelrooy and Robinho have contributed with 27 goals.
* More importantly in most cases winning matches against the likes of Barcelona, Valencia, Villareal and Atletico Madrid especially in away games usually make Champions. Real have beaten Atletico Madrid 2-1 at home and 2-0 away, Have beaten Villarreal 5-0 away and 3-2 at home, have beaten Valencia 5-0 away at the Mestalla and Barcelona 1-0 at the Nou Camp.
Football is not an individual sports where individual stats make or break teams, but these are stats any team can be proud of, as Real Madrid coach Schuster said "we are our own opponents now".
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