Real Madrid narrowly beat Getafe at the Alfonso Perez Stadium with a solitary goal from Sergio Ramos this evening for La Liga. Los Blancos maintained their seven point lead over rivals Barcelona who struggled to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 at Camp Nou.

Getafe got off to a [...]]]>

Sergio Ramos scores in Getafe 0-1 Real Madrid game

Real Madrid narrowly beat Getafe at the Alfonso Perez Stadium with a solitary goal from Sergio Ramos this evening for La Liga. Los Blancos maintained their seven point lead over rivals Barcelona who struggled to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 at Camp Nou.

Getafe got off to a good start and almost scored on the 3rd minute. Valera crossed the ball into the area to Casquero who cushioned the ball to Abdelaziz, whose shot just passed over the crossbar.

On the 15th minute Real Madrid protested with the ref claiming a penalty after a dispute between Cristiano Ronaldo and Cata Diaz. In the second half (77 min.), Getafe also protested and claimed a penalty after Pepe intercepted a ball with his arm inside the box.

Sergio Ramos who has had many great, solid games, showed once more why he is such an important element in the Real Madrid defense and occasionally in the offense as well, like what happened tonight when on the 18th minute and as a result of a perfect corner kick from Özil, Sergio Ramos sent in a powerful header to score the only goal of the night and his 4th of the season.

Real Madrid continued to dominate the game but didn’t really have any dangerous opportunities to score except for one occasion when Cristiano Ronaldo shot one of his powerful free kicks, which was saved by the keeper with some difficulty.

Getafe also had a chance before half time, when Casquero passed to Juan Rodriguez whose shot was flicked just wide by Miku.

The second half started slow, but José Mourinho’s men almost scored their second on the 62nd minute when Ozil made a fantastic through pass to Benzema, but his shot was brilliantly blocked by goalkeeper Moya.

Not too much happened till the end of the game despite Real Madrid having the upper hand most of the time. Their best chance came on the 78th minute when Xabi Alonso’s pass found Higuain free to smash a powerful shot that was once again defended brilliantly by Moya.

Real Madrid remain on top of La Liga with 55 points, followed by Barcelona with 45 and much further back on 3rd place comes Valencia with 36 points. In the Ronaldo vs Messi duel, the Portuguese international remains the top scorer with 24 goals followed by the Argentinian with 22.

Real Madrid started the second round of the La Liga with a win, after beating Zaragoza 3-1 at the Bernabeu Stadium. The visitors scored first by Lafita but allowed the Merengues to turn the game around with goals from Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ozil, thus adding [...]]]>

Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká celebrate a goal against Zaragoza

Real Madrid started the second round of the La Liga with a win, after beating Zaragoza 3-1 at the Bernabeu Stadium. The visitors scored first by Lafita but allowed the Merengues to turn the game around with goals from Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ozil, thus adding their fifth consecutive league victory.

Perhaps still recovering from their elimination during the week from the Copa del Rey, against Barcelona at Camp Nou despite playing an excellent game, Real Madrid did not start the match in the best way and it was Zaragoza, which occupies the last position in the Spanish league, that actually scored first.

Real Madrid had the first opportunity of the game in the 6th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo made a fantastic cross into the box but incredibly, Karim Benzema’s header was off target.

Angel Lafita opened the scoring on the 11th minute to the surprise of the Bernabeu fans

after some bad defensive play by Real Madrid which allowed Carlos Aranda a lot of space in his run to the box, before he passed to Lafita to put Zaragoza 1-0 up.

Kaká nearly scored on the 26th minute after a great pass from Ozil, but the Brazilian international redeemed himself to tie the game on the 32nd minute after a lovely pass from Ricardo Carvalho that split the visitor’s defense and landed on Kaká’s feet who calmly scored.

The second half saw Real Madrid come out with determination and it wasn’t long before they were 2-1 up by Cristiano Ronaldo. Granero passed the ball to Ozil who crossed back to CR7 who slammed home a goal very similar to the visitor’s first goal.

Ozil, one of the best players on the field, was the author Real Madrid’s third goal on the 56th minute after another nice team effort. After an excellent exchange between Granero and Kaká who in turn assisted the German international who smashed the ball past goalkeeper Robert.

This was Ozil’s first goal of the season helping Real Madrid secure their fifth consecutive victory and remaining on top of the Spanish League with 52 points, extending their lead over Barcelona to 7 points after the Catalans only managed a 0-0 draw in their trip to Villarreal.

Cristiano Ronaldo also extended his lead as the best scorer with 23 goals, one more than his main rival Messi with 22. Higuain and Falcão are joint third with 14 goals each.

The “Sunday Times” reported that José Mourinho will be leaving Real Madrid at the end of this season and going back to the Premier League.

Real Madrid played their best game against Barcelona in the Mourinho era as they held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou, but were eliminated by a 4-3 aggregate and allowing the Catalans to go through to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.

After losing [...]]]>

Messi vs Ronaldo in Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid draw

Real Madrid played their best game against Barcelona in the Mourinho era as they held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou, but were eliminated by a 4-3 aggregate and allowing the Catalans to go through to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.

After losing the first leg in Madrid 1-2, Real Madrid dominated a fantastic game that could have gone either way. José Mourinho did not come up with a surprise line-up against his main rival as he had done on their previous 10 encounters and most importantly, played good attacking football.

Pepe was taunted by the crowd during the whole game as the Barça fans screamed “Assassin, Assassin” every time he touched the ball. Real Madrid got off to a surprising good start and on three occasions could have opened the scorecard early on; twice by Higuain and once by Ozil whose great shot from outside the area hit the crossbar.

But even though the Merengues dominated most of the first half it was Barcelona who grabbed the lead on the 43rd minute by Pedro Rodriguez after getting a superb pass from the inevitable Messi. Just three minutes later a roar of delight erupted at Camp Nou as the Catalans made it 2-0 after a powerful shot by Dani Alves into the top corner with no chance of defense by Casillas.

Barcelona started the second half as the dominating team as you would probably expect after that lead. Mourinho then substituted Kaká and Higuaín by Callejón and Benzema on the 62nd minute, and soon after things changed.

With Real Madrid needing three goals to turn the game in their favor, Cristiano Ronaldo gave them some hope as he scored on the 68th minute after a superb through pass from Ozil. Ronaldo made a nice simulation, rounded keeper Pinto and scored from a relatively tight angle.

Real Madrid were level 2-2 only four minutes later after Xabi Alonso made a bad clearance that was intercepted by Benzema who then flicked the ball over Charles Puyol and shot to tie the game and set up an exciting game in the last 20 minutes of play.

Real Madrid tried hard to get another goal that would have qualified them, but Barcelona would not let that happen and once again Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho were unable to beat Pep Guardiola’s men, though this time, the Madridistas gave their rivals a run for their money and probably deserved to win.

Both teams will play this weekend for the Spanish League with Real receiving Real Zaragoza and Barcelona traveling to Villareal. Let’s see how the Bernabeu crowd reacts to Jose Mourinho who was booed by some of Los Blancos fans after their poor showing in the previous game against Barcelona.

Portuguese international Ronaldo scored two goals to help Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium this Sunday on the 19th round of the Spanish league.

José Mourinho made a couple of changes to his team after their loss in the Copa del [...]]]>

Cristiano Ronaldo scores in Real Madrid 4-1 Athletic Bilbao game

Portuguese international Ronaldo scored two goals to help Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium this Sunday on the 19th round of the Spanish league.

José Mourinho made a couple of changes to his team after their loss in the Copa del Rey Clasico last Wednesday, with Granero and Varane being given a chance in the starting line-up in the absence of Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho.

The Basque team who has been playing good football lately, opened the scoring with a goal by Fernando Llorente after a lovely centre by Javi Martinez from the right, with just 13 minutes of play.

Ahletic Bilbao continued their good showing and had another excellent chance to score when Iker Muniain found some space on the edge of the area, passed to De Marcos, who missed a close-range shot a little wide of the nets.

Marcelo equalized for Real Madrid in the 25th minute after a nice exchange between him Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, leaving the Brazilian in front of keeper Iraizoz who was unable to save the curling shot.

Both teams went into the interval tied but the second saw Real Madrid take control of the game and after just 30 seconds they were awarded a penalty after midfielder Kaká was bought down in the area after getting a great pass from Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portugal international scored from the spot to put the Merengues up 2-1.

Real Madrid added another goal on the 66th minute after Mezut Ozil was fouled in the area by De Marcos who also got his marching orders with a red card. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his second of the night and Los Blancos were 3-1 up.

Young striker Callejon, sealed the result for Real on the 85th minute, after receiving a pass from Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain who had replaced Banzema 10 minutes earlier.

With this win, Los Blancos remain five points clear of Barcelona, who traveled to Malaga and beat the local team by the same score of 4-1, with Lionel Messi stealing the show by scoring a hat-trick for the Catalans.

José Mourinho lost the battle with Pep Guardiola once again. Barcelona went to the Santiago Bernabeu to beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter finals, despite an early goal from Cristiano Ronaldo and going into the interval with a 1-0 [...]]]>

Cristiano Ronaldo in Real Madrid 1-2 Barcelona game

José Mourinho lost the battle with Pep Guardiola once again. Barcelona went to the Santiago Bernabeu to beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter finals, despite an early goal from Cristiano Ronaldo and going into the interval with a 1-0 lead.

The Portuguese coach had two surprises in his starting line-up by bringing in the Turkish international Altintop (rarely used this season) on the right side of the defense and Ricardo Carvalho in the center of defense, after being away for months recovering from an injury.

In front of the defense, Pepe was once again placed alongside Xabi Alonso and Lass Diarra, forming the now famous ‘trivote’, an expression that fell into fashion in the Spanish press.

And the formula paid off right away. In a fast counter-attack started on the left by Real Madrid, Benzema released the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo who avoided Gerard Pique and sent a left footed shot into the nets on the 11th minute.

Real Madrid took advantage of the only shot on target they made during the first part. In the remaining minutes of the first half, Barcelona created an avalanche of dangerous plays towards the Real Madrid goal, with the best chance coming from an Alexis Sanchez header that hit the bar after a cross from Cesc Fabregas.

Barcelona returned in the second half with different ideas. At 49 minutes, Xavi took a corner kick and Puyol headed in the equalizer for Barcelona before the passivity of Pepe. Barca were already demonstrating their superiority in ball possession which had already surpassed the 70 percent mark at this time.

Barcelona went ahead 2-1 on 78 minutes from a player that you would least expect; Abidal. From the right of the attack, Messi saw that the French player on the left alone, sent him the ball and Abidal dominated it with his chest and shot past the helpless Casillas. Interestingly, Barcelona today announced they were renewing their contract with the French international.

Guardiola’s Barcelona pulled another victory at the Bernabeu, the fifth since Pep became coach of Catalan team. If we look into the history books, this victory allowed the tables to be balanced in the “clasicos”, between the two main rivals in Spanish football, now with 86 wins for each side in a struggle that began in the distant year of 1904.

Barcelona leaves Madrid with an important advantage for the second leg at Camp Nou on the 25th of January. The last time both teams met in Catalonia was in early December, for the Spanish championship.

José Mourinho and Real Madrid have still not found a way to get out of the trap that Pep Guardiola and his team have set up every time they meet. The same goes with the duel between Ronaldo vs Messi that once again has gone to the Argentinian even though Cristiano Ronaldo scored tonight and Messi did not, if that’s any sort of consolation for the Portuguese international.

It was tough night for the Spanish league leaders Real Madrid, who staged a comeback in their away game against Mallorca after being 1-0 at the interval, giving them an 8 point lead over Barcelona who will be playing tomorrow against Betis at Camp Nou.

Israeli international Hemed [...]]]>

Callejon scores winner in Mallorca 1-2 Real Madrid

It was tough night for the Spanish league leaders Real Madrid, who staged a comeback in their away game against Mallorca after being 1-0 at the interval, giving them an 8 point lead over Barcelona who will be playing tomorrow against Betis at Camp Nou.

Israeli international Hemed opened the scoring on 39 minutes to put Mallorca ahead, by taking advantage of a defensive error by the merengues. From a corner kick, Hemed deflected the ball with a beautiful flying header for a fantastic goal.

Real Madrid went into the interval 0-1 down and without having done much to deserve a better result, except for one opportunity just before the interval when Xabi Alonso placed a free kick to Sergio Ramos, whose header rebounded off the post.

The turnaround by José Mourinho’s team happened only in the second half, but before that happened, Mallorca continued to look dangerous in their counterattacks, one of which on 59 minutes when Victor scored a goal which was incorrectly disallowed for offside by the referee. This was unfortunate for Mallorca who could have gone up 2-0 and perhaps changed the outcome of the game.

At 72 minutes however, Higuain, who had just left the bank, got a great assist from Mesut Ozil, clipped the ball over an onrushing keeper to tie the game 1-1

Just five minutes from the end of the game Callejon silenced the Mallorcan crowd, when his scored the winning goal after a defensive error, to give Real Madrid an important 2-1 win and the precious three points.

Cristiano Ronaldo played a good game tonight but was unable to score once again, even though he still remains top scorer in the Spanish League with 21 goals, followed by his main rival Messi with 17 goals. Ronaldo’s team-mates Higuain (14 goals) and Benzema (10 goals) are also doing very well.

Real Madrid will play against Athletic Bilbau next Sunday for La Liga

Real Madrid are through to the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey after their 1-0 away win to Malaga at “La Rosaleda” Stadium, to move through with an aggregate of 4-2 from both games.

The solitary goal by Benzema on the 72nd minute was the result of a [...]]]>

Cristiano Ronaldo did not score against Malaga

Real Madrid are through to the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey after their 1-0 away win to Malaga at “La Rosaleda” Stadium, to move through with an aggregate of 4-2 from both games.

The solitary goal by Benzema on the 72nd minute was the result of a horrible blunder by Malaga’s goalkeeper Willy Caballero who allowed the ball to slip through his hands and into the nets, to the dismay of Manuel Pellegrini’s men and the home crowd.

The game started at a fast pace for both teams as they attempted to gain an early lead, but it was Real Madrid that slowly started to control the game with more ball possession and more determination to win.

Malaga had some early opportunities, first by Eliseu Pereira who dribbled past Fábio Coentrão and sent a powerful shot just wide of the post. A few minutes later Eliseu made a great cross to Seba Fernandez who headed just over the bar, losing a great opportunity to put Malaga up.

The next good chance to score was Real Madrid’s, as Cristiano Ronaldo made a great back-heel pass to Khedira whose looping shot was nicely saved by keeper Caballero. The German international however injured himself in this move and had to be substituted by the other German in the team, Mesut Ozil.

Before the interval there was another two opportunities to score; first for Real Madrid by Sergio Ramos who headed just wide and the second chance was for the home team through Eliseu who’s powerful shot was nicely saved by Casillas.

The second half saw Cristiano Ronaldo coming close to scoring as his downward header was superbly saved by the home team’s keeper Caballero, who actually had a good game except for that one big blunder. Higuain also had his chance to score for the Merengues a few minutes later but he was correctly flagged for offside.

After many excellent saves, came that fatal error by Caballero on the 72nd minute that cost Malaga the game. It all started on a fast counterattack, with Ozil making a lovely pass to Benzema on the left who shot directly at the keeper letting the ball pass between his legs and roll in slowly into the nets.

Arbeloa was sent off after getting a second yellow card towards the end of the game, but Malaga were unable to take advantage of this, enabling Jose Mourinho´s men to advance to the last eight of the Copa del Rey, which will more than likely be against Barcelona who had beaten Osasuna 4-0 in the first leg and should have little problems in the second game to set up another enticing clasico between the rivals.

Lionel Messi added another pillar to his immortality in football by winning his third consecutive award for best footballer of the year, the FIFA Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) award, at an awards gala in Zurich.

This win by Messi (with 47.9% of the vote) came as no surprise [...]]]>

Lionel Messi wins his third Golden Ball Award

Lionel Messi added another pillar to his immortality in football by winning his third consecutive award for best footballer of the year, the FIFA Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) award, at an awards gala in Zurich.

This win by Messi (with 47.9% of the vote) came as no surprise after a magnificent season in which he won five major trophies for Barcelona, including the Spanish League and the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo (who recently won the “Golden Boot” award) came second with 21.6% of the vote, while Messi’s teammate Xavi came in third with 9.2%.

Messi, or “flea”, as he is commonly called because of the way the ball seems to stick on his left foot is undoubtedly a fabulous player in the form of his dribbles, passes or goals.

In the history of this trophy created in 1956 by French football magazine France Football, Frenchman Michel Platini was the only player who won the trophy three times in a row (1883-85), but at the time the prize was reserved for European players only.

The Argentine footballer lived, in fact, a magical year in 2011 with his Super Barcelona, which led to winning the Champions League, Spanish League, the World Club Cup, the European Super Cup and even the Spanish Super Cup.

Collectively, Messi and Barça only missed the Copa del Rey Cup, when they lost in extra time to Real Madrid (0-1). Messi’s biggest frustration came from the Copa America, where his Argentine team where knocked out by Uruguay in the quarterfinals.

In individual terms, Messi charmed the football world all year round and often did so in the form of fabulous goals: Barcelona’s nº10 scored 55 goals in 57 games (59 in 70, if you include games for Argentina), with an average of almost one goal per game.

Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola won the Coach of the Year award in the same gala with almost 42% of the vote, followed by Sir Alec Ferguson with 15.6% while José Mourinho came 3rd with 12.4% of the vote. The Portuguese coach as well as Cristiano Ronaldo were absent from this ceremony as they have an important game against Malaga tomorrow for the Copa del Rey.

The Japanese women’s team, winner of the Germany 2010 World Cup was also distinguished with two prizes; for best female player and best coach.

Sawa who had already won best female player in the tournament after being crowned best scorer (5 goals) received 28.5% of the votes, followed by the fabulous Marta from Brazil with 17.3% and finally Abby Wambach of the US with 13.3%.

Japanese coach Norio Sasaki easily won the award with 46%, in front of Pia Sundhage, the US Women’s coach with 15.4% and in 3rd spot, Bruno Bini with 10.3%.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the last goal of the game that saw Real Madrid easily beat Granada by 5-1 at the Bernabeu Stadium for the 18th round of La Liga.

The first half of the game saw Real Madrid with a small advantage over Granada. Karim Benzema [...]]]>

Cristiano Ronaldo scores last goal in Real Madrid 5-1 Granada

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the last goal of the game that saw Real Madrid easily beat Granada by 5-1 at the Bernabeu Stadium for the 18th round of La Liga.

The first half of the game saw Real Madrid with a small advantage over Granada. Karim Benzema opened the scoring on 19 minutes after a classy flick of the ball from Cristiano Ronaldo, but the response by the visitors came just 3 minutes later on 22 minutes, from a lovely Mikel Rico header to tie the game 1-1.

Real Madrid went up 2-1 on the 35th when Sergio Ramos headed in from an Ozil corner kick, giving the Merengues a deserved lead going into the interval.

In the second half, Jose Mourinho’s team went into the attack and gave no chances to the opponents. First it was Higuain who scored on the 47th minute while Benzema again increased the scoring just 3 minutes later at 50 minutes to give Real Madrid a commanding 4-1 lead.

Benzema suffered a possible sprain as he limped out of the field and was replaced by Callejon soon after he had scored his second goal.

Cristiano Ronaldo was present in many important plays, but appeared to be fatigued in the second half of the match. He had numerous attempts to reach the goal, but only scored on 89 minutes after a great play with Kaká. For some strange reason Ronaldo did not celebrate his goal.

With this win Real Madrid is now 6 points ahead of Barcelona in the Spanish league, but the Catalans have a spare game in hand and will be playing the other Barcelona team Espanyol in the local derby.

Real Madrid produced a magnificent comeback in the second half to beat Malaga 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time, in the first leg of their round of 16 game and are now favorites to reach the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.

After a slow and cautious [...]]]>

Cristiano Ronaldo during Real Madrid 3-2 Malaga game

Real Madrid produced a magnificent comeback in the second half to beat Malaga 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time, in the first leg of their round of 16 game and are now favorites to reach the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.

After a slow and cautious start by both teams, Malaga stunned the Santiago Bernabeu crowd with an early goal after just 10 minutes of play when Sergio Sanchez headed the goal, his first for the team from Andalusia, after a corner kick by Carzola.

Malaga scored their second goal on the 29 the minute, and silenced the Madrid fans when once again when Cazorla curled his corner kick into the area where Demichelis headed the ball into the back of the net past the unusually slow Iker Casillas, to give Manuel Pellegrini’s side a surprising but deserved 2-0 lead at the interval.

José Mourinho who appeared disappointed with his team’s first half performance, made three decisive substitutions at the interval, bringing in Khedira, Özil y Benzema, which made all the difference in Real Madrid’s fantastic turnaround.

On the 68th minute an unusual Khedira strike made it 2-1, after the German international’s powerful run saw him pass the Malaga defense before scoring his second goal with the Los Blancos shirt.

Just two minutes later Real Madrid tied the game after some bad defensive plays especially by Sanchez who tried to pass the ball back, but his weak pass was intercepted by Higuain who went past the Malaga keeper to score from a tight angle and make it 2-2.

The winning goal was scored on the 78th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo make a lovely flick of the ball that flat footed the Malaga defense, allowing Karim Benzema to slide the ball past keeper Cabellero to give the Merengues an exciting 3-2 lead.

In the last minute of the game Cristiano Ronaldo scored, but the goal was correctly disallowed as he was on offside position.