--- title: "Report: Real Madrid (A)" canonical: "https://readliverpoolfc.com/articles/report-real-madrid-a/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Robbie Moore" section: "Articles" published: "2014-11-05T10:23:47Z" modified: "2014-11-05T10:24:11Z" --- # Report: Real Madrid (A) Real Madrid had to battle hard in order to complete a Champions League double over Liverpool. A first half 1-0 lead, courtesy of Karim Benzema, should have been added to, but was also threatened at times by a seemingly weakened Liverpool side. Liverpool can still qualify for the last 16 of the competition if all goes to plan, while Madrid continue their expected dominance over Group B. Real Madrid were happy to see Welsh wizard Gareth Bale make a return to the squad, after an abdominal muscle injury resulted in the most expensive player of all time missing 5 matches, including the reverse fixture of these two teams. The winger took a place on the bench. Liverpool’s injury situation was the same as it had been for a number of weeks, with Daniel Sturridge inching ever nearer to a return, but the England striker didn’t make the match day squad. Meanwhile, defenders Jon Flanagan and Mamadou Sakho are still kept occupying the sidelines with long term problems. The two teams were in complete opposite runs of form coming into this Bernabeu encounter. Real Madrid are one of the, if not *the*, in form team of the footballing world, after scoring 24 goals in the last 6 games, winning all of them. On the other hand, Liverpool have been described as being in ‘’free-fall’’ after Brendan Rodger’s once free-scoring Reds have now failed to score in 3 of their last 4 games. You could hand pick any Real Madrid starting eleven from their current batch of players and it’d still be a menacing team. To make matters worse for the Merseyside club, Carlo Ancelotti hand picked the most threatening eleven available to him. The usual suspects all started; Ronaldo, James, Benzema and co. must have been licking their lips when the Liverpool team was announced. Controversially, Rodgers selected a team that would surely be bulldozed by Los Blancos. Perhaps the Reds boss had more than a single eye on the Saturday lunchtime clash with Chelsea when selecting the team. Captain Steven Gerrard was joined on the bench by vice captain Jordan Henderson, the divisive Mario Balotelli, young Raheem Sterling, and other big Liverpudlian names. There were opportunities to impress for the likes of Fabio Borini, Adam Lallana, Emre Can and Kolo Toure. It didn’t take long for Real Madrid to threaten. 4 minutes into proceedings, James found himself with a glorious chance to open the scoring from the edge of the box. It took a smart save from Simon Mignolet to deny the Columbian World Cup phenomenon. Shortly afterwards, Martin Skrtel presented Benzema with a look in on goal, though the striker opted to pull it back for Ronaldo, who politely declined Skrtel’s gift. Liverpool took a deep breath and regained calmness in possession. They even looked threatening on the counter, with Markovic and Moreno causing problems on the flanks. Unfortunately for the under dogs, the dominant Galacticos went ahead. Just like at Anfield a fortnight previously, Liverpool’s early noise was silenced. Marcelo is always a threat down his left flank, and the defender adopted an attacking role in the 27th minute. The full back found space on the corner of the box, and whipped in a devastating cross which was coolly slotted home by two-time Anfield goal scorer Benzema. It was a deserved goal for the team that had done 99% of the attacking that the game had seen so far, but the resilient Reds must have felt hard done by. Real Madrid continued to threaten in the first half. Benzema again was close; however the solid Toure poked the ball up and out of his path. Regardless, the score was 1-0 at half time. Both teams would have been both, strangely, pleased yet disappointed with that. The theme of the first half continued into the second, as both managers resisted urges to change things. Liverpool again found them selves dealing with attack after attack, though they managed to wrestle out their first chances of the match when Alberto Moreno struck an effort from range, straight at Casillas, before a Borini free kick deflected narrowly wide of the Spanish ‘keepers post. The score wasn’t added to in the second half, but it was the home team who came the closest to doing so. Shortly after his much anticipated re-introduction to the Madrid team, Bale nearly benefitted from yet another brilliant Marcelo cross, with the winger’s cute effort striking the crossbar. With time fading, Rodgers introduced three big names; Gerrard, Coutinho and Sterling. The latter two made a positive impact on the game, but their creative influence was not enough to construct any clear cut opportunities for the out of form Reds. The full time whistle blew to a backdrop of Scouse singing, as the brave Liverpudlians slumped to a second defeat in 4 days. This time, though, they had positives to take from the match. They had gone toe-to-toe with the world’s best team, and worried them. Madrid may have felt a 1-0 score line was harsh on them, but can take joy from the fact that they managed to overcome Liverpool twice in two weeks; no mean feat by any stretch. The Liverpool back line dealt remarkably well with the vast array of attacking talent Los Blancos had to throw at them; Ronaldo was limited to a sub-standard game, as most of the Bernabeu’s superstars were left frustrated. Therefore, credit must be given to that defence, in particular Kolo Toure. The unfavoured centre back stood out from the defensive crowd, coping fantastically well with the various challenges. In fact, the Ivorian even dared to skill his way up the park from time to time, much to the delight of the  Liverpool fans. Benzema again put in a stand out performance, scoring the only goal of the game and coming close on other occasions. However, this was only made possible by a team mate of his; Marcelo. The left back was a constant attacking threat down the left hand side, while also fulfilling his defensive duties to an impressive standard. Consequently, it’s hard to look past him for Man of the Match. Once again, the Spanish giants combat whatever challenge is put in front of them and will hope to go on to dominate the competition from here on in. As for Liverpool, their attention now turns to the Chelsea match on Sunday, where they will hope to be the first Premier League victors over Jose Mourinho’s blues this season.