By S.Aravind
January 11 2007

Two of the richest teams in terms of History, Heritage and Culture met in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium when Capello’s Madristas faced the newly appointed Jose Manuel Esnal’s Basque side in Matchday 13 of La Liga and as expected, it was the richness in terms of talent that had it’s say on the day. Real Madrid moved 2nd in the league with a victory over Athletic Bilbao that required them to show their best so far as a team and also as individuals. With Guti out for 2 weeks, Real Madrid played the same system (4 4 1-1) that they did versus Valencia with Mejia coming in for the suspended Cannavaro. As for Bilbao, Javier Casas and Andoni Iraola were passed fit for the trip south, but Ustaritz Aldekoaotalora and Tiko were missing. Mane made his intentions very clear by setting out a team full of roughed up characters with a lot of grit, very well suited for the 4-5-1 with Aduritz upfront.

1st Half

The half started with a hungry Robinho who wanted to get back to his original self after a poor outing at the Mestalla last week and not one single Bilbao player could stop him when he made a Henry-esque run covering both the halves, only for the shot to be blocked in the end. Immediately, Bilbao responded in other side from an Exteberria corner which was missed by both Casillas and Carlos but swung away from the goal in the last second. Raul responded for Madrid when he controlled Carlos’s cross-field ball on his chest and turned to shoot wide with his next touch. Just a minute later, Robinho produced the best moment of the 1st half inside the box when he controlled the ball in the air and did his dizzy juggle without letting the ball bounce and then produced a top class chip to an overlapping Salgado, who’s shot was well saved by Lafuente.

Bilbao refused to lie down and act dead as they continued to bully Madrid in patches and tried every trick in the book to tone down Madrid’s game and not allow them to get into a flow. The referee had a tough game as the likes of 18 yr old Martinez in the midfield led Bilbao’s counter attack and won lots of free kicks due to his huge stature and speed. The talented Yeste went very close with one of those free kicks. Eventually, Bilbao got their maligned goal from a similar free kick when defender Luis Prieto hit a well-directed shot past a blinded Casillas because of Javi Martinez who not only blocked his view but also produced the mildest of deflections of his chest. Casillas and the Bernabeu were furious while the Basque’s huddle celebrated silently.

All said and done, the 1st half clearly belonged to Robinho and his magical runs all over the park as Bilbao’s defense could only watch with awe but other Madristas lacked the bite that Atheltic’s midfield had in the form of Exteberria, Yeste and Martinez.


2nd Half

Capello had enough of his appetite less midfield in the 1st half and he brought Ronaldo and Beckham on for Reyes and Emerson respectively. The result was immediate and imminent as the lightweight Ronaldo fitted into the groove easily and showed good promise with Ruud Van upfront in the early stages of the 2nd half. A poor clearance from Lafuente resulted in a 1 on 1 for Ruud but his touch let him down and the goalie made amends for his fault.

Within the next 10 minutes, it was chaos in the Bernebau as an array of unique events took place with Athletic players falling like a stack of cards for every tackle and wasting time while Madrid looked like they were playing in the Champions League final, such was their hurried approach and non-stop effort to breach the spirited Bilbao back 4 led by Medina. Ruud had a disallowed tap in because the passer Robinho starting from an offside position, Becks coolly slotted in Emerson’s void and sprayed passes around gleefully, Ronaldo and Robinho kept the Brazilian flag flying high with their magic.

Roberto Carlos simply couldn’t stand and watch his fellow countrymen run the show and he announced his arrival in the 60th minute with a game saving tackle on Aruditz’s vicious shot as he seized on Ramos’s mistake outside the box. The latter proved his class by responding to his mistakes few minutes earlier with a good defensive tackle and a long chip to Ronaldo, who took the ball in his stride after beating the off-side trap and placed it through Lafuente’s legs for the equalizer.

This was just the start as certain individuals quite simply rose to the occasion and the ambience, as Roberto Carlos made another brilliant defensive tackle in the back while covering for Mejia and Ramos’s inexperience. Beckham started to thrive on his midfield role with typical full-blooded English tackles. Athletic seemed to have no answer to this extra gear of Madrid and they resorted to bullying tactics as Ronaldo took the major brunt of the fouls. The tussle between Aduritz and Diarra went to another level when the former elbowed Diarra badly and was sent off promptly.

This incident couldn’t have come at a better time for Madrid as they pressed for the winner and were backed by the electric Bernabeu. Thus stepped up their loyal servant in Roberto Carlos. The left back was already having a blinder defensively and when Ronaldo’s excellent 1-2 with Raul resulted in a snap shot well saved by Lafuente (who was having an excellent game amidst so much action), Carlos taught those who under estimated his attacking prowess off late by unleashing a fierce 25 yard drive past Bilbao’s defense and into their goal to give Madrid the win. The 2 time world cup winner capped off his wonderful night with his typical overlapping runs even in the fag end, 50 yard pin point passes, cheeky back heels and so on.

So when the best left back of the past decade or two, the most devastating and yet unfulfilled talent of the past decade and potentially the biggest star for the next decade virtually hit turbo charge on the same night, according to the Bilbao players, its called a “ Samba Rollicking “ and one couldn’t agree more with them.

On the whole, it was a memorable night that made Santiago Bernabeu finally believe what Mijatovic and Ramon Calderon believed in Capello and his wizardry.