Copa Del Rey: Real Murcia vs. Real Madrid ends in a draw
Real Madrid were held to a scoreless draw by Real Murcia in the Copa Del Rey; the team from Madrid failed to break the deadlock in the first leg of the tie, on Tuesday night.
Madrid were hoping to emulate their extravagant scoring form, that they displayed against Racing Santander when they won 6-1 at the Bernabeu.
Jose Mourinho, the Real coach had left out some of his 1st choice players on the bench for this match. Struggling striker Karim Benzema was given a start by the Portuguese in place of the in-form Argentinean Gonzalo
Higuain. Similarly, Esteban Granero and Sergio Canales, who were also short of playing time, made the starting lineup for Real Madrid. Right-back Sergio Ramos was also back in the side after suffering from an ankle injury while on international duty with Spain.
Madrid were on the front foot from the outset and playing for the first time in the competition, Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo tested the Murcia goalkeeper Daniel Hernandez. Real’s no.7 has already scored 11 goals for The Whites
this season.
Los Pimentoneros had the look of a well organised and hard working team, and they kept Mourinho’s team at bay right from the start.
Granero came close to scoring for Los Blancos as his left footed strike from outside the box just brushed off the crossbar. Before the half time whistle, Benzema had the ball in the back of the net, but his goal was ruled out for
offside.
After the break, Ronaldo tested goalkeeper Hernandez from a free kick, but again the Murcia goalkeeper was up to the task.
Mourinho then decided to change things, and Gonzalo Higuain and Sami Khedira were brought on in place of Benzema and Granero. Soon after, Madrid made their third substitution, swapping Cristiano Ronaldo with the left footed Angel
Di Maria.
In search of a late winner, Higuain fired wide and his fellow Argentinean forced yet another save from the Real Murcia goalkeeper. The match thus ended with a 0-0 score line.
Although the team from the 3rd tier of Spanish football failed to trouble Iker Casillas, they are very much in the tie, ahead of the second leg in two weeks time.
Real Madrid’s coach Jose Mourinho was not disappointed by his side’s performance, as he made his remarks about the game, after the match. ‘The special one’ praised Hernandez, for putting a brilliant performance in goal.
Reflecting back on the game he said, “I will say that I’m happy with the team. In general terms, I thought their attitude was spot-on in order to win tonight, and they worked hard. If I was going to criticize someone it would be
because they didn’t work hard; they didn’t put in the effort. But, that simply wasn’t the case this evening. The players did work hard. I thought we did enough to win the game. We didn’t win tonight because we didn’t find a way past the Murcia goalkeeper,
who was in inspired form”
The former Chelsea boss also mentioned that the players who are struggling for form will have to improve their game in order to get into first team action.
Despite the stalemate, Mourinho was confident that his side will qualify to the next round.
He said, “It’s not the result we wanted because we always want to win. But with this same attitude the return leg won't be a problem. We'll definitely win and go through.”
Next for Real Madrid is an away match against Hercules CF in The Liga BBVA.
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