La Liga – Match Review: Real Madrid versus Osasuna 1-0
Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid took on Osasuna in their second La Liga match of the season, in what was primarily an uneventful match at the Santiago Bernabeau.
Mourinho started the match with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema in attack; these three front men were supported by a midfield of Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso. At the back, Real Madrid opted for Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Ricardo Carvalho and Marcelo Vieira at the back.
Osasuna banked on their midfielder Juanfran to create some goal scoring opportunities for them but as the match planned out there wasn’t much goal mouth action to savor.
Mourinho, who is famous in England and in Italy for playing defensive football, has already begun to emphasize his tactical mindset on Madrid and it showed in their performance against Osasuna.
In the first half, Madrid quite clearly was the dominant team but there was a sincere lack of effort from the men in white as the likes of Alonso, Ronaldo and Higuain looked to be tired and more than anything else.
Ozil was Real Madrid’s standout player in the first half as the German midfielder was involved in everything that was good for his new club side. Despite having more time on the ball than Osasuna, Madrid were lazy and quite laborious in creating goal scoring chances.
The first yellow card of the match was shown to Punal for his tackle on Benzema on the half line mark; Punal went into the referee’s book in the 18th minute of the match. Before the match, it was told in the media that Ozil and Khedira were both having troubles communicating with their team mates due to the fact that they were weak when it came to understanding and speaking English.
However, that clearly did not show in Ozil’s case as in the 21st minute of the match, Real came to life as Ozil and Ronaldo broke down the right side of midfield for them. At the end of the move Ozil passed the ball to Ronaldo but the ex-Manchester United star could not find the back of the net as his strike was stopped by Ricardo, the Osasuna goalkeeper.
The most disappointing of Real Madrid’s stars was Gonzalo Higuain, who came under severe criticism by the Spanish press despite being one of the top scorers for Real Madrid in the 2009-2010 La Liga season. In the 39th minute of the match, Mesut Ozil capitalized on a mistake in Osasuna’s defense. The former Werder Bremen player played a perfect ball to Higuain but the Argentinean striker failed to score from a very easy chance by his standards.
After the 40th minute mark, Real Madrid’s home crowd started whistling and jeering at their own players which only increased the pressure on their Galacticos. When the half time whistle blew, jeering reached a new high as the score was at nil all.
Following the start of the second half, Madrid came out as a team possessed by spirits of rejuvenation and struck within the opening three minutes of the second period of football. Jose’s team counter attacked brilliantly from an Osasuna free kick which was given inside the Madrid half.
Ozil ran up field with the ball and passed it to Ronaldo whose shot was saved by Ricardo but the follow up was buried by Carvalho, who scored his first goal for Real Madrid in doing so. Real had a golden opportunity in the 62nd minute of the match as Higuain was played in behind the Osasuna defense by Cristiano Ronaldo but again Gonzalo Higuain’s finishing left much to be desired.
In the 64th minute, Ozil had a chance to double Madrid’s lead but he also could not put the finishing touch on Ronaldo’s pass. Mourinho made his first substitution in the match during the 71st minute as Benzema made way for Pedro Leon from the Real Madrid bench.
Higuain, the serial goal waster, squandered his third one-one chance with the Osasuna goalkeeper on the night in the 81st minute of the match, the Argentine’s miss meant that the scores remained at 1-0.
Real Madrid got their first yellow card of the encounter by Marcelo who went into the referee’s book at the 84th minute mark. Ozil was withdrawn from the field in the 88th minute as Granero replaced him from the Real Madrid substitutes.
Regardless of all the chances that Higuain and his team mates missed, the match ended at a score line of 1-0 to Real Madrid as the Galacticos gathered their first three points of the 2010-2011 La Liga season.
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