Madrid Down Sociedad 4-1 To Close Gap On Top
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Emmanuel-Adebayor-c12526 also netted goals in a straight forward win for the Los Blancos. Madrid closed the gap on Barcelona to just seven points with this win.
Real Madrid made six changes to their starting line-up that beat Sevilla in the Copa Del Ray semi-final in the midweek. Kaka made a rare start while Adebayor replaced http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Karim-Benzema-c20350 as the lone forward.
The match started in a lively fashion as the hosts applied early pressure on the visitors. Kaka swept home a quality finish to open the scoring for Madrid in the eighth minute. It was the second goal of the season for the injury-prone Brazilian.
The visitors almost immediately snatched an equalizer when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Iker-Casillas-c16815 gifted the ball to Raúl Tamudo in front of the goal, but the keeper saved his blushes with a close-range save.
In the 21st minute, Madrid doubled their lead when a neat link up play between Kaka and Ronaldo saw the latter score a low shot past Claudio Bravo.
The first half hour passed with a one-way traffic for Madrid as the shot count was 13-3. The hosts dominated the possession and territory and created a flurry of chances.
Raúl Tamudo came close in the 40th minute when his incisive near-post effort was splendidly saved by Casillas.
Just before the half time whistle, Ronaldo scored his 50th goal in the Madrid shirt as he leapt into Ozil’s corner to head it past the Sociedad goal. Ronaldo scored his 24th game of the season, to share the top-scorer spot with Lionel Messi.
Madrid ticked off the second half in bid to make it 11 wins out of 11 home games. Madrid came extremely close of scoring in the 53rd minute when Adebayor teed up Kaka, whose shot beat Bravo but only managed to hit the woodwork.
In the 71st minute, Sociedad scored against the run of play. Tamudo’s shot cannoned off Casillas and went into the net off Arbeloa’s touch. It was an own goal that made it 3-1.
Real Madrid weren’t bothered by the goal as they continued their thrust and came close several times.
Adebayor scored his first goal in the Madrid shirt on his first full debut for the club. The Togolese striker calmly finished a low shot past Bravo to seal the game for Madrid.
The home side comfortably saw the remainder of the match as they closed the gap on the leaders by just seven points.
Real Madrid will travel to Espanyol for their next La Liga encounter.
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