Match Review – Standard Liege vs. Real Madrid
Real Madrid is definitely the most successful club in the history of the game. They have already won 31 titles in the Spanish La Liga and 9 European titles just because they’re one of the teams out there. In the Spanish La Liga, Real Madrid has to face only a handful of difficult teams including the current La Liga Champions Barcelona along with Sevilla and Valencia. Although there are also some tough teams in the local club like Athletico Madrid, Real Madrid never faces any difficulty in bringing down the local clubs.
In the history of International Football, Belgium has been a pretty good side when they came down to the FIFA World Cup. Although Belgium lacks an organized football league; they have still managed to make a few good players. This august, during the pre-season, Jose Mourinho, the new boss for the Spanish Club Real Madrid, decided to make his way to Belgium for his fourth pre-season friendly. The match was against the all-time best Belgium football league players and Real Madrid was ready to face the Belgian crowd and their local team with a relatively different line up. Real Madrid was facing Belgium after forming a record of three consecutive wins in the pre-season friendly matches.
Real Madrid has already been in action after Jose Mourinho was appointed their boss this summer. The Spanish Giants has won all three of its pre-seasons, including the one played against the German champions, Bayern Munich. The match played in Germany was totally action packed, as the Spanish club won over penalties and it was for the first time that Jose Mourinho had won a match in Germany.
This year around, with Jose Mourinho being the boss of Real Madrid after a trophy-less season last year; the new manager decided to buy a few more players. This year, he bought the Argentinean sensation Angel Di Maria along with the German players Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil. Last year, as the defensive line-up of the Spanish club was not so strong, Jose Mourinho appointed Carvalho as their centre-back. The deal was struck with Chelsea and now Carvaliho is going to be a part of the Madrid squad.
With a different line-up in the match against the all-star Belgium team, Real Madrid took their positions on the field. Standard Liege on the other hand already had a very good “all win” record with the pre-seasons as well. They defeated all their opponents with at least a 2-goal margin and they were all set to face the amazing Spanish squad.
Jose Mourinho had the option of introducing Dudek as his goalkeeper, which he did. With Casillas being too stressed out because of the International call-up that he received early on, Jose Mourinho called his reserve goalkeeper Dudek, from the bench. There weren’t many options for the defenders, as Carvalho, Sergio Ramos, Drenthe and Arbeloa all featured in the match. The new midfielder Mesut Ozil was not a part of the match because he didn’t arrive to Madrid before they left as Van Der Vaart was the player who totally took over Kaka’s position as the Brazilian midfielder is still going through an injury. As a striking force, Higuain was playing to help his team score goals, although he wasn’t of much assist during this match.
The Belgians took an early Hitch as Real Madrid won a free kick right outside the 18-yard box and Van Der Vaart was able to impress the Portuguese coach, as the Dutch midfielder took a fabulous left-footed free kick and curled it inside the goal.
On the other hand, the Belgians came back in the second half and totally took over the field with amazing passing and crossing. They were totally utilizing the flanks and soon it all came in handy when a fabulous cross was turned to a goal by Pichichi and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Although the Spanish team Real Madrid did not really impress during this match, this was all because of the fact that the few first team players were missing the game and were not a part of it. With Jose Mourinho being the back bone of Real Madrid this season, they are definitely going to be a threat to the European teams in the UEFA Champions League.
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