Real Madrid vs. Athletic Bilbao – La Liga Match Review (Part 1)
Madrid hosted Bilbao at Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday. With http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 winning their weekend fixture against Malaga, Mourinho had to make sure that Madrid wins the game in order to keep a five-point gap from the Catalans.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo and Jose Callejon did just enough to help Madrid win the game 4-1 at home. Despite the early lead taken by Athletic Bilbao, with the help of Fernando Llorente, they could not capitalize and Madrid got all three points.
Jose Mourinho played most of his favourite players; however, he decided to rest a few of them. With a match against Barcelona after three days, Mourinho had to rest his key players in order to play them at the Nou Camp.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marcelo-c23554 featured as a left back. The young centre back, Raphael Varane, played in the centre back role and partnered
with the Spanish defender, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Ramos-c33096.
While fielding his favourite 4-2-3-1, Mourinho decided to play http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Xabi-Alonso-c37045 right behind the wingers and the attacking midfielder.
Mesut Ozil featured on the right flank while http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ricardo-c30950 Kaka, played in the attacking midfield position. The Frenchman, Karim Benzema, played as the sole striker for
Real Madrid.
On the other hand, Athletic Bilbao played a 4-3-3 formation. Iraizoz played between the two posts as a goalkeeper and he was aided by four defenders. Iraola, Javi Martinez, San Jose and Amorebieta were the four defenders who played for the visiting team.
The three midfielders included Iturraspe, Herrera and De Marcos. Herrera and De http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marcos-c23772 played a more defensive role while Iturraspe featured in the attacking midfield position.
The front three included Susaete, Fernando Llorente and Muniain. Muniain has been in great form while playing as a right striker for the Spanish club, so he featured in that role. Susaeta played as a left striker while Fernando Llorente featured in his favourite
centre forward position.
The match started off with Bilbao being the better side. Madrid were not looking very convincing on the ball while the away team were dominating the game.
It was no surprise that the away team took an early lead. It was Bilbao’s favourite star striker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Martinez-c24468 on the
right flank. Martinez did just enough to cross the ball to Fernando Llorente, who easily tapped the ball from his left foot to find the back of the net.
It was simply a superb move by the visiting side and they were looking to be the better team for most of the first half.
Twelve minutes later, Madrid were on the front foot and they showed why they are the table toppers. A move started by Mesut Ozil found http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Karim-Benzema-c20350, who fed the ball to the rushing Marcelo. The Brazilian full back received the ball inside the penalty area
and made no mistake while finding the back of the net.
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