Ronaldo wins it late for Madrid with signature free kick against Real Sociedad
Real Madrid were scheduled to travel away from home to take on Real Sociedad in the third week of fixtures in the Spanish La Liga. Madrid were already near the top of the table way ahead of their arch rivals, Barcelona who were
struggling early on this season.
So far Madrid had one draw and one win from their opening game and were going into this game to win it and end up on top of the La Liga table. Madrid were going into the game on a high after annihilating Ajax, in their mid week
Champions League fixture.
Mourinho had vowed to win the La Liga in his debut season and the game was set to be a real test of his character. The manager was well aware of the strong home record Sociedad had, but promised to make them crumble under his new
look Madrid side.
So far Mourinho's stand out summer signing, Mesut Ozil had been the man in form for the team and was looking to continue to live up to that reputation in this game.
The match kicked off with Sociedad attacking Madrid in the opening half. The home side had at least three very good chances to take the early lead. However thanks to some poor finishing, expert defending and some brilliant goal
keeping the home side were kept at bay my Madrid.
The second half however was a different story.
The second half began with Madrid going all out with all their guns blazing and five minutes into the restart the away team had the opening goal on the night. Angel Di Maria went past two defenders after receiving the ball on the
left flank and then curled an unstoppable shot into the top right of the goal post. That goal was easily the goal of the season so far and helped Di Maria make up for his poor displays in the Champions League matches in mid week.
However it wasn't long before Madrid let their lead get the better of them. Sociedad got a free kick deep in Madrid's half and a superbly taken free kick by Griezmann was met by Raul Tamudo, who kneed the ball into the back of
the net.
Real Madrid being managed by Mourinho however had a new sense of belief about them and didn't give up. The team pushed ahead for a second to settle the tie. It was however bound to be Cristiano Ronaldo who would help pull his team
back into the game. The Portuguese captain lined up a free kick thirty yards out and blasted it goal wards. The ball took a deflection but still managed to end up in the back of the net.
Mourinho then made some quick tactical changes to kill the game, he brought on Lassanna Diarra for Mesut Ozil, to add a third holding midfielder to the game and make it impossible for Real to give away their lead. That is exactly
what happened as Madrid then cruised to the top of the table with two wins and one draw from their opening three games.
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