His selfish play was one of the reasons Real Madrid draw their opening game of the season to Sporting Gijon.
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“Generating these debates after every match surprises me”, Benitez told a news conference on Friday when asked about Real Madrid’s relative goal drought.
The only negative aspect of the evening was another blank for Cristiano Ronaldo, who has not yet got off the mark this season despite peppering former teammate Antonio Adan’s goal with shots throughout the encounter. Although both the teams won a point each after the referee’s final whistle. Real Betis players said they will travel to Madrid more motivated after seeing Benitez’s team struggle at Gijon. However, James did start and was arguably the best Real Madrid player on the pitch.
“We drew 0-0 and people say we are defensive”. “It’s hard to do well at the Bernabeu, but if it was impossible we wouldn’t even go there”.
The Spaniard – who had previously spent time in England with Liverpool and Chelsea – was appointed as manager of Los Blancos in June following Carlo Ancelotti’s dismissal from the Santiago Bernabeu.
Sporting held Real Madrid to a goalless draw last weekend and also produced a solid display at the Anoeta. “He is ready to play some minutes, I do not yet know how many”.
41′ – GOAL! Real Madrid 2 Real Betis 0: What a sensational goal! In general, we lost the ball too much in the first half and gave them a lot of opportunities to counter-attack.
Following Thomas Vermaelen curious move to Barcelona last summer one quickly wondered where the Belgian would fit into La Blaugrana.
Marcelo blocked Xavi Torres’ effort midway through the first half as the visitors began to come back into the game but Madrid continued to dominate and Ronaldo could have made it two 10 minutes before the break.
Keylor Navas also saved a penalty kick from Ruben Castro, turning in an impressive display as speculation over the potential transfer of David De Gea from Manchester United continues to swirl – with transfer deadline day fast approaching. “He is nearly recovered, but the normal situation of someone who has not played for two weeks”.
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“First off [Busquets] has been able to train since Thursday, and he looks very good to me”, he said.
