Real Madrid have put together a brilliant campaign in La Liga since their embarrassing loss to Real Sociedad early in the season, and their run continued with another multiple goal victory on Saturday. This week's victims were Rayo Vallecano, who fell, 5-1.
Real Madrid vs. Rayo Vallecano: Final score 5-1, smooth sailing for Los Merengues
A less famous Madrid derby goes as expected.
Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno
Gareth Bale marked his return to the starting lineup with a goal just nine minutes into the match, and it was a tap-in thanks to the brilliance of his teammates. Cristiano Ronaldo -- arguably the man of the match -- played the ball out wide for Toni Kroos, who hit a perfect low cross into the center of the box for Bale to bundle over the line.
Rayo, as usual, played unafraid of their more gifted opponents and created some decent chances. Keylor Navas was forced into tough back-to-back saves midway through the period, punching away strikes by Leo Baptistao and Alberto Bueno just a minute apart.
Bad set piece defending was Rayo's eventual undoing -- they conceded the goal that would become the winner in the 40th minute. Pepe whiffed on a diving header attempt off a corner, but it didn't matter because no one was marking Sergio Ramos. He flipped a volley over the head of Rayo backup keeper Cristian Alvarez to double Madrid's lead.
But the visitors got back into the game just before the half via a horrible turnover by James Rodriguez. He passed the ball right to Leo, who found Bueno for a tap-in on an empty net to send Rayo into the locker room down by just one goal.
Leo thought he had an equalizer in the 55th minute, but he was correctly called for offside. He nearly timed his run perfectly, but was just a step past Madrid’s last defender when Bueno paid him in. Rayo were clearly rattled by that incident and lost their composure, allowing Kroos to score from 20 yards off a cutback ball by Ronaldo less than a minute afterwards.
Karim Benzema sealed the win with Madrid's fourth goal just four minutes following Kroos' effort, with Ronaldo providing yet another assist. His ball into the box was brilliant, but the linesman didn't realize that Benzema was at least a full yard offside when it was played in.
Cristian Alvarez looked very much like a backup goalkeeper in the 83rd minute, when Ronaldo finally got on the board. He let a fairly tame shot go between his hands, and Rayo supporters probably couldn’t help but think that Toño would have made the stop.
Real Madrid: Navas, Marcelo, Ramos, Pepe, Nacho, James (Isco 68'), Kroos, Modric, Bale (Hernandez 85'), Ronaldo, Benzema (Medran 84')
Goals: Bale (9’), Ramos (40’), Kroos (55’), Benzema (59’), Ronaldo (83’)
Rayo Vallecano: Alvarez, Insua (Quini 25'), Ba, Ze Castro, Tito, Fatau, Trashorras (Jozabed 63'), Kakuta, Bueno, Lica, Leo (Manucho 73')
Goals: Bueno (44’)
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