A Mourinho Special!

By Shivashankar

Real Madrid thrashed a hapless Dinamo Zagreb 6-2, to earn top spot in their group and maintain their record as the only club to win all their group games in this year’s Champions League.

With a truck load of injuries, and the El Classico looming ahead, Jose Mourinho chose to give his starting XI a much needed break, and opted to start with a second string side which gave a demonstration of the bench power present at the ‘White House’.

The talented young duo of Callejon and Nuri Sahin started and demonstrated what they are really good at, i.e. to torment the opposition! Callejon, on whom Mourinho had piggy-backed after Cristiano scored against Valencia, went on to have one his best outings in the Bernabeu.

We were treated to a flurry of goals inside the first 10 minutes. Benzema scored the opener in the 2^nd minute, courtesy a neat 1-2 with Ozil, and the Frenchmen coolly slotted it in the right corner. All this happened inside 85 seconds from the start! 4 minutes later, Ozil’s found Callejon with a delightful pass, Callejon played a 1-2 with Benzema, and scored. This time, in the left corner! This was certainly a well deserved goal for Callejon, who has been waiting long for this starting role. 3 more minutes later, Lass (playing as a RB) played a through ball to Higuain, who made a dummy move and scored a wonderful goal with his left foot. The clock read 9 minutes, with 3 goals scored. Attacking football at its very best!

Zagreb didn’t attack much, or rather they were unable to do so. They were defending in numbers for most part of the game, which probably would have made Adan to think if he was really in the starting XI or a spectator! The next goal for Real, was scored by Ozil. Yes, the man with the plan. He has not been in great form lately, with the main reason for his dip in form being his position in the wings. In this game, he played a more central role, drifting on to the wings only marginally and he dictated play in his own way. He was very much involved in couple of earlier goals, and this time he scored one from a rebound after Higuain’s shot got deflected off by Zagreb’s keeper Kelava. His celebration after the goal spoke a story!

After a couple of half chances from Real, it was Half time and Dinamo were lucky to concede just 4 goals! Real had dominated the half with almost 70% possession. Mourinho made a couple of changes during the interval. He took off Xabi Alonso (finally this workhorse got a deserved break), Ozil and Ramos (who played much like a midfielder than a defender!) Granero, Altintop and Raul Albiol were introduced as replacements. These changes did little to affect the momentum created by Real. Varane, who was solid at defense through the game, found Callejon with a brilliant long ball and Callejon finished off in style (or I could say, it was much like a traditional Cristiano styled finish!). He passionately kissed the club’s crest, sending out a message that the kid from Real Madrid Castilla, has grown very big!

The usual suspects, Benzema, Higuan, Callejon put together several attacks, as Sahin had an decent performance by dictating play deep from the half line. This was the first he played the full 90 minutes since April. Coentrao, was at his very best, as he ran riot and owned the left side of the field. Lassana Diarra as RB also worked out well as he was adept both in attacks and defense. An excellent link up play between Higuain and Benzema resulted in the 6^th, as Benzema scored to complete half a dozen of goals for Real for the night. In the final few minutes, Dinamo did what the others haven’t been able to do this season, score against Real Madrid! Their first one came from a cross, coolly headed in by Fatos. The second one was a goal mouth scramble, which resulted in Tomacek firing it in. Adan was merely a spectator in both these goals, as he was not in faulty and was unlucky to not keep a clean sheet. Full time score, Real Madrid - 6 and Dinamo Zagreb - 2.

Apart from the goal, there were two excellent plays, one each by Callejon and Benzema, which truly deserved to be goals. Callejon was in space inside the box and tried a wonderful lob (a la Raul, to be precise). It would have been an excellent goal to bring up his hat-trick. But Kelava somehow, did something to just nudge it away! It was pure brilliance from Callejon.

Benzema, did the unthinkable. A Scissor kick. We do remember how Wayne Rooney scored a beauty in ‘that’ Manchester derby. But, this would have been epitome of greatness, had Benzema’s effort gone in, instead of rattle the bar. He took a touch to get away from the defenders, swirled and hit an excellent scissor kick, only for me and other football lovers to look in disbelief as the ball rattle the bar! Mourinho has re-invented Benzema!

Later in the post match conference, Zagreb’s manager Krunoslav Jurcic admitted that Real played too fast and magnificent. For Mourinho, this was one delightful after a hard fought victory over Valencia in the Liga. In the post match conference, he said that his team was hungry to win. That said it all!