BY ANTHONY PALMER
Granada were 19th in the table before taking on Real Madrid! The 24th minute Bale rounded the goalkeeper to put the Champions League team ahead. By half-time Ronaldo scored his 24th hat trick in total in La Liga, leveling with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. Benzema’s second score and Ronaldo’s fourth slam came under four minutes in the second half, let’s take a look at the never-ending goals from both sides:
Real Madrid: Gareth Bale 26, Cristiano Ronaldo 31, Cristiano Ronaldo 36, Cristiano Ronaldo 38, Karim Benzema 52, Cristiano Ronaldo 55, Karim Benzema 56, Diego Mainz 83 o.g and Cristiano Ronaldo 90
Granada: Ibáñez Castro 74
FIRST HALF
The game was pretty fair until half way through the first half, Real’s Gareth Bale left footed a slam from the left side of the six yard box in the bottom corner. The second goal came in the 31st minute when champion Cristiano Ronaldo drilled the ball from the center box to the bottom right corner. Only five minutes later with the assistance of James Rodríguez, Cristiano Ronaldo mirrored his first goal with a right foot shot from the center of the box connecting with the middle of the net. Fabulous 3-0 lead before half time occurred with one last smash from Ronaldo in the 38th minute with the help of team mate Bale. A hat trick in the first half and 12th in total makes Cristiano a force to be reckoned with, his glorious right foot whipped the ball outside the box to the top right corner. Sergio Ramos was rewarded a free kick in the defensive half after falling victim to a foul by Manuel Iturra in the 43rd minute.
SECOND HALF
Six minutes deep into the second half and Madrid landed themselves in a 4-0 relationship with the Spanish contenders. The 51st minute Real’s James Rodríguez crossed magnificently following a corner to Karim Benzema, he took a hold when he shot from the center of the box to the bottom right corner of the goal. What a corker! A blink of an eye later Ronaldo reminded us he was still presence! Assisted by good old Bale in the 53rd count Ronaldo struck lucky AGAIN with a close range header to center goal. Like a salmon fans tweeted, driving upstream Ronaldo is strong and vigilant. Benzema landed his second moment of glory with a steady right footed shot. Cooperation from team player Álvaro Arbeloa made the impossible possible! Scoring from a “hopeless” yet difficult angle, Benzema extended the shot to the bottom right corner of the net in the 55th minute. Granada’s Piti was shown a yellow card for a bad foul. Real Madrid substituted Toni Kroos for Asier Illarramendi whilst Granada CF replaced Fran Rico with Eddy.
At this point Granada are deflated like a Car Tyre with little enthusiasm left. With what looked like NOTHING in regards to scoring on their behalf Robert Ibáñez managed to sneak the defeatist’s one last glimmer of hope in before full time. 72 minutes in Youssef El-Arabi came forward with a steady ball and slipped it towards Ibáñez who scored from the box to the bottom right and with just 18 minutes left Youssef’s successful attempt left the Spaniards in an 8-1 situation.
In the calmest part of the match since kick off, no goals were scored for a further ten minutes. Unlucky for Granada the boys landed themselves an Own Goal by Diego Mainz. Madrid’s Álvaro Arbeloa received a yellow card for a bad foul followed by Spaniards Jeison Murillo being slapped with a yellow for the same behavior. 88th minute graced us with the cherry on top goal from who? Cristiano Ronaldo! Great footwork leading up to the final goal in which Luka crossed the final pass to the famous salmon whose header came from the center of the box to the bottom left corner.
AMAZING GAME AND AMAZING GOALS
