A strange game for Madrid. They beat Valladolid 3-1 and played pretty well in the first half but were very poor in the 2nd half. Once again Madrid went down early but reacted well as Roberto Carlos hammered a free kick through Valladolid's wall. A few minutes later Guti brilliantly fed Ronaldo and Ronnie's shot from outside the box went into the top left corner. Un golazo! It reminded me of a goal he scored in the 1999 Copa America final. Madrid's 3rd goal came at the end as Portillo (who came in for Ronaldo late in the match) nicely finished a low cross from the left by Solari. Here's the lineups from the match: 3 - Real Madrid: Casillas; Míchel Salgado, Pavón, Helguera, Roberto Carlos; Cambiasso, Makelele; McManaman (Miñambres, m.61), Raúl, Guti (Solari, m.73); y Ronaldo (Portillo, m.87). 1 - Valladolid: Bizzarri; Torres Gómez, Peña, Mustafá, Oscar Sánchez; Jesús (Caminero, m.70), Colsa; Sales, Oscar González (Olivera, m.77), Chema; y Pachón (Ciric, m.70). Nice games by Helguera, Pavon, Cambiasso, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo. Poor matches for McManaman and Makelele. Madrid, as has been their characteristic of late, didn't play spectacularly but they were effective. At least del Bosque did some squad rotation due to injury and suspensions as Guti and McManaman gave Zidane and Figo a rest. Madrid needs to do more of this as the battle continues on two fronts.
word! I watched the game, to be completely honest they didnt deserve to win, Valladolid had a couple of decent chances to equalize, however, as all we know, you dont deserve a result you must earn it. To think Morientes rejected the idea to enter the game, and Portillo said 'thanks' to VDB and el Moro scoring in the very few minutes he had on the pitch. DB had troubles dealing with the forward, he sat in the stands instead the bench! Add guti to that, he was erratic. Zizou had a knock from the midweek match vs Borussia and Figo had a suspension since he was ejected against Osasuna
Madrid does seem to be playing in La Liga like their saving something up. I'm not sure if that is a wise move but it's hard to criticize them now as they only trail Real Sociedad by a few points. I think Martin makes a good point that Madrid needs to rotate their squad a bit more. As Mario said, Zidane and Figo didn't play vs Valladolid only due to injury and suspension. If they were availbale they would have played and that is in my view a mistake. Madrid needs to rest a starter or two at times throughout the season, particularly when playing relatively weaker teams like Valladolid or Alaves.