Real give Riazor the blues

Posted Sunday, September 21, 2014 by Marca.com

Real Madrid put forth arguably their best performance of the young season with a comprehensive 8-2 victory over Deportivo on Saturday evening at the Riazor in La Coruna.

Wonder goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and James spearheaded the win for Los Blancos who snapped their two-game La Liga losing streak. Ronaldo would later add two goals to earn a hat trick, while Gareth Bale struck twice in the second half to pick up a brace and Chicharito Hernández opened his account for his new club with two late goals as well.

Real give Riazor the blues

Head coach Carlo Ancelotti made two changes to the side that played midweek against Basel in the Champions League as center back Raphael Varane and right back Alvaro Arbeloa were re-inserted into the back line. Joining them were Sergio Ramos and Marcelo, with the Brazilian playing at left back. Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and James manned the middle while Karim Benzema, Bale and Ronaldo assumed their normal duties in attack.

Bale would end up having the first scoring chance for Real as his 16th minute effort on a rebound after a Benzema shot was well saved by Depor keeper German Lux. But on 28 minutes there was no stopping a sensational header from Ronaldo who deposited an Arbeloa cross and thumped it into the left top corner of the net past a sprawling Lux to give Real a 1-0 lead.

But then seven minutes later James topped the Portuguese's world class header with a bit of brilliance of his own. Benzema fed the Colombian toward the top left part of the area and from there James fired a left-footer that curled perfectly into the top right corner to double Los Blancos lead.

Real extended their lead in the 41st minute when they tallied their third goal of the evening in front of the stunned Riazor faithful. Marcelo booted a long ball up to Benzema who suddenly found himself staring at Lux way outside the area.

The Frenchman started to round the stopper to the right but Lux grabbed him by the shoe to stop him. In the process the ball rolled to the onrushing Ronaldo, and with the referee playing the advantage instead of calling the foul, Ronaldo had an easy sweep into an open net to make it 3-0. Replays showed that Ronaldo was actually offside when the ball fell to him, however the call was not made and Deportivo found themselves.