Champions League: Real Madrid Destroys Schalke In Rare Win In Germany
The Champions League saw the full force of the “BBC” in Real Madrid’s crushing, 6-1 defeat of Schalke on their own turf — not an every day occurrence — which also marked the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, fresh from his three-game suspension and ended the winless curse for “los blancos” when playing in Germany
Wednesday’s last 16, first-leg clash turned out to be epic, with each one of the “BBC” trio — Benzema, Bale, and Cristiano (Ronaldo) — scoring, not once, but twice.
Real Madrid is now guaranteed a place in the Champions League quarter finals following their impressive performance.
Ronaldo also stole the title of top scorer for the tournament from Swedish player Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with a total of 11 goals so far and said he was happy with Real’s performance:
“The team has played a lot of good games and this is one more. We played well and didn’t allow Schalke to play at their best. We are happy and a step away from the next round.”
“The Schalke goalkeeper did very well and made good saves, but I believe in my ability and my teammates helped me a lot. I am very happy to score two goals.”
The star of the Champions League last-16 match was, however, was rising star Karim Benzama who not only scored two goals, but gave a thrilling performance fans won’t soon forget by perfectly complimenting Bale and Ronaldo’s playing style with timely assists.
Even though “los blancos” won by a wide margin, they must have been somewhat nervous coming on the field considering the dismal record the team has in Germany. This was only Real Madrid’s second win in 26 visits to the country and followed 18 defeats, including a 4-1 killer loss at Borussia Dortmund in last season’s Champions League’s semi-final match.
Together, the BBC trio have scored 70 goals this season. This is just the beginning… pic.twitter.com/5w6mlaB4ZE
— Isco Disco (@MadridistaFacts) February 26, 2014
Manager Carlo Ancelotti was pleased with what he saw in the Champions League match against Schalke:
“I’m satisfied with everything because that was the perfect game. My players played with togetherness and they played well. Everything came off for us. The (front three) all scored and were great but they also had help from their teammates. Our attacking trio are very dangerous.”
Here are the Champions League match stats:
Real Madrid 6 (Karim Benzema 13, 57; Gareth Bale 21, 69; Cristiano Ronaldo 52, 89), Schalke 04 1 (Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 90+1) at Veltins-Arena. Crowd: 54,442. Referee: Howard Webb.
[Image via Maxisport / Shutterstock.com]
