Twitter Reacts to Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez vs. Basel

Well, that was easy.

Real Madrid crusied to a 5-1 victory in their Champions League opener against Basel, blitzkrieging their opponents with a devastating attack force. After a 14th-minute own goal by Basel's Marek Suchy, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez all scored within six minutes of one another, starting with the Welshman's brilliant tally in the 30th minute.

Following an incisive and probing Luka Modric pass, Bale was sent free on goal down the left side, where he chipped the keeper, ran down his own effort and tapped it into the goal. A minute later, he was at it again, rocketing down the right side before playing a searing low cross into the path of Ronaldo, who had little to do beyond tapping it home.

Five minutes after that, it was Rodriguez who struck, cleaning up a rebound and giving Madrid their fourth goal. Not surprisingly, Twitter was abuzz after the match.

Here are the three main men sharing an embrace, per SportsCenter on Twitter: 

For Ronaldo, the goal was business as usual, as OptaJose noted:

It also took him one step closer to making history, per ESPN Stats & Information: 

Of course, that Bale fellow has arguably been even more influential than Ronaldo in the Champions League during his Real Madrid tenure, as WhoScored.com passes along:

On the other hand, Ronaldo still scores when he wants to. Consider this, from Squawka Football:

The real lesson here is that it's incredibly unfair that these two players should be allowed on the pitch together. Indeed, with so much talent present, the question heading into the season—and even during it—has been how all of the talented Los Blancos would jell together or what formation they'd play.

Dermot Corrigan of ESPN believes the team has found a Ronaldo-centric solution:

Perhaps lost in the shuffle of Real Madrid's top dogs all hitting the twine was that Rodriguez made the brightest of UCL debuts for Real Madrid, per WhoScored.com:

Indeed, according to the statistics site, only Gareth Bale earned a higher match rating (8.6) than Rodriguez's 8.5, which also tied him with Karim Benzema and put him ahead of Ronaldo (8.0). It would seem the World Cup star is in his element with Real Madrid. 

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

And it would seem that all of the Galacticos are playing together quite nicely. Indeed, last year's defending European champions looked as though they'll be just as difficult to defeat in this year's tournament. Basel learned that lesson the hard way on Tuesday.

They certainly won't be the last team to learn it, however.