Almeria vs. Real Madrid: Winners and Losers from La Liga Game
Real Madrid will travel to Morocco for the FIFA Club World Cup with their winning run still intact after they beat Almeria 4-1 on Friday night.
They are temporarily five points clear of Barcelona, who play Getafe on Saturday in the Spanish capital.
It wasn't as easy as the scoreline suggests, though.
The Andalusians were briefly level at 1-1 and also had a penalty in the second half to make it 2-2—which they missed.
And Los Blancos proceeded to punish them.
The following slides take a look at the winners and the losers from Carlo Ancelotti's side's latest victory.
Winner: Ronaldo
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He may not have said it publicly, but Cristiano Ronaldo must be focused on breaking a record held by Lionel Messi.
Barcelona's No. 10 scored 50 times in the 2011-12 season; it stands as the record for the number of goals scored in a La Liga season.
Going into the match against Almeria, Ronaldo was already on 23.
For a while it didn't look like he would add to that tally, but two strikes in the final 10 minutes took him to 25 goals in just 14 league appearances.
Halfway there.
In scoring on a Friday, he also added his name to the list of players who have scored on each day of the week in Spain's top flight.
Perhaps not as sought-after as the record owned by Messi, but they all count for the Portuguese star.
Loser: Verza
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One swing of Verza's boot in the second half was enough to take the Almeria midfielder from a winner to a loser.
After Edgar Mendez had been felled by Marcelo, Verza was tasked with beating Iker Casillas from 12 yards and bringing the home side level for the second time in the game.
He failed; unfortunately that will be the lasting impression of his game.
It's a shame because the 28-year-old had scored his side's equaliser in the first half with a fine volley from nearly 30 yards.
His technique was spot-on, and the ball fizzed into the bottom corner—Casillas was helpless.
Winner: Isco
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Favourable circumstances may have led to Isco's extended run in the Real Madrid team, but he's certainly taken advantage of the situation.
Gareth Bale's injury was the reason he found himself in the side back in October; further injuries to Luka Modric, Sami Khedira and James Rodriguez have led to him keeping his place.
However, even without the injuries, there's a case for Isco now being included in Carlo Ancelotti's first-choice line-up.
He broke the scoreless deadlock in the 4-1 win against Almeria with a beauty.
Chesting down a diagonal pass just inside the box, he shimmied to the right, to the left, back to the right and then bent the ball precisely around Ruben Martinez into the corner.
Loser: Marcelo
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Brazil boss Dunga, per O Globo, (via Goal), was highly critical of Real Madrid left-back Marcelo during the week:
"How many times did Marcelo go into attack [at the World Cup]? Twenty. How many goals did he score or create? None.
How many times were we caught out with balls going over our defenders' backs? Three or four. You don't have to be a genius [to see the problems].
"
And the 26-year-old was unable to respond to his critic in Andalusia.
He was lucky to go unpunished for what looked like a deliberate handball in the first half and gave away a penalty in the second, which saw him at last go into the referee’s book.
Fortunately, Iker Casillas prevented the spot-kick from hitting the back of the net.
Winners: Bale, Casillas
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Gareth Bale and Iker Casillas also played their parts in Real Madrid's 20th straight win.
The Welshman's first-half header proved the winning goal, though Ronaldo then added the gloss.
Bale perhaps should have added a second as well.
His surging run from the halfway line deserved a goal, but he dragged his shot wide of the post on his weaker right foot—maybe he should have passed to Ronaldo, who was waiting for a tap-in.
As for Casillas, his penalty save at 2-1 was vital.
If that goes in, Almeria may have shown more resilience in the final 10 minutes, given they'd have had a point to hold onto and a winning run to end.
Instead, Madrid made the result comfortable and head off to the Club World Cup on an unbelievable 20-match winning run.
