Espanyol vs. Real Madrid: Winners and Losers from La Liga Game
Real Madrid picked up their second big win in a row in La Liga as they steamrollered Espanyol 6-0 away from home.
It was a record-breaking day for Cristiano Ronaldo, as he netted five of the six goals to well and truly banish his goalless start to the season. Karim Benzema netted the fourth goal to put Real well in control before half-time.
Here are all our biggest winners and losers from the fixture.
Winner: Cristiano Ronaldo
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Well, the goal drought is pretty much over.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first Liga goal of the season within minutes of kick-off, a fine finish into the far corner, and netted a hat-trick inside 20 minutes thanks to a penalty and a close-range strike on the run.
The No. 7 then also provided the assist for Karim Benzema's goal and remained a huge threat throughout—nothing unexpected from one of the world's best, of course, but he was still an unstoppable force with his movement, runs in behind and ability to time his diagonal sprints.
BeIN Sports broadcaster Kay Murray noted on Twitter that the fourth goal of the match for Ronaldo made him Real Madrid's all-time highest goalscorer in La Liga: "Cristiano scores a fourth and passes Raul to become Real Madrid's all-time top Liga goalscorer. 229 goals."
The two second-half goals he scored owed much to his team-mates' unselfishness, which he was quick to point out with his celebrations, but also to Espanyol's bizarre insistence of ignoring Ronaldo inside the penalty box.
Loser: Sergio
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Espanyol doubtless had a game plan, but they were undone early on and failed to rectify the obvious problems they had.
Manager Sergio should surely have seen that the huge gaps between the midfield and defence—and defence and goalkeeper—were easily being exploited by Real's pace in attack against a continually high defensive line, but he neither found a way to cut off the passing lanes nor asked his defence to play in more compact fashion to foil the runs in behind.
Sure, Real Madrid are a very good side and they can beat all or most Liga sides, but Espanyol have habitually struggled to contain Real and never looked close to stopping that form on Saturday.
Winner: Gareth Bale
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It was another extremely effective performance from Bale in his No. 10 role against Espanyol. He doesn't operate as a playmaker in the usual sense, of course, but that doesn't mean he doesn't construct Real's attacks—far from it.
His direct, pacy style means that the ball moves very quickly through the middle with Bale, perfect for making use of the diagonal runs from the channel runners and the overall speed and movement in attack.
Bale won the penalty, played in Ronaldo to set up Benzema, set up Ronaldo's hat-trick and then made a full-length sprint of the pitch to open the Espanyol defence and provide another assist on a plate for Ronaldo's fourth goal. It was an excellent display.
Winner: Keylor Navas
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This would typically be another "losers" slide—which this time would be all of Espanyol's back line together, for continually ignoring players stood in the centre of the penalty box.
However, it seems churlish to ignore a defensive player for Real Madrid after they did keep a third clean sheet to start the season with—Keylor Navas, in goal, deserves a mention.
The Costa Rican can't have had an easy time of things as the transfer window drew to a close, knowing that despite being the club's No. 1 goalkeeper, he wasn't really wanted...or at least, not as much as they seemed to want David De Gea. With the collapse of that transfer (and Keylor's to Manchester United), Navas was back to first pick and playing in goal, and he put in a typically assured and impressive display at the first time of asking.
He wasn't hugely threatened but made two big saves, one with the score at only 1-0 and one much later in the game, which wouldn't have been important in terms of the outcome but did keep his own clean sheet intact.
Winner: Rafa Benitez
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Three games, two wins, 11 goals scored and none conceded—Rafa Benitez will be pretty happy so far that his Real Madrid side are beginning to function as effectively as he wants them to in attack, yet they have remained tough to breach at the opposite end, too.
The boss will be scrutinised with every decision made and every team selection, which could come in for unnecessary criticism simply because it contrasts so totally with the "first XI" approach of Carlo Ancelotti.
Results like this give value to the rotations that Benitez will employ, however—as will wins that follow when the other stars come back into the team.
