Real Madrid hosted former coach, Manuel Pellegrini, and his Andalusian side, Malaga, in a match where only one team showed up. A hat-trick from Cristiano Ronaldo, a brace from Karim Benzema, and singular goals from Angel Di Maria and Marcelo were enough to extend their perfect home record with a 7-0 win.That wins means that Real Madrid still has a 100% home record. Maximum points have been collected at home. However, the win still means that they trail by seven points behind a Barcelona side that came out with a 1-0 victory over Valencia the night prior to this game.
As a side note, Manuel Pellegrini admitted after the match that he had rested some of his first team players for that game because they had played on Monday, and will host Osasuna on Sunday. Apparently, he was complaining about the same thing that somebody else had complained about just some days ago, and was almost crucified for it. It really is a "hypocritical" world we live in.
However, in all the hullabaloo that was the 7-0 thrashing, Cristiano Ronaldo had to be taken off the field and into the dressing room because of an injury he sustained when he completed his hat-trick for the night.
The team's official website then came out with an announcement this morning:
"A magnetic resonance done at Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital has determined Cristiano Ronaldo has a Grade I muscle injury on the left biceps femoris muscle. The player will miss 10-15 days. His recovery is being monitored."
This new development now means that the Portuguese will definitely be out of this Sunday's clash with Racing Santander, and could even possibly miss the second leg tie against Lyon two weeks from now. Bad news.
It doesn't come as a complete shock, however, considering how many minutes he has played this season. Jose Mourinho has put so much trust in the Portuguese winger this season, that before the match against Malaga, he had played a total of 3771 minutes out of a possible 3780 minutes in this season. He also happens to have scored 43% of the team's goals.(He has scored 28 goals his season according to Marca). That's a lot for one player, and one could have easily anticipated this injury a while ago.
That said, with or without Ronaldo, the team should be able to produce results. Now Mourinho is tasked with the duty of tweaking the squad/formation a little to adapt to Ronaldo's absence.
I'd hate to be in his shoes now, but with the number of squad members on the team (25), there should be quite a few options. He could do a like for like replacement, and give Pedro Leon a shot on the wings, or move Ozil to the wings, and slot in Kaka in the middle. Or he could switch to a 4-3-2-1 formation, and play with three central midfielders and a lone striker. He could even go for a 4-2-2-2, with Adebayor and Benzema in front.
Also, Fernando Gago has been reported to be out for three weeks due to a knock he had during training. This is particularly interesting because Lassana Diarra is suspended from the trip to Racing on Sunday, and Sami Khedira is still out due to the injury he sustained against Lyon. This leaves Xabi Alonso as our only natural defensive midfielder. The team has played with at least two holding midfielders so far this season, so this could be a game were Estaban Granero will be trusted to partner Alonso.
On the whole, we will be seeing a lot of changes to the line up in the coming week. It will be interesting to see how Jose Mourinho approaches the next few games, but I do hope Ronaldo gets back in time for Lyon match. That might just be our most important match of the season.
Speaking of Ronaldo, if you're a La Fabrica enthusiast, and want to know about our future (and hopefully better) Ronaldos, read Deepak's piece on how they've fared so far.
I would also like to welcome our newest writer, Pamela. She has agreed to help us in keeping the blog active.
As always, you can follow us on Twitter: @Muna_092 , @rmcanterano and @Pamela_.
Hala Madrid!
Muna
