Hercules 1 - 3 Real Madrid (Highlights): Cristiano Ronaldo on fire!

Hercules 1 - 3 Real Madrid
(1-0) 3' Trezeguet, (1-1) 52' Di Maria, (1-2) 82' Cristiano Ronaldo, (1-3) 86' Cristiano Ronaldo

Esteban Vigo may have predicted an unlikely away victory for his Hercules side at Barcelona, but a similar prediction for their home tie against Real Madrid left him a little red-faced. And that was after Hercules took a shock early lead when David Trezeguet expertly headed in a superb David Cortes cross, leaving Iker Casillas rooted to the spot. Real Madrid were reeling, hounded by an insatiable pack of Hercules players that were undoubtedly inspired by their managers rallying call. Madrids normally assured back four looked jittery, as the home side carved out several chances to grab a killer second. But it's games like this where Jose Mourinho really earns his bread, and after what Cristiano Ronaldo labelled the 'perfect orders' at halftime, Real Madrid turned it around in the second half with three goals, two of which were courtesy of a fantastic cameo from underfire striker, Karim Benzema. Hercules keeper Juan Calatayud had a nightmare with Angel Di Marias leveller just after the break, but there was nothing he could do as Benzema set up a late double for man-of-the-moment, Cristiano Ronaldo. That's 12 league goals for CR7 now and 40 goals in his last 41 matches. Simply irresistable.

Ridiculous debate of the year award: Who's worse Benzema or Villa?

I regard myself as a peaceful kind of guy. Very little rattles my cage, but every now and again a story will be published that will get me more than a little agitated. This morning I woke up to a debate of epicly ridiculous proportions: Who is worse....Karim Benzema or David Villa? I mean are we being serious? Debates between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo or Pele and Maradona I can understand. But this? Who is worse....a guy that has just helped Spain win the World Cup, beating Spains record goals tally weeks later, or a languid Frenchman that has failed to justify even a quarter of his mammoth €35 million fee and was left out of Frances World Cup squad after a shocking debut season at Real Madrid? After I had peeled myself from the roof, I decided there must be something more to it, aside from the customary Barca-bashing that the Madrid press so often participate in. I wasn't wrong.

The journalists in question may well be partisan, whiter than white, but they're not stupid. I don't genuinely believe they regard this as a rational debate. There's a little bit of history with David Villa and most of it involves the darling of the Bernabeu, Raúl Gonzalez Blanco. Many in Madrid see Villa as the man who stole the number 7 jersey off Raúl for the national side. The man who pushed Raúl out of the limelight, signalling the beginning of the end for 'El Gran Capitan'. They havn't done too badly since though, have they? Although to lay the blame at Villas door is unfair in the extreme, if indeed there is any blame to lay. He didn't pick the squads or the team, that wily old fox Luis Aragonés did.

Then we come to the record goals tally. No prizes for guessing who held the record before David Villa. Of course, it was Raúl, who managed 44 goals in the red and yellow of Spain before being forced to call it a day in 2008. Now that record has been broken by Villa after he slotted in his 45th goal from the penalty spot at Hampden Park. At only 28 years of age, there is surely a bagful of further goals awaiting 'El Guaje'. How that must bite at Marca HQ. And let's not forget, the striker from Asturias had a choice to make at the end of last season. Swap the white of Valencia for the white of Madrid, or travel up north to the Camp Nou. After choosing to join the red and blue of Barcelona, it's hardly surprising he's not flavour of the month in the capital.

So we come to this season. David Villa has been off-colour infront of goal, but even then he outguns Karim Benzema. With four goals to his name he is averaging a goal every 209 minutes in all competitions compared to a goal every 323 minutes for Benzema. The Frenchman has already had a year and a half to accustom himself to the demands made of any player at Real Madrid, whereas Villa has hardly had a chance to unpack. Have no doubts that soon, very soon, the real David Villa will stand up and Karim Benzema will be put out of his misery and shown the Bernabeu trapdoor. At which point we can look back on this silly, little debate and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Real Madrids Albanian Adventure: Gramozi 1 - 2 Real Madrid

Strange that halfway through the season, when teams are about to enter into the business end of proceedings, that Real Madrid should make a mid-week jaunt to Albania for a friendly against Gramozi Ersekë: a type of marketing exercise usually reserved for pre-season. Rumour has it that the president of their Albanian rivals, Rezart Taci, paid Real Madrid €2.5 million to play the Taci Oil Cup, a figure that Real pay out to Cristiano in wages every four months. As it was Real Madrid won through 1-2, and flew away from Tirana injury-free.

But it was certainly a huge risk to play Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo, both of whom have only recently returned from long injury lay-offs, on a pitch that had ligament damage written all over it. It also remains to be seen what will be the mental and physical cost of a trip to the other end of Europe, but what can be said is that given that they've already been knocked out of the cup, there was no reason not to earn a tidy sum of euros, whilst spreading the Real Madrid love to pastures new and giving a run out to players who have hardly featured in recent weeks; namely Raul, Guti, Dudek, Metzelder and Granero.

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The main bonus Manuel Pelligrini will take away from Albania was the return to goalscoring form of Kaká and Benzema, although the Frenchman also showed that his confidence still hasn't fully recovered since his move from Lyon. Unfortunately for the Albanians, whilst beforehand they wanted to show the world that one of Europes poorest countries could play host to one of the worlds greatest teams, all people are talking about after is the 90 minute blackout which plunged the stadium in darkness. No shame in that, given their financial situation severely limiting the facilities available, and Gramozi certainly did the country proud with a determined display that almost yielded a creditable draw.                        

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Back home in Madrid, the end is nigh for Ruud Van Nistlerooys stay in the spanish capital, with the dutch hitman on the verge of a move either back to the Premiership or to the Bundesliga, with Tottenham, Stoke and Hamburg all interested. Fernando Gago has also agreed a loan move to Boca Juniors which will see the midfielder move back home to Argentina until at least the end of this seaon.

FIFA 10 Blind Keepie-Up Challenge: Ronaldinho keeps it up like no other

To promote the new FIFA 10 computer game, EA Sports conducted a blind keepie-up challenge, with Xavi, Karim Benzema and Ronaldinho among the participants. Some of the attempts are comic genius, but then up steps Ronaldinho and pulls off 44. And just look at how he finishes it off.

 

Not gonna lie, he had me going for a minute. Fair play to Xavi though, 8 is a cracking effort. It's all about the knee-ups.