An imperfect 10: Booed Benitez gets HUGE helping hand
COMMENT: Madrid racked up double figures at the Santiago Bernabeu, but Rafa's side had looked awful until two Rayo players had been sent off and fans remain far from convinced
The scoreline does not begin to tell the story. Real Madrid thumped Rayo Vallecano 10-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday afternoon, but they needed a huge helping hand from the match officials.
At 11 versus 11, the home side were 2-1 down and dreadful. Against nine men, however, things were much more straightforward.
Benitez was booed before the game as the fans showed frustration following last weekend's 1-0 defeat at Villarreal, when Madrid had failed to perform until the second half and Rafa had complained that they had been asleep for the first 45 minutes.
And it happened again in this one. Danilo gave them the lead, but Rayo netted twice inside two minutes to turn the game around. The little club from one of the city's most humble neighbourhoods, with a budget hundreds of millions inferior to their illustrious rivals, were all over Madrid's millionnaire megastars at the Santiago Bernabeu no less.
From a Real point of view, it was embarrassing and there were numerous chants of "Florentino, resign" after the second goal aimed at president Perez as fans showed their ire just as they had done in the 4-0 Clasico loss against Barcelona last month and again in the 4-1 win over Getafe in Madrid's next home game.
But everything soon changed. Moments after Keylor Navas
had denied a third goal to a rampant Rayo with a fine save, the match
was turned on its head. First, Tito was shown a straight red card for a
dangerous challenge on Toni Kroos. Then, Gareth Bale headed home for 2-2
and shortly afterwards, Madrid were awarded a highly contentious
penalty after Raul Baena was alleged to have pushed Sergio Ramos in the
area. It was a scandalous decision.
To make matters worse, it also brought a second yellow for the Rayo defender, who trudged off the pitch in a mixture of disbelief and despair. And Cristiano Ronaldo converted from the spot to make it 3-2. With an hour still left on the clock and two men up, there was only one winner now.
Bale scored again before the break, but there were whistles for Madrid at the interval and they were deserved. Real were 4-2 ahead now, but the fans had not liked what they had seen - especially in the first 20 minutes.
Madrid racked up six more in the second half as Bale scored four for the first time as a Madrid player, before being substituted as Ronaldo began to look annoyed at Gareth getting all the goals.
To make matters worse, it also brought a second yellow for the Rayo defender, who trudged off the pitch in a mixture of disbelief and despair. And Cristiano Ronaldo converted from the spot to make it 3-2. With an hour still left on the clock and two men up, there was only one winner now.
Bale scored again before the break, but there were whistles for Madrid at the interval and they were deserved. Real were 4-2 ahead now, but the fans had not liked what they had seen - especially in the first 20 minutes.
Madrid racked up six more in the second half as Bale scored four for the first time as a Madrid player, before being substituted as Ronaldo began to look annoyed at Gareth getting all the goals.
When the Welshman netted his fourth, Cristiano petulantly smashed the ball back into the net and moments later, he held his arms aloft as the ball went to Bale and not to him. In what looked like a diplomatic decision by Benitez, the former Tottenham man was substituted straight afterwards.
Ronaldo had scored a second earlier on, but was unable to add to that tally. But Karim Benzema hit three - including two late strikes - to complete his hat-trick too and Real ran out 10-2 winners.
Not that it really mattered now anyway or convinced anyone either. Madrid recently beat Malmo 8-0 here as well, but have been desperately disappointing against teams like Barcelona, Atletico, Sevilla and Villarreal this season. So a 10-2 win against a side playing with nine is unlikely to reassure the supporters.
"La Liga has lost credibility," furious Rayo boss Paco Jemez told the media after the game. "We feel downtrodden and humiliated. I have never seen anything as shameful as this. My players are crying and not because of the 10 goals, but because of what happened. I feel sorry for them. This kind of thing shouldn't happen anywhere."
When he had answered all of his questions, Jemez left the press room and added: "Merry Christmas to everyone - including the referee."
Benitez came out next and said: "There have been games when decisions have gone against us and I haven't spoken about those." And on the boos before the game when his name was announced, he added: "I am lucky enough to come out just before kick-off so I didn't hear them."
The frustration, however, is real - and it will take more than goals to convince Madrid fans that this team has a genuine shot at winning a trophy this season - or even success in their first fixture away to Valencia in 2016.
As Rafa departed, the Madrid coach also bade farewell with a timid "Merry Christmas". On this evidence, however, it will be anything but a Happy New Year for Benitez at Real.
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