Villarreal 2-2 Real Madrid: Bale & Ronaldo goals cancelled out by Submarine strikes
The Welshman equalised following Cani's opener and, though the Blancos' No.7 gave the visitors the side, Giovani dos Santos saved the day for the hosts
Gareth Bale's debut was ruined by an admirable Villarreal performance as the newly promoted hosts held Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw.
The Welshman made his first competitive start for the club since his world-record move from Tottenham and he began repaying his huge fee by cancelling out Cani's opener at El Madrigal just before half-time.
Cristiano Ronaldo refused to be overshadowed as he put Madrid ahead with a breakaway goal after 64 minutes, but their lead was short-lived as Giovani dos Santos equalised just nine minutes later.
Carlo Ancelotti opted to start Bale on the right, with Isco in the centre and Ronaldo on the left behind lone striker Karim Benzema as midfielder Asier Illarramendi also made his first start for the Blancos.
Villarreal made just one change to the side that beat Osasuna 3-0 in their last La Liga fixture, with Dos Santos replacing Jeremy Perbet.
Despite the wealth of talent in Real's ranks, it was the home side who made the more positive opening and twice in the opening 15 minutes Jonathan Pereira was denied at the near post by Diego Lopez, but they got the breakthrough deservedly in the 21st minute.
Real failed to clear their lines with Pereira and Bruno Soriano both looking to pounce, but the ball spilled kindly to Cani, who smashed home into the bottom corner.
It could have been even worse just short of the half-hour mark when the influential Pereira played a sublime backheel to Javier Aquino, whose initial shot was saved by Lopez before the goalkeeper stopped the rebound.
Real were reeling but they should have been level on 34 minutes when Sergio Ramos chipped a superb pass over the top for Ronaldo, but he uncharacteristically steered his header wide.
Against the run of play, Real did get the equaliser, when Bale opened his account for his new club. Daniel Carvajal broke down the right before putting in a teasing low cross and the Welshman nipped in ahead of Mario and slid to poke home with his right foot from close range.
Villarreal had shouts for a penalty shortly after the restart when a Dos Santos effort struck Bale on the arm before Bale nearly irked the home fans further when his 25-yard drive went narrowly over the crossbar.
And the home side should have been back in front in the 54th minute. Dos Santos backheeled smartly to Pereira and his centre found Jaume Costa unmarked, but from eight yards he somehow side-footed wide.
Bale soon departed, withdrawn by Ancelotti, but that was the signal for Ronaldo to take over as he punished the hosts in the 64th minute.
He broke from his own half and laid the ball into the path of Benzema, whose initial shot was parried back to Ronaldo to fire a deflected effort that put Real ahead.
However, the lead lasted less than 10 minutes before Lopez parried Cani's shot into the path of Dos Santos, who drilled home the equaliser.
Villarreal pushed forward for a winner in the closing stages and Cani was denied a second when Lopez produced an outstanding save to stop his rasping drive.
At the other end, Ronaldo almost got the winner for Real in the 87th minute, but his fierce 20-yard effort was parried to safety by Sergio Asenjo.
Comments ...
Villareal produced a top class performance... Any top team would struggle away from home against such a quality collective performance....
It's the type of performance that forces top teams to be at their best if they want to win the game with a margin... in any other case it's hoping the individual surplus grinds out a win
Nick Parker31 minutes ago
Lopez saved the day, what an awful defense line at Real Madrid, none of them is trusted enough to carry the weight of managing the defense and the nature of the center players who lean more towards attacking than defending did not help. RM needs to rework it's defense strategy or it will take a beating after the other. Glad Gareth Bale managed to score on his debut, it'll give him confidence to score more. VillaReal were the better team, they deserved to win.
Madrid still has the problems from last season. People try to blame ronaldo always, but he, alonso, and sometimes oezil were the only ones that performed consistently last season. Ronaldo can't dig them out of a hole offensively and be expected to defend the whole game as well, no player can do that. Lopez was great, the midfield and defense had more holes in it than swiss cheese. Mostly the midfield was awful, and it is the midfielders fault. They need khedira, or another defensive mid, you can't play modric, illiarmendi, and isco unless you are playing a team with no offense, none of those three can defend or know how to fill the holes the others leave, they are always trying to get the ball and make a pass down field.
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ariian4556 minutes ago
1. Now that Ozil is gone, Ronaldo needs to step up and offer more defensively or at least be more dangerous in attack. Every time he gets on the ball he starts to walk towards a defender, tries to get past them, and then falls. He expects everyone to be watching him when he's on the ball but it only gives the opposition time to get back and organize.
2. Modric's work rate is excellent, but Ancelotti made a tactical mistake by playing two central midfield playmakers with no defensive midfielder, especially since Villareal have Gio dos Santos in attacking midfield and he could easily be crushed by Casemiro or Khedira, had they started and been ordered to tackle him hard.
3. Nacho is sooooo not good for left-back. It's obvious. First problem: he's right-footed. Second problem: he can't support in attack. Third problem: he lacks the experience and speed to deal with deadly attacks. Sorry but Ancelotti is trying to make it seem as if he's a late bloomer, but really he's just as bad as Bartra.
4. Benzema needs to realize when he's not doing good. When you haven't been doing anything all game, it's time to change the way you play. That's what the best players do. He should at least swap positions with Bale and/or CR7 when he sees that he can't be effective.
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+8
Racist49 minutes ago
Very good comment and analysis
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+2
Daniel Barton57 minutes ago
This is our first strong opponent so far in the league. With all due respect to the other teams we've faced, this was the first true test. And boy did we fail it miserably. We had seen glimpses of our failures from the previous games where we barely managed to win, but today we were exposed completely. Neither defense, midfield or attack is working. We dont have a strategy at all, the players are running around like headless chickens. Getting in each others way, sometimes leaving others to do the pressing, resulting in nobody doing it. Our defensive efforts are laughable, as evident by the fact that Cani could just jog straight through our midfield and fire a lethal shot which eventually led to their second goal.
With so many parts of our team failing it makes no sense to _only_ blame individual players. We have better players than Villareal, but what we dont have is better tactics. Or any tactics at all. Ancelotti has been promising offensive football for three months but we havent seen any of that. What we have seen however is a defensive meltdown.
Ofc, underperforming players is also key, but these are the players our coach wanted and selected to play..
Four games and counting, No plan still. Lets hope it changes soon.
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+5
