This weekend I was lucky enough to go to the Bernabeu to see Real Madrid play, my first experience of a football match outside of England, and here's what I thought:
Real Madrid are a fine, fine team and an unbelievable club. Just walking around the outstanding Santiago Bernabeu stadium you see the amount of history and pride the city of Madrid takes in its most successful club. The sheer number of gleaming trophies sat on the route of the tour around the stadium shows how immensely successful Real Madrid have been over the years. Footage of legends such as Di Stefano, Puskas, Raul and Zinedine Zidane is on repeat around the stadium, with the shirts of even more legends hanging from the walls.
Game time and the Bernabeu is slowly filling up. Out on the pitch, there's Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Mesut Ozil, Xabi Alonso, Ricardo Carvalho and Iker Casillas idly warming up in their usual routines. Lassana Diarra and Maxwell have a kick-about in a break between drills. Jose Mourinho watches calmly from the sidelines. This stellar line up is only bettered in the world by the arch rivals and the 'Unmentionables' in this area; Barcelona.
An initially tepid reception soon warms up as Madrid begin well; chances had already come and gone by the time Kaka coolly slotted Los Blanco's ahead on eight minutes and they carried on coming forward. Iker Casillas made a very useful save from Tamudo but Madrid were in control and Cristiano Ronaldo was in his usual form; going from extraordinarily skillful to boyishly petulant in a matter of seconds, but his good side was summed up with an audacious back-header that left Estrada for dead; only to see the offside flag. No to worry, he made amends with a low strike soon after and an easy header from Ozil's corner made it three-nil and virtually game over at half-time.
The second half began in a strange mood; Real's superstars had clearly taken their foot off the gas and Sociedad managed to put some passes together. Casillas was again called into action to make a couple of decent saves; while Kaka hit the pass and Emmanuel Adebayor was guilty of glaring mis-kick in front of goal. There was the hint of an unlikely comeback when Tamudo's shot was saved by Casillas but the ball cannoned off of Alvaro Arbeleo and in to the annoyance of the 74,000-odd in the Bernabeu. Again, not to worry, a stylish move from Madrid ended in a good finish from Adebayor to make the final score a convincing four-one to Los Merengues.
The verdict? When they're in the mood, Real Madrid are a fine attacking force. Xabi Alonso and Lassana Diarra (who was man-of-the-match against Sociedad) form a solid base for Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Mesut Ozil to wreak havoc on the opposition, and the return of Gonzalo Higuain will mean they have a proven goalscorer up top. Defence is still slightly suspect, although they have the world's best goalkeeper in Iker Casillas to back them up, but the big question is can they catch the Barca? They are now seven points behind their big rivals, but the bridge is a big one to gap.
Barcelona have proved now that they are the best team in the world. Their 3-0 win over Athletico Madrid is proof of that, if not the thumping 5-0 victory over Madrid earlier this season. But in my opinion, Real Madrid are the second best team in the world. The prestige surrounding the club secures that. And this opens the big question, which is better: Spanish football or English football?
Well this weekend was a fine example of why England is the answer to that question. Barcelona and Real Madrid both gained three goal victories; both over top-ten sides in Spain with not too much trouble and their star players getting easy goals for their teams. And what about England? The bottom team, Wolves, beats the top team, Manchester United. Arsenal surrender a four-nil lead to draw four-four with Newcastle. There were 41 goals just on Saturday; an average of over five goals a game. This compared to 21 in Spain. Espana has the two best clubs in the world (Barcelona and Real Madrid) ahead of England, but the Premier League is a better league than La Liga. And that's why English football beats Spanish football; just.
But the experience of the Bernabeu is something that has to be taken in by any keen football fans. Next stop - The Nou Camp.
And here for your viewing pleasure is Cristiano Ronaldo's skill against Real Sociedad. I saw this live, me.
NWR
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