3 Real Madrid players who shined with their National Team

Real Madrid players are wrapping up with their first round of national team duty of the season. Real Madrid had a number of players who did well with the national team. Here, we take a look at three standouts.

1) Cristiano Ronaldo – Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t even gotten to make his La Liga debut yet this season, due to his suspension for pushing a referee in the Spanish Super Cup El Clásico. But that didn’t stop him from making a splash with his national team.

Reports suggested that Ronaldo was ready to use the International break as an opportunity to shut up his haters. And shut them up he did.

Ronaldo managed to score a hat-trick in Portugal’s 5-1 win over the Faroe Islands. In the process, he scored a wonder-goal the likes of which he has been trying to score for a very long time. The bicycle kick had long been an elusive goal for Ronaldo. But he finally managed to put one of his many flipping bicycle kick attempts into the back of the net.

Ronaldo’s hat-trick against Faroe Islands saw him join an elite group of goalscorers. Namely, Ronaldo surpassed Brazilian legend Pele with his 77 goals to become the #5 goalscorer in international football. His eyes will certainly be on the prize as he looks to surpass the remaining four goal-scorers on the list.

Not content to simply score the goals, Ronaldo also proved creator when Portugal took on Hungary. Ronaldo’s cross set up Andre Silva for the goal that would see Portugal defeat Hungary 1-0.

2) Keylor Navas

Keylor Navas was on duty with the Costa Rican national team, and put in a series of outstanding performances. The Tico-Man showed that his good form going into 2017-2018 is likely to continue.

After suffering an abysmal start to the season last year, Navas has been on something of a redemption tour with Real Madrid. He has been on point for the first few matches of Real Madrid’s La Liga campaign, and on National Team duty he showed similar form.

An absolutely outrageous statistic highlights just how important Navas was for Costa Rica. As Thomas Floyd from Goal.com reported, the previous two times Costa Rica played the U.S. without Navas in goal, the aggregate scoreline was 6-0 to the U.S. With Navas, though, the scoreline over two matches was 6-0 to Costa Rica.

And it’s not like Navas didn’t have anything to do against the U.S.

Navas managed to pull off this sprawling, last-ditch save to deny the American wunderkind Christian Pulisic.

Navas’ outstanding form continued as Costa Rica faced off against Mexico. Despite the insistence from Mexico’s goalkeeper Memo Ochoa that the match was not the Keylor vs Memo show, the two goalkeepers really stole the show as the two CONCACAF teams faced off in their World Cup qualifier.

If Keylor keeps pulling off saves like these, Real Madrid will have no regrets about not going out to sign another keeper this summer.

3) Isco

Every now and then, a player comes along who is so good, that even fans of their team’s rivals have to just sit back and admire a master at work.

Isco Alarcon is proving to be such a player. One look no further than Barca twitter’s unusal outpouring of love for the Madrid maestro to see just how important Isco is becoming not just to Real Madrid, but to the entirety of Spain.

Isco switched his white shirt for a red one, and put on a spectacle for those who came to see La Furia Roja in the blockbuster fixture of the international break: Spain vs Italy.

This match promised to give football fans some insight into the shifting tectonic plates of world football. Would Italy continue on the promise that they showed under Antonio Conte? Would Spain continue their precipitous decline from the heights of World Football?

All of this chatter was put to bed as Isco absolutely embarrassed the Azzurri.

Isco showed that if he is the future of Spanish football, the future of Spanish football is bright indeed. Memories of Spain’s thrashing at the last world cup melted away as Isco showed the kind of midfield dominance that Spain were known for during their reign of glory.

The one moment everyone will remember from his weekend of domination is the nutmeg on Veratti.

As memorable as that moment is, it doesn’t truly capture  the majesty of Isco’s performance. Looking at the statistics and a map of his involvement gives you a much better idea of just how overwhelming Isco proved to be for the Italians.

Not only did Isco score from both of his shots, he was all over the pitch in terms of his passing and his dribbling. Isco was the main man for Spain. If, as some have speculated, Isco is the natural heir to Andres Iniesta in the Spanish lineup, then he is proving that he is up to the task.

Isco finally won the war for a starting place in Madrid’s lineup over James Rodriguez. He’s now proving that Zidane’s faith in the starlet wasn’t misplaced. Let’s hope Isco continues this scintillating form as Real Madrid return to action again in La Liga and the Champions League.

Next: Cristiano Ronaldo returns from International Duty

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