APOEL 0 – 6 Real Madrid – quick recap of Madrid’s Champions League victory
By Alex McVey
Real Madrid thrashed APOEL FC, with an ultimately scoreline of 0-6. Here’s your quick recap of Madrid’s comprehensive victory over APOEL.
Zidane rolled out a 4-4-2 that had “I’m going to do weird 4-2-4 Zinedine Zidane things” written all over it. Namely, Modric and Kroos were the only true midfielders, as Asensio and Vazquez were called on to take the wings in the midfield area. Ultimately, it played out fairly normally, but Madrid weren’t exactly precise. Asensio in particular looked off, with a number of missed passes stopping Madrid from progressing forward.
For the first 20 or so minutes of the match, it didn’t look like things were quite settled for Madrid. Real Madrid’s passing was sloppy, and their attacking play looked frustrated.
But things started to turn Madrid’s way once Luka Modric found his way onto the scoresheet. An APOEL player tried a cheeky backheel clearance that found itself directly onto Modric’s boot.
That opened the floodgates, as Real Madrid decided they were going to drop a massive scoreline on their Cypriot hosts. The much maligned Benzema picked up Real Madrid’s second goal. And it wasn’t long after that when Nacho picked up the game’s third off a corner that was assisted by fellow center-back Raphael Varane.
Madrid’s fourth goal was a thing of beauty, created by a bit of extremely unselfish play from Cristiano Ronaldo. Kroos sparked a counter-attack, Benzema dished to Ronaldo, who had an obstructed shot on goal around the keeper. But Benzema was wide open on an empty net, and Ronaldo made the pass that would get the certain goal instead of taking a shot that could have easily been blocked. It was intelligent. It was creative. And it defies all of the stereotypes people have of a Ronaldo who is so focused on goals that he forsakes his team. Already three goals up, Ronaldo decides to dish it to his buddy Benzema who’s also been having a hard time. It was absolutely lovely to see.
Ronaldo would only have to wait to the second half to get his karmic reward for his altruism. Ronaldo scored the game’s fifth and sixth goals. The fifth was a towering header off of a pin-point Marcelo cross. The sixth was him getting direct payback from Karim Benzema, who pressed the keeper to clatter the ball away to Ronaldo who shot on an open net.
The last twenty minutes of the match were slower, with APOEL finally finding some space to build into the match. Zidane brought on Theo and Ceballos, and later Mayoral, giving the B squad members some well-needed minutes towards the end of the match. Asensio started to grow into the match and began controlling things with his dribbling and use of space. Madrid sparked a number of counter-attacks, but nothing ever came of them, and the match finished 0-6.
Real Madrid needed a big, impressive victory, and they finally got one. Granted, this APOEL team was pretty poor defensively. But nevertheless, Real Madrid have been struggling to get the ball in the back of the net, so six unanswered goals could go a long way to helping Madrid rediscover their confidence.
As Tottenham defeated Dortmund on the other end of the bracket, Real Madrid are through and qualified to the knockout stages of the Champions League. With Madrid’s La Liga title hopes in real jeopardy, it’s at least good to know Madrid are taking the Champions League seriously. It might be their only opportunity left for silverware.
Next: Real Madrid's 9 lost points from unawarded penalties