Gareth Bale scores two goals on Real Madrid home debut.. but then Cristiano Ronaldo hits hat-trick
Gareth Bale scores two goals on Real Madrid home debut.. but then Cristiano Ronaldo hits hat-trick
World's most expensive player introduces himself to the Bernabeu with two first-half strikes in bonkers 7-3 victory over Sevilla
Bueno! Bale jumps for joy after netting his first Real goal on his Bernabeu debut
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Gareth Bale scored two and made two more goals in his Real Madrid home debut - yet still found himself over-shadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo.
On a crazy night at the Bernabeu, Real beat Sevilla 7-3 with Ronaldo
scoring a hat-trick after watching Bale - who replaced him this summer
as the world's most expensive player when he moved from Tottenham - hit
the first two goals of the night.
Carlo Ancelotti's side have only
shown glimpses of their immense attacking potential so far this season,
while Madrid fans have not seen the best of Bale as the Welsh winger
battled for full fitness following his record-breaking summer move from
Spurs.
Both those issues were put to bed on Wednesday though, with
the influential Bale scoring twice in the opening half-hour - the
second a free-kick that took a huge deflection - and going close on two
more occasions early on.
Bale might also have had a further chance to notch his
hat-trick when Madrid were awarded a 32nd-minute penalty but Ronaldo,
who was also obviously keen to make a statement of his own in the match,
took the kick to open his account for the night.
Ronaldo
celebrated that goal with a military salute, seemingly in response to
FIFA president Sepp Blatter's comments about the Portugal international
which had caused a storm in the build-up to the match.
Madrid and
Ronaldo and his club interpreted comments made by Blatter in an address
to the Oxford Union last week as a serious slight on the player and led
to the FIFA chief apologising on Tuesday night.
Ronaldo did his
talking on the pitch on Wednesday, and he completed his hat-trick with
further goals in the 60th and 71st minute, both efforts coming in
between a second-half brace from Karim Benzema.
Sevilla also impressed as an attacking force in an
incident-packed game as well, and they recovered from 3-0 down to 3-2 at
half-time thanks to goals from Ivan Rakitic (penalty) and Carlos Bacca
just before the break.
Rakitic added his second of the night just
after the hour to make it 5-3 and he should really have notched a
hat-trick himself only to miss his 75th-minute penalty.
Sevilla finished the match with 10 men after Stephane Mbia was sent off.
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