MCG crowd record as Real batters City
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REAL Madrid completed its preseason tour of Australia with a crushing 4-1 friendly win over a depleted Manchester City in front of a record soccer crowd of 99,382 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday.
Rafael Benitez celebrated his first win in charge of the La Liga glamour side since replacing Carlo Ancelotti and clinched his first piece of silverware.
The International Champions Cup may not take pride of place in the Spaniard’s trophy cabinet, but Benitez was pleased with his forwards’ ruthless demolition of a City side missing three leading central defenders.
After a subdued game in Real’s tournament opener against AS Roma, a penalty shootout loss, Cristiano Ronaldo was mesmerizing, scoring a goal and causing a headache for the City defense.
“It has been a very good time here,” Benitez told reporters. “Really pleased with everything.”
It was a bad night for City, however, with new recruit Fabian Delph carried off the field on a stretcher after suffering an apparent hamstring injury early in the first half. That followed Eliaquim Mangala’s withdrawal before the match due to illness, joining center backs Vincent Kompany and Martin Demichelis on the sidelines.
“We knew before the game that it was difficult to play against a team that has such good attackers with missing three central backs,” City coach Manuel Pellegrini said.
Karim Benzema opened Real’s account in the 21st minute, from a Gareth Bale cross.
Three minutes later, Ronaldo ran on to a sublime lofted through-ball from Toni Kroos and although keeper Joe Hart got a hand to the shot it still found the net. Pepe headed in a third a few minutes from the break.
City pulled one back in the half’s stoppage time through Yaya Toure, who slotted in a penalty after Real captain Sergio Ramos was penalized for handball when trying to cut off a threat from Raheem Sterling.
Denis Cheryshev scored the last goal for Real in the 72nd.
The 99,382 crowd was the MCG’s largest for soccer, eclipsing the 95,446 for a Liverpool-Melbourne Victory friendly in 2013.
Real now heads to China where it will play Italian clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan.
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