Ronaldo leads Real Madrid to finally recapture La Liga title
CRISTIANO Ronaldo scored and Real Madrid won, but this was a familiar refrain with a strangely unfamiliar result. Because for only the second time in nine seasons, Real Madrid are Spanish champions. Barcelona, who have dominated La Liga since the turn of the millennium, needed Malaga to pull off the unexpected on the Costa del Sol but, fittingly, the Rosaleda outfit were already on the beach. While Malaga has proven a difficult place for top teams to go in the past, this end-of-season clash lacked the usual intensity of those games. A sloppy pass in the opening exchanges handed Madrid possession in the Malaga half and, before you could blink, Cristiano Ronaldo had rounded Carlos Kameni and tucked home the opening goal. They would never look back.
Takashi Inui had given Eibar their shock lead and as Yoel flung himself about at the other end, saving his side at every turn, Inui struck again with less than half an hour remaining to intensify Luis Enrique’s frown.
An own goal to bring it to 1-2 was not even consolation. It was torture. Their late rally and comeback was irrelevant as the fightback they needed on the Andalucian coast failed to materialise.
Indeed, Real Madrid’s attacking power and depth propelled them to this title win, eliminating all nerves with an early goal in this finale and also breaking a club record by scoring in each of their 38 league games over the season - a first in their 115-year history.
Karim Benzema scored their second at La Rosaleda and the title race was run. Zinedine Zidane, in his first senior job, has now won virtually everything he could have done within just 18 months. That elusive Copa del Rey shouldn’t be too far off.
But such things won’t be on his mind right now.