Real Madrid didn't win LaLiga matches without Cristiano and Benzema...until Bale
Without either the Portuguese or French marksmen on the pitch los blancos have drawn twice and lost twice in the league. Ronaldo has never scored at Anoeta.
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Until today, Matchday 36, ever since the 2009/10 season, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema signed for Real Madrid, the club have not won a LaLiga game in which neither man has featured. And it was thanks to another of their huge money signings that the trend was broken in Anoeta as Gareth Bale dominated his oppenents in the air eventually getting the headed winner with just over 10 minutes to play. Has Zidane now found a solution to the few occasions when he's without his top two strikers?
The importance of Cristiano and Karim to the team in the last 6 years had been highlighted by the fact that Los Merengues had only had to make do without at least one of them on the pitch for four matches. Since luring the ex-Man United and Lyon starlets to the Spanish capital, 263 of Real Madrid’s league appearances have featured one or both of them. Today's game marked the fifth time the team have had to go to battle without their two favoured war horses. Of the four previous occasions Real were forced to plough ahead without the pair, they drew twice and lost twice (see table). Just as the title race approaches the final furlong, Zidane again found himself down two potent goalscorers. Cristiano has notched up 31 league goals, while his French team-mate has netted 23.
The last time the number 7 and 9 didn't play came during the 2013/14 season. The team, then managed by Carlo Ancelotti, had set their sights on winning the Champions League (a feat they would eventually accomplish) and as such the Italian coach rested his talismatic forwards. Madrid wound up losing 2-0 at Balaídos. Prior to that, Anoeta just so happened to be the scene of the Ronaldo and Benzema-less Real Madrid league performance. On that occasion the Chamartín outfit were held to a 3-3 draw. And Sporting benefitted from both men being absent before that on two separate occasions, holding out to record a nil-all draw at el Molinón and then celebrating a famous 1-0 win at the Bernabéu.
To date Cristiano has played 234 LaLiga matches (sitting out a mere 29) and Benzema has clocked up 213 appearances (sitting out 50).
Anoeta remains a stain on Cristiano’s otherwise impeccable goalscoring map of Spain. The Portuguese is yet to score in San Sebastian, making Real Sociedad’s stadium, along with the new San Mamés and el Arcángel, the only ground in which he has failed to find the back of the net. However, it’s hardly surprising that he has so far struggled to get off the mark at Anoeta, having only played two out of a possible seven games there.