adminGELSENKIRCHEN. — They will have to win a few cups before they become truly worthy of the comparison, but there were shades of Real Madrid’s all-conquering forward line of the fifties Alfredo Di Stefano, Paco Gento and Ferenc Puskas on Wednesday night as the “BBC” ran riot here.
“Bale, Benzema and Cristiano” have now scored 70 goals among them this season and Real Madrid as a team have clocked up 110 in all competitions.
Cristiano Ronaldo leads the way with 36 goals — 11 of them in the Champions League and he is now only nine goals behind the competition’s top scorer Raul who scored 71 times in the European Cup.
On Wednesday night he was ably supported by Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale as they mauled sorry Schalke to make a mockery of the club’s so-called German jinx by becoming the first visiting team ever to score six in the European Cup on German soil.
Benzema has now scored 20 goals this season and Bale has 14.
The Welshman’s first in the 6-1 win on Wednesday night was as good as any goal scored in Europe this season, much as his strike at the weekend against Elche was a candidate for La Liga’s goal of the season.
“We prepared for the game to perfection” he said afterwards paying tribute to Real’s English coach Paul Clement who saw the masterplan come off to the last detail sat on the bench in the Veltins Arena alongside Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane.
Ancelotti said: “It was the perfect performance, the players were fantastic, it will be difficult to repeat.”
Marca declared the stunning six-goal salvo ‘clockwork orange’ and Diario AS hailed Madrid’s ‘bionic’ forward line.
There was some praise for Jose Mourinho for having laid the foundations for such a performance in his three seasons at the club but there was also a recognition that Ancelotti’s calmer management style has lifted a weight from his player’s shoulders.
Ancelotti told Gazzatta dello Sport last week: ‘We have some players here who are still boys here but we also have men, husbands, fathers and they don’t need a sergeant major’. On Wednesday his soldiers marched in unison with none of the internal conflicts that clouded last season hanging over them.
Ancelotti’s front-three stole the headlines but there were other signs of how he has the dressing room united in their attempt to land Madrid’s 10th European Cup.
There was an embrace between the coach and Angel Di Maria when he came off in the second half.
The Argentine had pushed for a move in the winter transfer window upset that Bale had taken his place but Ancelotti has converted the winger into a highly effective box-to-box midfielder.
Iker Casillas continues to be second choice in the league but last night he set a new Spanish record of 952 minutes without conceding a goal.
Only Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s late thunderbolt from the edge of the area could end the record run established in the Champions League and the Spanish Cup. — Mailonline
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter