It was a scoreline that almost certainly reinforced the popular opinion that La Liga is a much easier league for the top teams than the English Premier League. After 12 minutes, with Rayo Vallecano leading 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid, the odds you would’ve been on the receiving end of a 10-2 home victory would’ve been lottery-sized.
What a shame that the man in the middle had to spoil this particular match.
Rayo it has to be said, are usually quite accommodating opponents in any event. Manager Paco Jemez has previously noted that he “isn’t bothered” if Rayo lose by four, five, six or even seven, as long as his players have stuck to the directive that he has given them in the first instance.
Fans of La Liga love him for it and that’s why he is the overwhelming favourite to take over the Spanish national team job when Vicente Del Bosque retires after Euro 2016.
Even the Marquis would’ve been embarrassed at the pasting handed out to Jemez’s crestfallen players.
In the aftermath, Jemez himself was almost disconsolate. Per Richard Martin of Sport, Jemez noted:
“It has been a long time since I have seen anything as grotesque and shameful as today.
Today we all lost.
I want to forget about the unsporting behaviour as soon as possible and try to support the players, who feel trampled on. What happened today should not happen again. It was unjust and it really hurt me to go into the dressing room and see my players, who are professionals who live to play in these games, crying their eyes out out.
The game lasted as long as we lost two players and we conceded the penalty. There’s no way you can deal with that. I’m sure the Madrid supporters enjoyed it, but I would have rather seen 11 against 11. It would have been better for everyone. Merry Christmas to everyone, including the referee."
Madrid have enjoyed some stunning victories over the last 12 months of course, putting nine past Granada and eight past Deportivo La Coruna.
Just 12 days before, Malmo were sunk by 8-0 in the Champions League and Espanyol have already been hit for five earlier in the campaign. There are most definitely goals in this team.
But it does beg the question as to whether it’s actually necessary. La Liga has always worked on the head to head rule in any event, goal difference just doesn’t count.
Back in 2009/10, although Real ended up finishing three points behind Barcelona, they would’ve still lost the league on the head to head ruling despite scoring 102 goals and having a preposterous +67 goal difference.
You can only play what’s in front of you of course, and in many respects, Real can’t be blamed for making full use of their numerical advantage.
However, Jemez’s words largely suggest that an unwritten professional code has been broken. That the way in which Real went about their business knowing that their opponents had little chance of getting back in the game was, dare we say it, a little unprofessional.
It will certainly spike the argument again of Cristiano Ronaldo only managing to score against the perceived “smaller” clubs but that’s a side issue for another time.
On the day, Madrid’s record scorer even felt the need to tell the supporters to keep quiet.
Before the goal rush had begun, the hard-to-please Madridistas were booing and whistling at manager Rafael Benitez and even at Ronaldo himself each time he touched the ball.
Sergio Ramos leapt to his colleagues defence saying:
“The fans are free to cheer or boo, but so are the players to express their views.
Cristiano is used to saying what he thinks. Today we were booed when the team most needed support. It wasn’t there, but we have to remember the good thing which is the team knew how to react.
It is a complicated situation because we aren’t where we want to be. The fans are very demanding and they always want the team to win and play well.
We have to stay calm, united and get the results to achieve our objectives.”
Whether those objectives are scoring 10 goals against a deflated nine-man opposition is a moot point. It was the first time that any team had scored 10 in a La Liga fixture for 55 years and it would be worth posing the question to other managers in the league to see if they might have reacted differently.
Is it bad sportsmanship? Couldn’t Los Blancos have played their opponents off of the park without feeling the need to hand out quite such a lesson?
Or is it purely great players doing the professional job for which they are paid quite handsomely?
You decide...
