At the moment Real Madrid are scoring goals for fun. Tonight they scored three times in the opening ten minutes on their way to thrashing Dinamo Zagreb 6-2.
José Mourinho made six changes to the team that won 3-2 at Valencia on Saturday, butit was two of his regulars, Özil and Benzema, who were involved in the second-minute opener. Latching on to Fábio Coentrão’s pass, Benzema freed Özil down the left before calmly slotting his team-mate’s cut-back past Ivan Kelava. Benzema was involved again shortly afterwards, this time holding up play before releasing Callejón whose low drive from the edge of the area flew past the Dinamo goalkeeper.
Dinamo’s hopes of picking up a first point in the section looked doomed when Higuaín turned Leandro Cufré before dinking in adroitly at the near post. Unrelenting in their pursuit of a 250th victory in UEFA club competition, the nine-time European champions made it 4-0 in the 20th minute, Özil this time finding the net after Kelava palmed Higuaín’s shot into the Germany midfielder’s path.
Unfortunately for the visitors, the hosts emerged after the break looking to continue their quest for goals and they added to their tally when Callejón had time and space to finish with ease after accepting Raphaël Varane’s lofted pass.
Kelava did his best to keep the score down, denying Higuaín and Callejón with flying saves, but he was forced to pick the ball out of his net for a sixth time when Benzema placed a shot past him having played a neat one-two with Higuaín.
With top spot in the group secured, Madrid were hoping to remain the only team not to concede in this season’s UEFA Champions League but Beqiraj’s header eight minutes from time put paid to that, while Tomečak added a second before the end.
The two late goals will give Mourinho something to complain about, but that is 12 wins in a row and the team is playing with the confidence and swagger that such a winning streak produces.
