Sour debut for Woodgate

By European Football
September 22 2005

Jonathan Woodgate had one of the worst debuts that can be imagined: he scored an own goal and was sent off. His only relief was that Real Madrid finally won again, it was 3-1 against Athletic Bilbao. Now Woody will not be able to play again on Sunday, as he was expected to do.

The former Newcastle defender waited 18 months for this day to come, and such patience was rewarded with nothing else but bad luck. He should only be happy for his team, that is back to the winning days after beating Athletic Bilbao.

Real Madrid played as usual, and once again it was Bilbao that made difference, both for good and bad. Coach Mendilibar made several position changes between the regular starters, so the team looked very different. During the first half there was not much danger on any side. Bilbao, being clumsy on the ball when attacking and playing the offside trap when defending, were not working very hard to get a result, but it was enough to handle Madrid, that once again showed the same problems.

On 25 minutes, Etxeberría received the ball on the left, 15 metres outside of the box, and released a long range shot. Woody was standing in the way and tried to clear the ball with the head, but the ball went in after he deflected it as Casillas had moved into the opposite direction.

Close to the end of the first half, Woody slid in hard on Lacruz and got a deserved yellow card, with some red stains on it for him. And on minute 69, he fouled Etxeberría as the forward had turned on the ball past him and headed right towards the goal. It was a deserved second yellow card and thus Woody saw his debut finish the worst possible way.

Regarding the match, Bilbao came back to the second half too confident and lazy, and their performance was much worse. Madrid returned to the field with Guti in instead of Gravesen, and he started pulling all the strings in attack. Bilbao’s passing was even more ineffective and only created danger through some counterattacks or corner kicks. In defense, the offside trap did not work as in the first half, and the defensive line, standing quite forwards, was very unsafe.

The goals came in the minutes 52, 64 and 68. The first and the last one were by Robinho and Raúl, as they headed a free kick and a corner kick, respectively, by Beckham. The second goal was also scored by Raúl after Ronaldo made a run from the left through the backs of Bilbao’s defenders and assisted him.