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Robben fires up the Ramos revival
Monday 12 January 2009
Juande Ramos's Real Madrid revival
continued with Arjen Robben inspiring their first away
win in La Liga since October.
For the man who won five trophies
in two seasons at Seville, it is almost as if the Tottenham
nightmare never happened.
Madrid were up against a side who had won at home only
twice all season. Their off-the-field problems forced
them to sell their best players in the summer and they
must find a buyer before the end of the month to survive.
Stories circulated in Mallorca last week that the former
Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd was on the verge
of buying the club for just €0.5m (£0.45m)
on the proviso that he would take on the club's €24m
(£21.5m) debt. But with no word from Shepherd
or the club, Mallorca continue staggering towards the
end of January in desperate need of a buyer to bail
them out.
The former Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra started
his second match for Real but the club's other transfer
window signing Klass-Jan Huntelaar was on the bench,
with Gonzalo Higuain returning to partner Raul who was
playing his 500th La Liga game.
Madrid took the lead inside three minutes when Robben
found himself in acres of space down the Mallorca left.
He cut into the penalty area and shot past Dudu Aouate
with the home side's defenders left arguing about whether
it should have been wing-back Enrique Corrales or central
defender Ivan Ramis' duty to track the former Chelsea
man's run.
Mallorca were looking every inch the side who have
not won in their last nine games while Madrid were playing
with renewed belief. It was 2-0 to the visitors on 17
minutes when Higuain burst through the Mallorca defence
and squared for Raul. The captain back-heeled the ball
over the line from just two yards out.
Real Mallorca brought on Jose Jurado at half-time but
Madrid continued to dominate with Robben a threat on
the break and it was the Dutchman who hit the post on
the hour after a pass from Rafael van der Vaart.
With their next attack Real did make it three, with
Sergio Ramos scoring from Fernando Gago's pass. The
stadium emptied, Real moved into second place in the
table and Real Mallorca edged closer to the abyss. Ramos
was happy with his side's third clean sheet and even
hinted that the interest in signing a winger before
the transfer window closes might have cooled. "I
am very happy with the squad that I have and I would
be content to take it through to the end of the season."
Real, it seems, are only interested in taking Wigan's
winger Antonio Valencia on loan until the end of the
season and are not keen to pay the Premier League club's
£15m asking price.
"We scored early and that made it easier for us,"
said Ramos. "We got the second goal at a good time
and then the third one finished them off. But it's the
first goal that is so important." Asked if the
side depended too much on Robben, with almost every
Real attack going down the right-hand side, Ramos added:
"No team depends on just one player. But it's true
that we have a player with great pace on the wing. Other
people do their job, which allows him to do his."
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