Old habits die hard it seems, on both counts.
Gareth Bale’s first home start for Real Madrid wasn’t half lively this evening. The hosts beat Sevilla 7-3 with Ronaldo bagging a hat-trick and Bale and Benzema each scoring a brace, while Bale also escaped a yellow card despite a quite shocking dive in an effort to win a penalty.
Bale got Real off the mark with a lovely finish into the top corner from a Karim Benzema cross (see below) and doubled his tally with a deflected free-kick before half an hour had even elapsed.
Real Madrid vs Sevilla 1:0 Gareth Bale by footballdaily2
Obviously feeling confident, Bale even asked Cristiano Ronaldo if he could take a penalty to complete a hat-trick after Isco had been fouled, but Ronaldo refused and converted the spot-kick en route to a hat-trick of his own while sending out a message to Sepp Blatter with his celebration after the FIFA president’s not really that bad insulting ‘hairdresser’ remarks earlier this week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TVG-vvOHo8
Bale tried to win a penalty for himself with a pretty theatrical dive (see below) that earned him neither a penalty nor a yellow card and Karim Benzema bagged a brace as a game which pretty much had it all finished 7-3 to Los Blancos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GV2TjjTpCU
Not bad for a Wednesday evening’s entertainment.
Hat-tip: 101 Great Goals