<\/p>\n
Gareth Bale scored an outstanding long-range goal as Real Madrid beat Elche 3-0 at the Bernabeu on Saturday afternoon to go top of the Primera Division standings.<\/p>\n
The world’s most expensive player added to Asier Illaramendi’s first-half opener with a stunning strike on 71 minutes, and then substitute Isco hit a third with 10 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Although Madrid never hit top gear, they pulled off their 10th home win of the season to keep the pressure on title rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n
With neither of Madrid’s forwards enjoying their finest afternoon, it was left to the man who had been called in to deputise for Modric to get the opener.<\/p>\n
Illaramendi controlled a corner with his chest and then fired a low shot into the bottom corner of Manu Herrera’s net, to score his first goal for for Real Madrid with what was his first shot in the league this season.<\/p>\n
The goal settled Madrid, and Karim Benzema could have got the second before the break, his low shot saved by Elche goalkeeper Manu Herrera.<\/p>\n
Madrid’s second goal was certainly worth waiting a little longer for.<\/p>\n
Bale had struggled to get involved in the game and had a frustrating first half, giving the ball away on numerous occasions, but soon made amends – picking the ball up around 35 yards out and blasting high into the net to score his 10th league goal for Los Blancos.<\/p>\n
Isco replaced the off-colour Jese shortly after Bale’s screamer and almost provided the third goal for Dani Carvajal, who completely missed the midfielder’s low cut-back from a couple of yards, the ball instead rolling across the goalmouth.<\/p>\n
So the former Malaga man took care of the final goal himself, controlling a pass from Benzema then racing between two defenders to knock the ball in at the near post.<\/p>\n
And the Bernabeu faithful fully appreciated the youngster’s first goal of 2014, greeting the finish by chanting his name loudly.<\/p>\n
Gareth Bale scored an outstanding long-range goal as Real Madrid beat Elche 3-0 at the Bernabeu on Saturday afternoon to go top of the Primera Division standings. The world’s most expensive player added to Asier Illaramendi’s first-half opener with a stunning strike on 71 minutes, and then substitute Isco hit a third with 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,81],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions\/2124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}