Higuaín leads Real Madrid to overcome Ajax in the first round of Champions League
Spanish side Real Madrid has managed to defeat Ajax Amsterdam in the first round of the 2010/2011 Champions League season. Real took the lead by an own goal from Vurnon Anita in the first half. Later Gonzalo Higuaín entered on the scoresheet which made it 2-0 for Real Madrid.
The pressure was big on Real Madrid’s new coach, Jose Mourinho before the match as it was his debut in the Champions League coaching the royal club.
In the first part of the match Real has clearly dominated. Particularly Sami Khedira and Gonzalo Higuaín caused danger in front of the Dutch goalpost with their long distance shots. The Argentinian striker even hit the post in the 18th minutes of the match. Ajax tried a few long distance shots too but they weren’t real chances that would have caused headache for world class goalkeeper, Iker Casillas.
As the time passsed, Real made some promising chances and dangerous situations. In the 27t Di Maria collided with Ajax goalkeeper, Martin Stekelenburg but the referee waved away the challenge.
The first goal came at the end of the first half an hour: in the 31th minutes following Xabi Alonso’s corner Higuaín headed and the ball has deflected on Vurnon Anita before it bounced into the net. Till the end of halftime Real has protected it’s well deserved 1-0 advantage against Ajax in the Bernabeu stadium.
The second half started the same way for Real as the first one. Mesut Ozil, Di Maria and Higuaín all have tried long distance shots several times but Stekelenburg always managed to save. Ajax, which had many young players in the team, still didn’t find their form that time.
Then in the middle of the second half Ajax seemed to recover: first Alderweireld had a promising free kick and soon after De Jong’s header has just missed the target.
In the 73th minutes Real has increased the lead to 2-0 with the help of Higuaín who scored the second time that night. Ajax still didn’t give up attacking and Emmanuelson hit the post, but they couldn’t score till the end, so the final result remained 2-0, a comfortable win for Real Madrid.
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