Without Ronaldo, just one shot on goal!

It was a game to gauge Real Madrid's performance in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese striker, who was suspended for the game, always has one eye on taking a shot at the opposition's goal. That is exactly what José Mourinho's side was lacking on Saturday. It had just one shot on goal and it came from Benzema in the last minute.



It was painfully clear that Real Madrid's attacking play overly depends on the work of its Portuguese superstar. It creates many more goalscoring chances with him on the pitch and more importantly, those chances are turned into goals.



It seems inexplicable that a team that fielded Higuaín, Di María, Modric, Callejón and that later brought on Kaká and Benzema could only manage one shot Andrés Fernández's goal. The Osasuna keeper wasn’t troubled in the slightest.



It's strange, but Real Madrid is the team with the most shots on goal in La Liga. It has managed a total of 150 shots, an average of 8.3 shots per game. Barcelona is the team with the second-highest number of shots with 133, or 7.4 per game. Despite these numbers, Madrid was ineffective in attack on Saturday.

Unknown, Monday, January 14, 2013