Girona: Gareth Bale needed just two minutes to mark his return from injury with a goal as 10-man Real Madrid held on for a 4-2 victory over Espanyol on Sunday.
Bale had been out since January 3 with a calf strain but made an instant impact off the bench at the RCDE Stadium, where Karim Benzema continued his own rich vein of form by scoring twice.
Sergio Ramos was also on target with a brilliant header before Leo Baptistao kept Espanyol in sight. Bale and Benzema seemed to have wrapped things up but Raphael Varane was sent off with 18 minutes left and substitute Roberto Rosales drove in to set up a nervy finish.
Madrid, however, survived for their fifth win in sixth matches.They may not be closing the gap on the league leaders but Madrid are gaining momentum, with the resumption of the Champions League just around the corner.
Benzema now has 15 goals this season and his first was a simple finish in the third minute, as he pounced on a rebound from Luka Modric’s shot. Ramos is their second top scorer with 10, his excellent header looping into the far corner, before Baptistao gave Espanyol a lifeline with an emphatic shot from the edge of he area.
But Benzema added a third on the stroke of half-time and when Bale, after replacing Vinicius Junior, made it four, it looked like the game was up.
Instead, Varane was sent off for bringing down Pablo Piatti as the last man and Rosales set Madrid’s nerves jangling by chesting and volleying past Thibaut Courtois with nine minutes left. Madrid held on and while Benzema’s surge, and Bale’s fitness, could yet prove key to their second half of the season, particularly in the Champions League. It looked as though the game was as good as over, but Real Madrid were then reduced to ten men with 70 on the clock as Varane was given his marching orders. This signalled the start of a better spell for the hosts, who came close to cutting the deficit two minutes later when Sergio García’s shot took a wicked deflection. (Agrencies)
