All eyes on €90m man, but the one bought for a mere €35m scores

Shamrock Rovers 0 Real Madrid 1:BRIAN COWEN may have left last night's game at Tallaght stadium mulling on the idea that having a Real Madrid squad to flog at a time like this would bring in around 10 per cent of the cash all of the cuts proposed by Colm McCarthy are intended to generate.

Needless to say, nationalising then reselling Rovers would be less problematic but then it wouldn’t get you quite so far.

Of course, between wage bills, transfer fees and the like, the David and Goliath aspect of this game had been enthusiastically documented by the media since the day in June it was announced. With these two, though, the telling numbers just kept coming and the sight, prior to kick off, of stewards amassing an additional 23 chairs to serve as an overflow for the visiting side’s dugout provided yet more evidence of the distance between the respective worlds these clubs inhabit.

The hastily assembled row of chairs contained the likes of Karim Benzema (who would eventually score the game’s only goal having come on after the break), Wesley Sneijder and Miguel Salgado at the outset, but Ronaldo, much to the slightly cruel delight of the crowd, started.

The stadium announcer asked those present to give the Madrid players a “very special Tallaght welcome” and so, somewhat predictably, each name was followed by a chorus of boos with particular gusto evident when the former Manchester United winger got his mention.

Over the course of the 45 minutes that followed the world’s most expensive player provided a good deal of entertainment for the locals although not in the way he would have hoped. First, within 30 seconds or so of the start, Pat Flynn upended him just outside the box with a forceful challenge that ended a promising run. For some reason, Alan Kelly didn’t see fit to award a free kick on that occasion but Rovers continued to get, well, stuck in and when the Corkman penalised them a couple of times around the area the 24-year-old stepped up and stood over the ball for prolonged periods before firing well wide and, on his second attempt straight into the wall. It’s hard to imagine a goal for the home side could have brought a louder cheer.

Briefly, it looked as though the speed of the Spaniards’ passing and movement might leave the home side chasing shadows for the evening but Sean O’Connor provided the first hint that Rovers weren’t about to play second fiddle to their multi-millionaire opponents.

Having switched wings after just a few minutes with Slovakian trialist Peter Gal-Andrezly, the midfielder skipped between Marcelo and Guti before letting fly with a left footed shot that didn’t quite have the degree of curl required to sneak in at the far post.

O’Connor tried his luck again a little later from distance but missed the target while around the Rovers goal it took a handful of well-timed blocks by Darragh Maguire and Craig Sives to keep Raul, Guti and Gonzalo Higuain at bay.

Ronaldo was largely Ian Bermingham’s responsibility and the former UCD full-back will reflect with some satisfaction on his night’s work.

The Portugal international even kicked out at him off the ball at one point which may have been misdirected revenge after Sives had travelled some distance to clatter into the winger and pick up a booking for his trouble.

So, rather inevitably, some of the night’s novelty factor was lost at the break when Ronaldo along with eight of his team-mates was replaced by Manuel Pelegrini.

On came Benzema, a snip at €35 million from Lyon, to make his debut alongside some of the club’s other future stars and a handful of the 10 or so club president Florentino Perez would like to sell before the season proper gets under way.

With the new cast, the nature of an always entertaining game changed somewhat too. Perhaps having half the pressure to deal with or twice as much to prove as the club’s more expensive superstar on the pitch, Benzema added a good deal more bite to the Madrid attack although Rovers continued to cope rather well.

Up front, they twice came close to catching the visitors on the break with Dessie Baker overhitting his attempt to lob Jerzy Dudek as he left Garay trailing in his wake and then, a few minutes later, forcing the former Liverpool goalkeeper into a swift block as he tried to round him from a tight angle. When Alvaro Negredo then had to hook a Tadgh Purcell header off the line with Dudek well beaten there was the faint hint of a collective chuckle from the direction of Barcelona as Real began to look a little stung.

Rafael Van der Vaart produced a wonderful bicycle kick that required a stunning save by Robert Duggan but it was Benzema, after a couple of close things who provided the breakthrough, taking down Gabriel Heinze’s long ball quite brilliantly while holding off Aidan Price before coolly slipping the ball between Duggan and Ollie Cahill to score.

Sometimes, it seems, cash really does buy you class.

SHAMROCK ROVERS:Murphy; Flynn, Maguire, Sives, Bermingham; Gal-Andrezly, Rice, Robinson, O'Connor; Amond, Jurco. Subs: Price, Bradley, Cahill, Treacy, Duggan and Purcell for Murphy, Bermingham, Sives, Flynn, Jurco and Gal-Andrezly (all half-time), Baker for Amond and McGill for Robinson (55 mins), Twigg for O'Connor (71 mins), Madden for Maguire (80 mins).

REAL MADRID:Dudek; Torres, Metzelder, Pepe, Marcello; Gago, Diarra, Guti; Ronaldo, Raul, Higuain. Subs: Salgado, Heinze, Garay, Sneijder, Parejo, Drenthe, Van der Vaart, Benzema and Negredo for Pepe, Marcelo, Metzelder, Torres, Gago, Guti, Ronaldo, Higuain and Raul (all half-time), Tebar for Diarra (63 mins)

Referee:A Kelly (Cork).