Sports writing, Jul 17 (EFE) central Al Amri (min.51).
Benítez showed his cards in his first summer game. The Madrid coach wants a team that defends with the lines together, that is orderly. He did not mind giving the ball to Al Nassr, a rival of little brilliance despite the presence of Brozovic, Cristiano Ronaldo or the Brazilian Talisca.
The first celestial eleven will have little to do with the one that LaLiga starts. Except for Iago Aspas, Carles Pérez, Joseph Aidoo -if he doesn’t end up leaving-, Fran Beltrán and Iván Villar, the rest of the chosen ones will find it very difficult to repeat ownership against Osasuna on August 13.
Ahead, Benítez has a little less than a month to polish his project, but the duel against the Arab team has shown that Celta continues to be weak in the air, their great deficit in recent years. Building a strong block in the strategy is the obsession of Carlos Carvalhal’s replacement.
The first two occasions for Al Nassr came like this. In the first, Iván Villar failed at the start and Cristiano’s header went wide; In the second, after a huge defensive mismatch in the central defenders, the Portuguese star showed that he no longer has the sense of smell he had before: his header, in an excellent position, went wide after a good cross from the full-back Sultan.
Between the two, Iago Aspas also enjoyed a clear chance to put his team ahead in the 14th minute but his dive before Nawaf’s departure, after a good recovery from Hugo Sotelo in the rival’s ball, crashed into the post .
In the final stretch, both teams touched the goal again. El Nassr with a powerful shot from the Brazilian Talisca that Iván Villar cleared with difficulty, before Carles Pérez armed his leg to take a strong shot from the edge that a defender deflected with his body.
Benítez made a move at halftime. He lined up another totally different eleven, and his team found themselves quickly (min.51) with a rigorous expulsion of the center-back Al Amri that paved their way to victory.
From then on, his team’s dominance was complete, and six minutes later, youth squad player Gael Alonso opened the scoring with a great header after a corner kick. Before that, Miguel Rodríguez had already tested the Arab goalkeeper with a long shot.
With the 1-0, Celta did not slacken and it did not take long to sentence the duel. The Swede Larsen, clearly offside, signed the second, again with a header, after a good cross from Mingueza. The Nordic striker, Luis Campos’ bet last season, touched the double soon after but Nawaf prevented him with a great stretch.
Al Nassr quickly lowered his arms, and the sky-blue closed their thrashing with goals from Miguel Rodríguez and two other Larsen, all of them in just five minutes.
Datasheet:
5; Vigo Celtic: Ivan Villar; Kevin Vazquez, Aidoo, Carlos Dominguez, Fountain; Carles Perez, Beltran, Hugh Sotelo; Aspas and Patience. Also played were Ruben Blanco (ps), Cervi, Gael Alonso, Miguel Baeza, Tapia, Unai Nunez, Sergio Carreira, Larsen, Miguel Rodriguez, Koke Carrillo (ps), Dominguez and Hugo Alvarez.
0; Al Nasr FC: Nawaf; Sultan, Al Ajami, Al Amri, Conan; Ghareeb, Brozovic, Khaibari, Khaled; Talisca and Cristiano Ronaldo. Mishari, Qasim, Madu and Adam also played.
Goals: 1-0: Gael Alonso, min.57; 2-0: Larsen, min.61; 3-0: Miguel Rodríguez, min.70; 4-0: Larsen, min.72; 5-0: Larsen, min.74
Referee: Antonio Nobre (Portuguese). He sent off Al Amri (min.51) with a direct red card. In addition, he admonished Tapia (min.88) by Celta.
Incidents: Friendly match played at the Algarve stadium (Portugal).