Champions League: Real Madrid hold off Shakhtar to win Group A

That was their first win of the campaign, and one that lifted them of the bottom of the table. Those 10 goals came from just 15 shots on target by opponents Sevilla, Barcelona and Shakhtar. Yet the final two minutes of regular time plus the three minutes of stoppage time were tense indeed for the visitors as they tried to hold on to a perilous lead.

Spanish football expert Guillem Balague believes that Ronaldo won’t be a Los Blancos player next season because Perez will be looking to offload the Portuguese star in order to replace him with another great player. “The only disappointment is that two important players, Srna and Kucher, received yellow cards and will miss the game against Madrid”.

“Perhaps it’s the best moment to play (Madrid) because things are not going well for them”, Eibar midfielder Adrian Gonzalez said. “This is different.” But he added: “What happens between now and six months no one can say”.

Shakhtar rang the changes to try and reverse their fortunes but the procession continued in the 70th minute as Ronaldo bagged his brace, once again combining with Bale down the left flank. We didn’t expect to lose and play so badly.

“After the game against Barcelona, to react as the team reacted, to go 4-0 up away from home in Champions League, is very positive”, Benitez said.

The Croatian struck after 18 minutes as the home side not only secured their place in the last 16 but put themselves in pole position to claim top spot.

The move to bulk up Madrid’s midfield appeared to work until Shakhtar’s late onslaught left Madrid on the verge of surrendering the win. Alex Teixeira, the Ukrainian league’s top scorer with 19 goals from just 13 games, stepped up and converted the spot-kick even though Madrid keeper Kiko Casilla dived the right way. The defeat has laid bare the weaknesses of a squad that won the Champions League a couple of seasons ago, but looks unlikely to repeat the feat any time soon.

Juventus completed a double over the English Premier League side, who had already qualified from Group D after winning their previous three games.

The ESPN FC crew talk to Charlie Davies about whether or not Real Madrid have lost their place among Europe’s top teams.

Alas, Ronaldo did indeed score to give Real Madrid the 1-0 lead.

Manager Mircea Lucescu will likely bring in Ivan Ordets and Vyacheslav Shevchuk into the starting line-up, while Vitali Vitsnets has also been ruled out with a knee problem.

“Both teams have strong attacking instincts and this is why we saw so many goals tonight”, said Real coach Rafa Benitez.