Goal Drought?

July 20, 8:00 p.m., Tallaght Stadium in Dublin.

After Real Madrid had undergone a period of grueling training in Dublin, they welcomed their only warm-up match during their training camp in Ireland. Their opponents were Dublin's Shamrock Rovers.

But contrary to outside speculation, Benitez arranged for an entirely reserve lineup to play this time.

Dudek was in goal. The back line, from left to right, was Marcelo, Metzelder, Pepe, and Arbeloa. The midfield consisted of Guti, Lass Diarra, Gago, and Sneijder, while the two forwards were Higuaín and Raul.

Aside from Arbeloa, none of the new signings brought in during the summer were in the starting lineup. Benitez's intentions were clear: he wanted to select useful players from among this group.

Because of his heart condition, De la Red had essentially decided to retire early. Mohamed Diarra had transferred to Premier League side Man City, who urgently needed to strengthen their midfield. At present, Xabi Alonso was an undisputed starter in Real Madrid's midfield, while there were also strong calls for Mascherano to take a starting role. Lass Diarra and Gago would have to prove themselves if they wanted a place.

The same was true up front. Yang Yang and Ibrahimovic were virtually guaranteed starters, while Robben was also highly competitive for the right-wing position. Both Higuaín and Raul needed to produce better performances to convince the coaching staff.

It was worth mentioning that after selling Mohamed Diarra for ten million euros, Real Madrid had also sold Drenthe to Juventus for a transfer fee of ten million euros, because the squad already had two left-backs in Marcelo and Maxwell.

In addition, Benitez had temporarily called up two young players to the squad for this training camp: left-back Marcos Alonso and forward Morata. For now, however, they were only training with