Real Madrid patience pleases Pellegrini

Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini praised his side for their patience after they overcame a difficult first half against Marseille to record a 3-0 triumph at the Bernabeu.

Looking to record their seventh successive win this season and make it two out of two in the Champions League, Madrid found it tough to make any headway in the opening period against a well-organised and determined Marseille side, who also had their chances to take the lead before the break.

But the whole match changed in a six-minute spell around the hour mark when Madrid scored three times, Cristiano Ronaldo netting twice to take his tally for the season to nine and also winning the penalty that allowed Kaka to score the other.

A pleased Pellegrini said: "I'd like to highlight the patience of the team.

"We cannot expect in 45 minutes to solve all the problems that Marseille caused, but the team continued searching until we found the two or three decisive plays that we needed.

"Marseille had a very good first half and marked us well. They are a strong team defensively and they have very dangerous players up front. But as the match goes on players get tired.

"We scored three goals and had at least three or four more chances. Games last 90 minutes, 45 of them were even and in the second half we were much better than them.

"I think we had the technical and tactical skills to make the difference."

The match was not without its talking points, with the 60th-minute incident that led to Madrid scoring their second goal the biggest of them.

Although it was a crunching challenge that left Ronaldo writhing in agony, Marseille defender Souleymane Diawara looked to have won the ball as he slid in to tackle the Portugal international inside the area.

But not only did the referee deem it a penalty, he also showed Diawara his second yellow card of the match to leave Marseille with 10 men.

Regarding the penalty incident, Marseille coach Didier Deschamps said: "I don't like to talk about the referee.

"I think it was a very harsh decision, as much for the penalty as for the sending-off of my defender.

"From then on it was very difficult but for an hour we had a very good match. We had good chances in the first half."