James Rodriguez curled home a superb free-kick to cap Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Inter in a friendly in Guangzhou yesterday.
The Colombian midfielder, brought on for just the last 10 minutes of the International Champions Cup match, stepped up to bend the ball around the Inter wall from 25 metres out, giving goalkeeper Samir Handanovic no chance.
Real Madrid youth product Jese had given his side the lead half an hour in, deftly controlling Marcelo’s cross with his right foot, then stepping inside to score with his left at Handanovic’s near post.
Inter enjoyed much of the early possession but were exposed by the pace of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo on the counter-attack.
A trademark free-kick from the Portuguese wide man brought a terrific save out of the Inter goalkeeper midway and Bale also threatened after neat interplay with Jese.
Real made five changes at the break but maintained the momentum and got a second in the 56th minute when defender Raphael Varane put away Lucas Vazquez’s cross from close range.
The tempo dropped significantly as the game wore on, but Rodriguez delivered the pick of the goals in the 88th minute to seal a comfortable win for the La Liga outfit.
Real Madrid wrap up the Asia competition against Milan in Shanghai on Thursday.
Man. City win 8-1
Raheem Sterling scored twice in 12 minutes to lead Manchester City to an 8-1 rout of Vietnam yesterday, stretching an impressive pre-season run after his recent high-profile move from Liverpool.
The Englishman, who left Anfield in a £49 million deal, clinched his brace inside 31 minutes amid a flurry of forays into the box that shook Vietnam and left the hosts struggling to stem the onslaught.
Aleksandar Kolarov and David Silva both scored a goal in each half for a City side testing out youngsters in a lop-sided match before near-sellout Hanoi crowd.
The victory was City’s third in four pre-season games on the road after wins in Australia over Melbourne City and Roma and a 4-1 defeat by Real Madrid.
City play VfB Stuttgart in Germany on Saturday.