Madrid, Dec. 13 (IANS): CSKA Moscow earned a 3-0 Champions League victory over Real Madrid, who had already clinched first place in Group G and put several members of their second unit on the field at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The win here on Wednesday evening was the Russian league club's second over Real Madrid in round robin matches, yet it was still not enough to avoid finishing last in the group and missing out on a Europa League berth (which goes to Viktoria Plzen as the third-placed finisher), reports Efe.
For Real Madrid, the embarrassing loss was the most lopsided home defeat they have suffered in an European competition, although they will continue on to the tournament's knockout stage.
Madrid's head coach Santiago Solari rested several regular starters for an essentially meaningless match, although he still opted to start first-team goalie Thibaut Courtois rather than Keylor Navas.
The opening goal came on a well executed counter-attack by the Russian team in the 37th minute.
Promising young Icelandic midfielder Arnor Sigurdsson orchestrated the play by driving to the penalty arc and dishing off to striker Fyodor Chalov, who fired a curving left-footed shot past Courtois after executing a cutback that left defender Javier Sanchez out of position.
The second goal came six minutes later on a play set up by a clever back-heeled pass by Chalov.
Although Courtois was able to stop an initial attempt by Mario Fernandes, Georgi Shchennikov volleyed home the rebound to stun the home crowd.
At the other end of the field, Marco Asensio tried to carry Real Madrid's attack in the first half but was denied repeatedly by CSKA Moscow netminder Igor Akinfeev.
The fans let their frustration be known in the second half, especially targeting Isco after he missed a clear scoring chance that had been set up by a long run by Vinicius Junior.
Isco screamed back at the crowd, who then retaliated by whistling every time he touched the ball.
Although CSKA nearly scored an own-goal on a couple of occasions, including on an attempted clearance by Rodrigo Becao that hit the crossbar, the Russian club took control of the game again after Gareth Bale, who had come on as a second-half substitute, appeared to hurt his ankle.
Even though the Welsh star stayed in and Toni Kroos and Dani Carvajal were sent on in the second half in a bid to turn the match around, CSKA Moscow managed to get one final goal in the 73rd minute when Sigurdsson scored off a pass from Nikola Vlasic.
