Madrid cruises to comfortable away win as they put 3 past Roma

By: Yureen Sheikh, Dubai TV

Deportivo Madrid are one of the teams looking to close the gap with the top 3 while Roma are still struggling to find a way out of the bottom 4. The away team Madrid showed up in a diamond 4312 with Ballenger as attacking midfielder behind Grealish and Hodgson in attack. On the other hand, Roma did no changes from their last game as they line up in a back 4 McRoyale, Rizzo and Freulerista in midfield, behind Henry Kamel and the newcomer Matteo Moretti in attack.

Right from the start, Madrid looked comfortable with the ball, as Roma was being outnumbered in midfield. During the 9th minute Hodgson opened the scoring for Madrid from outside the box, it was a quick one-two between Ballenger and Pingo and Grealish finds Hodgson unmarked just outside the Roma box.

The Italians had a good scoring opportunity to level the game in the 16th minute, but the newcomer Matteo Moretti was inches away from scoring on his debut as he was quickly surrounded by 2 Madrid defenders.

Jose Ballenger doubled the lead for Madrid during the 46th minute in added time, it was a quick counter from the right flank by Woy Hodgson and his low cross finds Ballenger in the center of the box, who easily finished the chance with a curling shot into the bottom left corner.

Roma's substitutes couldn't make an impact as they failed to create any good scoring chance in the second half. Late in the game during the 86th minute, Pepe Mancini scored a heading goal to make it 3-0 for Madrid. It was a quick through ball to Woy Hodgson again on the right flank, who immediately sent a beautiful cross to his partner striker.