{"id":280147,"date":"2023-01-23T03:07:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T03:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2023\/01\/23\/la-liga-karim-benzema-and-toni-kroos-fire-real-madrid-to-athletic-bilbao-win-football-news-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2023-01-23T03:07:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T03:07:05","slug":"la-liga-karim-benzema-and-toni-kroos-fire-real-madrid-to-athletic-bilbao-win-football-news-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2023\/01\/23\/la-liga-karim-benzema-and-toni-kroos-fire-real-madrid-to-athletic-bilbao-win-football-news-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"La Liga: Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos fire Real Madrid to Athletic Bilbao win | Football News &#8211; Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-97239437,imgsize-79104.cms\" \/><\/p>\n<div>BILBAO: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/karim-benzema\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_karim-benzema\" frmappuse=\"1\">Karim Benzema<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/toni-kroos\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_toni-kroos\" frmappuse=\"1\">Toni Kroos<\/a>&#8216;s goals kept <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/real-madrid\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" data-ga=\"within_article-topic_link|topic_real-madrid\" frmappuse=\"1\">Real Madrid<\/a> on Barcelona&#8217;s tail in La Liga with a 2-0 win against <!-- -->Athletic Bilbao<!-- --> on Sunday.<br \/>After the Catalans had beaten Getafe 1-0, champions Madrid won a tight clash at the San Mames to remain three points behind their rivals.<br \/>Benzema broke the deadlock with a superb volley in the first half while Kroos fizzed home the second late on to kill off Athletic&#8217;s hopes.<br \/>After losing the Spanish Super Cup to Barcelona last weekend, anxiety had increased in the capital, but a stirring Copa del Rey comeback against Villarreal on Thursday settled nerves.<br \/>This victory in Bilbao will reassure Los Blancos fans further, ahead of their derby clash in the cup with Atletico Madrid next week.<br \/>Anticipating a physical clash with the Basques, Carlo Ancelotti benched midfield stalwarts Luka Modric and Kroos, opting to line up with Eduardo Camavinga and Fede Valverde as part of his central trio.<br \/>Dani Ceballos, Nacho Fernandez and Marco Asensio also started after their fine performances against Villarreal.<br \/>Athletic started well and Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois tipped away Aitor Paredes&#8217;s dangerous header.<br \/>The goalkeeper forced Inaki Williams wide of goal in the 23rd minute and the Ghana international fired into the side netting from a tight angle.<br \/>A minute later and Madrid punished him for the miss, with Benzema reacting well to volley home from Asensio&#8217;s header back in his direction.<br \/>In the second half Unai Simon was called into action to deny Nacho as Madrid sought to double their lead, with Asensio dragging a shot narrowly off-target.<br \/>At the other end Nico Williams followed suit, firing wide when well-placed.<br \/>Athletic continued to turn the screw in their search for the equaliser with Ernesto Valverde throwing on more attacking players, including captain Iker Muniain.<br \/>Inaki Williams found the net in the 77th minute but the goal was swiftly ruled out for offside against Gorka Guruzeta.<br \/>Eventually the hosts were finished off by Kroos, who steered home from the edge of the box to wrap up Madrid&#8217;s victory.<br \/>Athletic sit eighth, five points below the Champions League qualification spots. <\/div>\n<p><script>!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                  window.TimesApps = window.TimesApps || {};\n                  const { 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points behind their rivals.Benzema broke the deadlock with a superb [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":280148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[31480,45578,99275,1462,339733,9422],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}