Passing Triangles, Bromantic Triangles - The Dinamo Zagreb Match Spam!

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 Passing Triangles, Bromantic Triangles - The Dinamo Zagreb Match Spam!

Mesut breaks hearts, Madrid breaks records!


What a Minx! Kissing Karim, Cuddling Coentrao, Winking at Pipita! Smiling at Alonso!
Breaking hearts: left, right and centre!

Mesut spent the first half of the game passing elegantly, breaking hearts on the bench, toying carelessly with the affections of his various bromantic interests, scoring a pretty goal, making an even prettier assist and making the Dinamo Zagreb defence dizzy with his runs and passing - in addition to creating some dozen scoring chances!

But first -

Pre Match Notes!

Mourinho didn't have his players stay in a hotel the night before the match. He did however have them report to in the afternoon for stretching before sequestering them the day of the match.




Bug-eyed gorgeousness arrived for the session looking bug-eyed and gorgeous.

Then he and Sami and Pipita all arrived at the stadium together. The following, perfectly darling photograph was taken as they arrived -





Of course in the days before the match there had been much stretching, warming up, fooling around and laughing at Sami's jokes at Valdebebas during practice, as always -



Inseparable!





In his recent interview with Kicker, Cristiano Ronaldo noted the following about the pair of them:

They are both very funny guys. When we eat, I sit next to them at the table. They are always telling jokes and we really have lots of fun - they're fabulous boys. We are really close friends.





At any rate, judging from that smile on his face, Mesut certainly thinks that Sami is awfully funny!


The Match Spam!

Alas - Sami Khedira was not to feature in this match, probably because he will be needed for the derby this weekend.





Mesut warmed up on the pitch with Varane. In other joyous news, friend Nuri Sahin made his full debut in a Madrid shirt for this game!





There were many substitutions for the game, Mourinho noting that in a squad with the depth of Madrid's all the players deserve to play at any one time. Crispy, Iker Casillas, Sami Khedira, Pepe, Marcelo, Arbeloa and Carvalho, di Maria, Kaka (all injured) are all regular starters - but they were all missing from the lineup.





Naturally the cameras couldn't resist checking up on them so we had a nice view of Crispy's lovely studs and Iker chewing his nails!


 


Off in the tunnel the players were getting ready. Note Adan (who started in goal) Coentrao (who got to play in his actual position as left-back), Nuri Sahin (making his debut), Lass Diarra (playing at right-back), Callejon (first Champions League start) and Mourinho (who shakes hands with the Zagreb captain!) -


 


The forwards for the game were to be Higuain, Benzema, Mesut and Callejon.


 


All of these forwards would have goals before the first twenty minutes were out. Madrid set a new record for goals scored (3) within 9 minutes, and would be 4 goals up before half-time.


The First Goal!

This gif (which lasts nearly half a minute - and for which we have andriy_7 to thank - as always - for his unbelievable hard work and general gif-artistry for this post) shows the lead-up to the goal, Mesut's rather stylish assist for Benzema, and Benzema's stunning goal within the second minute of play.





The SkySports commentator was beside himself with the move, labelling it (at that early point in the evening with several other Champions League matches beginning simultaenously) a contender for best move of the night. "A splendid team move!"

The gif below shows it from a different angle. One can see how Benzema makes a lovely past along the left before getting the ball back from Mesut (who cut back beautifully).





It's worth noting too the care every player took to stay onside!



Coentrao - Benzema - Ozil - Benzema - Goal!


Dinamo Zagreb gave Madrid no small amount of trouble on match-day one! And now here were the lads - a goal up in under two minutes!

Naturally much happiness and cuddling erupted all over the pitch!





Benzi ran straight into Mesut's arms! He had his head-patted, received a kiss on his shiny head, and was allowed to rest his head on Mesut's shoulder for a reward. Happily, he doesn't seem to have noticed Mesut's smile for Alonso, his cuddle for Coentrao or his wink (!) for Pipita.









Benzi gave Mesut another high-five after that and a glorious smile. It may be the first time in nearly the whole season he had the opportunity to cuddle Mesut without a certain Sami Khedira stealing him away!








Scarcely had the crowd caught their breaths and...


...The Second Goal...

...had been scored.

This gif, which is around 20 seconds long, captures the entire move - and Mesut's role in breaking up the play. Perfectly lovely from Benzi and Callejon too!





Callejon was awfully pleased, of course!





Mesut celebrated his teammate's goal by leaning his head on Pipita's shoulder (Pipita's arm affectionately and gently holding it in place!) and making eyes at Xabi Alonso.





And here's another look at Mesut's stunning long pass!





The Fourth Goal

Then it was Mesut's turn to score. Callejon and Sahin got the ball off a Zagreb player and passed to Pipita (who had only just scored the game's third goal. He took a shot, the keeper swatted the ball away and Mesut scored his first  (or second, depending on who you chat with) Champions League goal of the year off the rebound.






That's Spanish for "fuck yeah!"


Everyone was awfully happy! Though one can't celebrate too openly with the score at 4-0 (wouldn't be dignified!), Mesut did receive cuddles and was allowed to rest his head on Benzi's shoulder. Even with Sami Khedira out of the picture however - even if only temporarily - the full complications of Mesut's juggling of his various bromantic triangles was apparent, with both Pipita and Benzi wanting to be the ones to stand next to him!





Here's the goal from a reverse angle, which really shows the lovely work done by Callejon and by Sahin before Higuain's lovely shot was saved - resulting in Mesut's own strike.





And let's just say Mesut looked unusually pleased with his goal. Compared with his rather jaded celebrations when he scores with Germany (which he does everytime they meet up, it seems) he was thrilled!









Passing and Scoring Chances and Even More Bromantic Intrigue

The following gifs show a couple more Magical Mesuty moments.

Here - his pass to Higuain in the box - quite lovely - and from which Callejon really could have scored another "splendid team goal" to go along with his first (Callejon would get his second goal before the night was out!) -


 



And another chance for Callejon - slipped through to him by Mesut with a lovely pass indeed -





Mesut also leapt gracefully over a player who managed to get the ball away from him (a rare occurance in this match!) -





And looked marvellously gazelle-like while doing it -








And this lovely final pass for Benzi (perhaps the best of his scoring chances created that evening!) -


 


He even struck an elegant pose for the cameras when creating another scoring chance - by launching the ball back into the area after the Dinamo defence had cleared it after his corner kick.



Like a swan!


And for all that - plenty of time to flirt with Sahin when they thought the 1000 cameras along the side of the pitch weren't watching!








Press Reviews & Media Notes


The German press are reporting that in his post-match comments Mourinho stated that "Oezil is very strong and is coming back to a high level. Everytime, when the players travel to their national teams they come back tired and playing worse compared with how they played before they left. But when Mesut or Sami (Khedira) leave for their national team, they come back better..."





Germany's version of Goal.com had the following to say: "It was game that might have been made for Oezil. Lots of space, lots of time to pass. A wonderful performance from him.





The English version of Goal.com: Rarely lasts 90 minutes but if he plays like this, he won't need to anyway. Provided the assist for Benzema's opener, changed the play wonderfully in the build-up to Madrid's second and scored the fourth himself with a neat finish. Went off at break.





Punto Pelota has, in anticipation of the coming Madrid derby reminded their readers that he is a "Red and Black Nightmare" for Atleti because of his record of 2 assists and 3 goals against them in 4 games last year.





Spain's ABC noted that he had a wonderful game because he "had the ball whenever he wanted it."





Next game for Mesut - the derby this weekend against Atleti!





Match report written and translated by me, jenny_jenkins and illustrated with the 40+ gifs and 200+ photographs that andriy_7 created for us or found for us (respectively). Thank you darling!

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