Despite being merely one man in a 11-man team, whenever Real Madrid fail to score in a fixture, all blame is shouldered upon Cristiano Ronaldo, and last Saturday’s 0-0 draw to Malaga was no exception.
The Portuguese superstar failed to find the back of the net in their Santiago Bernabeu clash, as the goalless draw saw Los Blancos lose their grip on the lead to Villarreal, whom they now trail by two points.
Nonetheless, Los Blancos manager showed his full support for the three-time Ballon d’Or winner, who scored eight goals in two games against Espanyol and Shakhtar Donetsk, arguing that with the 30-year-old in their squad, Les Merengues are guaranteed goals.
Speaking to AS ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Malmo FF, Rafa touched on what went wrong in Saturday’s La Liga affair, whilst also admitting that he holds high hopes for Karim Benzema this season, saying:
"I see him [Ronaldo] like I see the team. Doing well, creating chances. He'll score, he's a guarantee of goals, and I have absolute confidence in him.
"We didn't get the final pass right and there was anxiety in the last five minutes. We made poor choices. We need to give the team confidence. There's nothing else to do.
"I've set Karim Benzema a target. You don't need to do that with Cristiano. Isco, Jese, they have to improve their numbers, or another player in the second line, so we're not relying on Benzema and Cristiano."
With a club of Real Madrid’s status, one would expect the 10-time Champions League winners to steamroll past Wednesday’s opponent; however, their Spanish manager is not taking the Swedish side easily, whilst also revealing that he expects Malmo to target Cristiano.
"We have to play as well as we possibly can. We've looked at and studied videos of Malmö to prepare for the game,” Benitez added.
"I think it's normal for Malmö to focus on stopping Cristiano because he brings an important attacking threat."
