Real Madrid

The team's morale soared after its impressive victory over Valencia on Sunday, and it has reached a new high thanks to its brilliant 5-3 victory against Sporting Portugal in the Santiago Bernabéu Trophy.

The Santiago Bernabéu Trophy is the best possible appetizer prior to the start of the league. The competition turned 30 tonight and Real Madrid wanted to follow-up their Super Cup victory with yet another triumph at their stadium.

Sporting Portugal was the chosen rival to put Schuster's boys to the test before their first league match. Olympic medal winners Gago and Marcelo made the starting line-up, as did Gonzalo Higuaín and Arjen Robben.

Spectacle was a must to pay proper tribute to Don Santiago Bernabéu, the greatest President the Club has ever known. Goals had to be scored and Higuaín pulled rank from the start, having the first chance of the evening. Later, the striker marvelously controlled the ball right outside the box and shot a low ball that went straight to the back of the net (14').

Arjen Robben also wanted to join in the fun and soon scored the second goal of the evening from a powerful crossed shot with his left foot (22'). The crowd went wild and chanted his name. Two minutes later, Marcelo passed the ball to HIguaín after a great run, who dribbled past two defenders and lobbed the ball through the top left corner of the goal (24').

Izmailov scored for Sporting on the 30-minute mark, but the Madridista party continued and Van der Vaart came close to converting two chances. The new signing was then tackled inside the box by Rochemback. A penalty was awarded and Raúl scored with a nice shot that fooled the keeper (38'). Rafael wanted more and eventually scored from an Assist by Ramos -his shot went in after it hit Sporting's Polga-. The Dutchman had two consecutive clear chances in the second half (65').

Fabio Cannavaro made his return in the last 45 minutes after an 85-day long injury. Sporting grew more dangerous when Joa Moutinho took the pitch, but their improvement wasn't enough to make a surprising comeback. Codina -who had replaced Dudek- saved a shot by Yannick in the 75th minute, but was unable to clear Veloso's nice set piece shot a few minutes later. Yannick scored his team's third and final goal right on the 90-minute mark.

Fabio Cannavaro was the team's captain during the second half and therefore received the Trophy from President Ramón Calderón. This is the 19th time the Whites win their own competition. Tonight's victory and Sunday's triumph are the perfect end to a solid pre-season. The best is about to begin...