Real Madrid Vs. Athletic Bilbao, La Liga 2012: Mesut Özil is Back

Huge win for Real Madrid. Mourinho started an strange lineup with Granero and Alonso in a two-man midfield and Kaká and Özil playing together in the offensive line.

The team had to come back from a 0-1 deficit to get the three points.Mesut Özil completed his best game of the season by controling the tempo, delivering good counter attacks and giving assists. Kaká also looked comfortable alongisde Özil and played well too.

It has been all but an easy game for Real Madrid. The lineup was designed to have total control of the game but Athletic Bilbao had good scoring opportunities, specially in the first half. Bielsa's team showed like a very good football team. They defended quite well and went to the counter attack quickly. They also recovered the ball very easily with a good pressure applied to Madrid's midfielders.

In the 15th minute Athletic could recover a ball lost by Marcelo, who didn't recover his position as a Left back and allowed Javi Martínez to receive the ball very easily. Martínez crossed the ball and Llorent only had to push it inside Casillas' goal to put his team ahead in the scoreboard. It was a very bad moment for Real Madrid for start losing because the fans were expecting the team to rebound back from Wednesday's loss.

Real Madrid only needed 12 minutes to tie the game up with a good goal from Marcelo. He redeemed himself from his mistake in the first goal with the play he completed with Karim Benzema. The Brazilian winger won the ball inside the box and scored Gorka Iraizoz. The team was back on the game and the first half finished with an improvement of Mourinho's team.

After the second half started, another good play conducted by Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká finished with him on the ground because of a penalty. Mateu Lahoz didn't doubt and called it that way. Cristiano risked a little bit too much but managed to convert and put Madrid ahead.

Bilbao was then forced to attack a little bit more, and that allowed Madrid to play that counter attack style in which they enjoy to play. In one of those counter attacks Özil got the ball after a nice touch of Benzema and tried to dribbled De Marcos before scoring. Athletic's player commited another penalty and this time Mateu Lahoz showed him a red card while disallowing Benzema's goal that came shortly after he called the infraction.

Cristiano Ronaldo shot the penalty to the same side and Iraizoz couldn't do anything to stop Madrid's third goal. Bilbao lost every chance to get a single point after that play and their players knew that so they gave up very quickly. Mourinho had the time to introduce Higuaín for Benzema and Lass for Granero, who received an standing ovation for his effort.

Callejón also enjoyed some minutes when Kaká headed to the bench. The Spanish winger doesn't need a lot of minutes to score and he proved that in the 86th minute to finish the game. Some fans in the stadium started to chant to Jose Mourinho and other people in the stands booed the chant showing their non-content with Wednesday's loss.

Anyhow, Real Madrid fans should be happy with how the team won the game and their situation in the league instead of believing the media, but it's obvious how different the fans at the Bernabeu are from the rest of madridistas.