UEFA Champions League
Result: Real Madrid 2-1 Viktoria Plzen
Date: 23 October 2018
Venue: Santiago Bernabeu
Defending champions Real Madrid made heavy weather of their 2-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen in their UEFA Champions League Group G match on Tuesday night.
Los Blancos manager Julen Lopetegui has come under a lot of pressure following their shock loss to Levante over the weekend, while they suffered a defeat to CSKA Moscow in their Group G tie.
Sergio Ramos was unlucky not to have opened the scoring for Los Blancos in the fifth minute with a header inside the box that crashed against the upright.
Karim Benzema grabbed the lead for Lopetegui's troops in the 11th minute with a fine header at the far post, 1-0.
Plzen, meanwhile, were finding chances on the break towards the half-hour but they lacked the quality upfront to trouble Keylor Navas.
However, Milan Petrzela had a glorious chance to equalise for the visitors on the stroke of halftime after beating the offside trap to go through inside the six-yard box, but instead of picking his spot across the goals, he went for power and his effort sailed over the bar.
Ten minutes into the second half, Marcelo doubled the lead for the hosts with a fine strike over Plzen goalkeeper Ales Hruska after combining with Gareth Bale on the edge of the box.
Benzema thought he had got his brace 20 minutes before time after finding the net with a tap-in, but Luka Modric was adjudged to have been offside before he played the cross to the Frenchman.
With 12 minutes to go, Patrick Hrosovsky pulled a goal back for Plzen with a neat finish past Navas to set up a nervy final few minutes.
However, Madrid saw out the remaining stages of the half to claim three points, which sees them move top of the group, level on points with AS Roma.
