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ROME: The magic touch of Real Madrid in the Champions League was not altered after Gareth Bale inspired a 2-0 victory over Roma on Saturday, which ensures them to top the group.
Bale scored one, then provided the center that led another when Lucas Vazquez clinched a 2-0 clinical victory at Stadio Olimpico.
Roma let slip several opportunities in the first period, the best falling against Cengiz Under, guilty of a shocking miss six meters, the goal being exhausted.
Federico Fazio's error then opened the match at Bale and Roma faded afterwards, allowing Madrid to erase the memory of his loss to Eibar last weekend by finishing first. Group G.
"It was important to rebound quickly," said Real Santiago Solari coach. "We are very happy."
Both teams knew they had already qualified thanks to Viktoria Plzen's victory over CSKA Moscow early in the match, a golden chance to win first place.
Madrid seized it, showing again its immunity in the Champions League, where the problems of the team in national competitions are apparently never resolved.
They spent more than eight hours without goal and two weeks without a permanent coach, but Santiago Solari still leads Real in the playoffs as a group winner with a match to play.
"We like to play against the best – it brings out the best in us," said Bale.
Solari could have felt relieved after the disastrous demonstration in Eibar on Saturday as pressure mounted for Roma coach Eusebio di Francesco. They have only won one of their last five Serie A matches and Antonio Conte was watching the crowd.
"We are playing against champions," said di Francesco. "The only difference was that they scored with their first chance."
There have been a lot of winners since Solari's time at the helm, but Isco is not actually part of it. After not starting any of the new coach's first five games, he did not even qualify for the bench in Italy.
"It was a sporting decision, nothing else," said Solari. "It's up to all players to be 100% for coaches to choose."
The Roma dominated the first half, but Madrid had their first chance. Vazquez took the cross of Basel and yielded to Luka Modric, whose deflected shot was well saved by Robin Olsen's foot.
From there, the best chances belonged to the hosts. Raphael Varane is diverted from the boots of Patrik Schick and his own bar. Stephan El Shaarawy slammed the door and his replacement, Justin Kluivert, fired. Schick has not managed to connect closely.
Madrid was hanging on, a Roma attack leaving a handful of white shirts scattered in the penalty area.
Thibaut Courtois saved from the foot, Dani Carvajal blocked, before Aleksandar Kolorov unleashed a trademark shot that whistled off.
The worst miss of the half, and maybe of the season, was coming. Carvajal dragged around and sent Nicolo Zaniolo to the goal.
At the last post, Madrid had not recovered, nor Courtois, who was rushing to the other side of the goal. Under, without pressure, blazed.
At halftime, he was walking painfully and was consoled as he had missed a penalty, but it seemed inevitable that Roma would pay for the mistake.
They did it twice in 12 minutes. First, Fazio aggravated Olsen's bad clearance with a bad head back, which landed at Bale's feet and he made no mistake.
Then Bale was involved in the second goal, a cross-searching attempt from Karim Benzema, whose clever head down gave Vazquez a simple finish.
In the meantime, Bale could have scored two points when he was released at the break, as Roma lost momentum, form and conviction.
Bale, Benzema and Modric have all been eliminated. They rested for Valencia on Saturday, as a tight first game became comfortable.
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