As El Mundo put it, a fine rain fell upon the Bernabéu last night, including a few drops of football and a pair of goals.  And that was all we needed.  Madrid pulled out a victory last night, an important morale booster before we face Lyon this week in the Champions League.

There were some line-up changes, as Álvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and Mesut Özil were rested before that important game; the latter two didn’t get into the game at all, while Ozi was a late substitute for Kaká in the 76th minute.  And of course, Pepe didn’t even make the convocatoria.

ONE. The goals.

The first goal came right at the beginning of the game, off of a beautiful individual play and pass by Ángel di María.  Karim Benzema scored the goal, doing wonders for his confidence before the big game against his former and hometown team.

As you can see, Karim was very happy with the goal, and it was so sweet how he was waiting for Ángel to arrive before really starting the goal celebration.  And once again, heads were rubbed in the celebration.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Carvalho poked one through with five minutes to go before the end of the first half, off of a Cristiano Ronaldo free kick.  Carvalho’s goal was the eighth goal from a set piece this season; in all of last season, the team only scored nine.  They’re currently third in the Liga in this type of goal, after Athletic with 10 and Málaga with nine.  Ricky celebrated with a kiss, a wave and a touch of his heart.

Like Karim before him, Carvalho wanted to celebrate with the person whose pass/kick led to the goal.  Looking a bit like Marcelo, he rebuffed the celebration attempts of his teammates, simply giving them high fives, while making a beeline to Cristiano Ronaldo, who got a hug.

That wasn’t the only celebration similarity.  As you can see, Ricardo also leaped into the air to celebrate.  He is the only defender in the Liga to score three goals this season.  Unfortunately, Karim, despite being a forward, is also at the three-goal mark.

TWO. Sergio Ramos wore the captain’s armband for the first time in his 242-game Real Madrid career, as Iker was sanctioned.  The three times that Iker was absent earlier this season (against Auxerre, Levante in the Copa and Espanyol), Sergio didn’t play.  It looks pretty good on him, no?

And as captain, Sergio got to lead the team out on to the field, and do the coin toss.

He said on twitter after the game that he was “happy for the victory… and for my debut as captain in an official game.”  Sergio had been the captain in the pre-season game against the Galaxy.

THREE. It rained throughout the entire game, soaking the crowd, and the players.  Their kits are already very transparent to begin with, so imagine how much more they were when they got wet!  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the point where we could count Cris’ six-pack through his shirt, but close.  And by the end of the game, he was also very dirty.  Meanwhile, the rain also washed Marcelo’s Vicks VapoRub off and plastered Sami’s shirt to his chest and his hair to his head.  No complaints there (for the first part)!

Mou also got all wet, because he decided to stand outside the shelter of the bench for most of the game.  Luckily, he had a raincoat on.

FOUR. Cute little disagreements.  I love how Kaká, then Marcelo, then Khedira went to defend Cristiano.  They’ve got his back.

Meanwhile, Kaká used his hands to argue, both to cover his mouth so that no one could lip read what he was saying, and then to get his point across.  Must be the years he spent in Italy coming through.  And Karim was there probably just to see how much he could understand.

FIVE. Antonio Adán made his official home debut, and as Mister Chip noted, “Iker’s streak of 99 consecutive Liga games ended.”  The last time Iker didn’t play in a Liga game was on May 18, 2008, when Jordi Codina played, as Madrid had already won the Liga by then.

Luckily for Antonio, he didn’t have much work last night.  I wonder if his defenders made an extra effort to protect him.

He said after the game, “I feel very happy that I could enjoy the atmosphere and to defend Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabéu.  From the time I was small, I’ve dreamed of playing many games on this field, but I know that I have the best goalkeeper in the world ahead of me.”

SIX. No.

SEVEN. The boys preparing for the start of the second half.  Richi is very serious about making sure that no one will be able to tell what he said.

EIGHT. I love how in the postgame declarations, our players took the time to compliment each other.  What a great team we have, no?

Carvalho: I’m happy for Benzema because he deserved to score a goal.

Albiol: Adán had a good game against Espanyol and he’s worked very hard the entire year.  He was very calm and we helped him as much as we could.  It’s not easy for defenders [Carvalho] to score goals and that’s why it was very important for us.

Adán: My teammates have helped me out a lot during this week, giving me confidence, and they congratulated me for today for not allowing in any goals.

NINE. It looked like there was a porcupine on top of Cristiano’s head last night.  Not even the rain could push his hair down.  I wonder if he and Vicente Iborra traded tips?  Because Vicente’s hair was quite up there as well.  One more shot of Cris’ hair here.

TEN. Another person preoccupied with his hair was Ozi. who fiddled with it while waiting to check in.  And here’s someone we haven’t seen for a long time, Fernando Gago.  Thank goodness his hair no longer needs help.

ELEVEN. Two shots I love, for the expressions on Ángel and Mesut’s faces.  Mesut is not only Bambi, he’s a deer caught in the headlights.

TWELVE. Some Cristiano Ronaldo moments.  When he stuck his tongue out at the end of the first half (left), he reminded me of a little kid trying to catch the rain on his tongue.  And then when he did it in the second half (right), he reminded me of his Crackòvia alter ego.

Cristiano usually gives you your money’s worth, no?  And it looks like he still hasn’t learned to imitate a blowfish like Iker.

I absolutely adored this moment when Cris was on the ground looking all despondent, and then Asier del Horno doubled back to offer him a hand up.  That’s sportsmanship.  And with the absence of Xabi Alonso, someone had to pick up the posing slack.

THIRTEEN. Postgame moments involving Sergio’s body parts – tongue and arms.  Lucky reporter and lucky Juanlu.

FOURTEEN. The Xabi Alonso pose section.™

This was the only glimpse we got of Xabi during the entire game.

FIFTEEN. The Mou corner.

Mou said after the game that it was normal to rest Özil and Xabi (since “everyone in the world knows they’ll play against Lyon and because they played almost the entire game with their national teams last week”).  But not Cristiano because “he likes to play, and physically, he’s good and not tired.  Why would I take him out?”  As for the other changes, Mou saw it like this: “I chose a team that would be sufficient to win, with creativity and dynamism, but always respecting the rival.”

As for the team, it got Mou’s stamp of approval, along with Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema.  And when asked about Madrid’s next game, his comment was “no one takes away my sleep, not Lyon nor anyone.  My sleep is sacred.”

Mou also refused to reveal his line-up for the Champions League game until the day of the game.