Benahavis 31st August

MATCH REPORT – BENAHAVIS 6th July by your chief Football reporter Popeye

A rather cooler evening tonight at the Benahavis Bernabeu produced another goal fest with Los Blancos winning 10 – 6 against The Azurri……………….…correction! It was the other way around…🤭 Popeye was playing fantasy football 🤩

The teams lined up as follows…

The Azurri – Mr Chairman between the sticks, PJ & Chelsea Chris at the back, Adrian “Dennis” Law, Michael “Chalky” White & Antonio Aiello (a recent signing from the Torino) filled the midfield with Mr Gadget (Greg) leading the line for Les Bleu

Los Blancos – Alex in goal ( welcome back mate) Gary & Martyn at the back, debutant Nigel Mather, Popeye & Charles in the middle with Bill up front.

And so to the game……. As far as I can recall, because due to a technological hitch, I lost all record of the score and who scored, so what comes next could be a work of fiction🤩

Blues quickly established a 3-0 lead with Aiello scoring twice and Greg getting his customary goal. Whites tried hard and worked tirelessly but couldn’t put one past that Big Unit in goal for the Blues. To be fair though, both sides were knocking it about quite well but Blues definitely had the edge. They went further ahead before half time when Chris threaded a through ball to the strikers and which somehow failed to get a touch by anyone, including Alex (or did he fumble it over the line🤔) . Further strikes from Mr Gadget and a hattrick goal from Tony “Soprano” Aiello made the half time score 6-0 to The Azurri…..😱

Something had to change and with the transfer deadline fast approaching, Los Blancos splashed the cash and brought in Chelsea Chris and Chalky White, who owing to a loophole in the WFS Benahavis regulations were eligible to play for both teams! Note to the Chairman…..you need to fix this!

Controversially, Los Blancos allowed Alex & Bill to leave on free transfers in the half time transfer window and oh boy did that come back to hurt them!

By now, Gary Smith who had been a rock in the Los Blancos defence, went in goal and no sooner had he uttered the words “I have kept a clean sheet so far….”….you know the rest…. Yes Bill picks up the ball on the left, throws a dummy and slots the ball into the top corner to make it 7-0…😢

Mind you, Lazarus would have been proud of Los Blancos comeback from that position. Nigel scored with aplomb on his debut, Charles quickly followed up with two great strikes to the bottom corner and Judas Chris and Popeye put one past The Norwegian to bring back some respectability to the proceedings. So, 7-5 going into the final phase…..

The Azurri were stunned, the momentum was with Los Blancos, but the Blues stood firm, PJ and Adrian clearly had an understanding on the right flank and created further chances. Mr Chairman (The Godfather “) had passed on the Golden Glove to its rightful owner and started to impose himself on the game with some robust challenges and even more robust clearances which ended up in the pueblo (I mention this because our ball monitor Robb Fitz pointed out in the post match drink up, he had two balls less than what we started with….🤔)…….I need to point out that Rob was injured and didn’t partake in the match…..fill in the blanks 😂

Three further goals by the Azurri ( who cares or remembers who scored them?..lol) secured the victory but there was still time for Popeye to score his trademark deflected goal, with a right foot shot destined for the top corner but which hit PJ on the shoulder to leave Alex helpless.

Final score The Azurri 10 – 6 Los Blancos

Après banter at Amanda’s bar followed and it was good to see our injured club members put in an appearance, Killie John, Andrew & Fitz ( doesn’t count in the stats Statto……lol). Lots of analysis about Saturday’s friendlies v Malaga and what we need to do to improve……a month to go before the first league match. We will be ready….

Come on Benahavis 👍👊⚽️🏆
Man of the Match – Turncoat Chris 😳