Los Blancos ousted Albanian side Gramozi in a bizarre midweek fixture...
By Feras Saad
Jan 21, 2010 3:35:00 PM
Real Madrid beat Gramozi Ereske 2-1 last night in the 2010 edition of the 'Oil Cup'. The game, organised by Albanian oil tycoon Rezart Taci, saw a power outage that lasted for almost two hours at half-time.
Gramozi opened the scoring in the third minute, as young striker Xhafaj powered a header past the helpless Jerzy Dudek.
Real Madrid then took control of the game, but couldn't find a way through until the 37th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo chipped a delightful ball to Kaka, who found the back of the net with a precise header, to end the first half level at 1-1.
However, the game was not to resume for another hour and a half, as a power outage saw the electricity in the city of Tirana unexpectedly go out.
The blackout kept both sides in the dressing room until the electricty was restored by an emergency generator. However, it took the floodlights another fifteen minutes to fully turn on.
Despite angry cries from the fans in the stadium, the second half started quickly with Manuel Pellegrini bringing on Karim Benzema in attack. The French striker scored in the 80th minute to round off the game at 2-1.
In light of the incident, the Albanian Football Federation announced that the stadium manager was to be sacked, effective immediately.
While Real Madrid pocketed at cool €2.5 million from the match, the proceeds from the match were donated to victims of a flooding incident in north Albania.
Manuel Pellegrini and company hastily returned to the Spanish capital after the game, where they today begin preparing for Sunday's league clash against Malaga at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. (Goal.com)
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