Joel Runs the Show as Madrid Hit Young Boys for Six

When was the last time a Spanish winger ran a European night from beginning to end? In my day we would have called it a masterclass; on Wednesday night in Bern, Joel simply called it another game. Ninety minutes, a goal, two assists, four key passes, four tackles won, four interceptions and thirteen and a half kilometres in his legs: a ten out of ten, the sort of score you would not dare write down unless you had seen it with your own eyes.

Real Madrid won 6-2 at the Stadion Wankdorf, and for long spells the match belonged to the boy from Huesca by way of Ceuta and Lyon. Pele scored twice, Ronaldinho found the net before half-time, Chancel Beya added another with an assist to go with it, and the statistics say Madrid had sixty-six per cent of the ball and fourteen shots. But the numbers on the page never tell you who put the fear into the Swiss. Joel did. Every time he took possession on the left, the home side retreated.

He is twenty-six now, a new signing from Olympique Lyonnais, and this was only his eighth game in white since the £64.7m move in August. Three months ago the French papers were calling him a world star as he left; Madrid have been waiting to see it for themselves. On this evidence they will not wait long. His first contribution set the tone, his second killed the contest, and long before the end the Wankdorf had gone quiet.

Young Boys were game enough. Francis Escobar scored and ran himself into the ground, Jacub Batchelor got one too, and Jan Milà came on at half-time and made a difference with an assist. But they finished the night in a 4-5-1, chasing shadows. There was an old boy on the other side as well: Sergio Roca, who spent eight seasons at Real Madrid long before this lot were born, won four trophies there and never scored a goal. He will not want to remember this one either.

For Madrid the night had other pleasures. Beya and Juan Andújar ran the middle of the park as though it belonged to them, and Zack Vela came off the bench at the interval and set one up. That midfield pairing has been the quiet engine of their autumn, and it was humming again. Whether Risvi gets the contract he has been asking for is a question for another day; the Australian kept goal and the scoreline did the rest.

I have watched a great many European nights at this paper, and I have learned to be careful with one brilliant evening. Ronaldinho, after all, is still waiting for his first league goal of the season. But Joel gave us something on Wednesday that no table can measure: the sight of a Spanish winger taking a Champions League match by the scruff of the neck and not letting go. Four decades in this trade, and that still makes me sit up in my chair.