TIANJIN - It was raining, the home team lost - and the fans loved every second of it.

Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid crushed the Chinese league's Tianjin Teda 6-0 on Saturday night at Tianjin Teda Stadium.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was, of course, satisfied with the victory, contending his team had given Chinese fans what they wanted - a good match.

"Big players are all out on the pitch, and opposing coaches know (what the fans want), because they did not play big defending matches," Mourinho said, referring to his team's two friendlies in China.

Real Madrid also thumped Chinese super league leader Guangzhou Evergrande 7-1 on Wednesday night. But he said the two friendlies weren't as easy as the results indicate. Because of the time difference and pressures from the fans, Real Madrid had to give out some of their best shots in China.

"Although these are just two commercial matches, we adopted a serious attitude because Real has to keep up its good reputation," Mourinho said.

About 40,000 die-hard local fans braved the drizzling drops Saturday night, cheering the host team's every counter-attack as well as the visitors' slick play.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/07/2011 page7)