Beckham shines in Real Madrid debut

David Beckham put his celebrity aside to focus on football and help steer Real Madrid to a 4-0 victory against a Chinese XI in his long-awaited debut for the Spanish champions.

In a match that was potentially the most widely watched sporting event China has ever hosted, attracting up to one billion television viewers, the England captain hardly put a foot wrong, and showed glimpses of his magic.

Wearing the number 23 shirt, Beckham started on his favoured right flank with Portuguese playmaker Figo forced into left midfield for the second match in a row.

And in another sign that he has assumed a leading role in a side jammed with world class players, he was handed the only two set pieces of the game, bending his trademark freekicks towards goal on each occasion.

In a sauna-hot Workers Stadium, Beckham, 28, could have been forgiven for feeling the heat with 72,000 pairs of eyes boring into him.

The team were given a rapturous welcome, complete with lion dances and nurses in white uniforms, in a nod to the job done by China's medical profession during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis that crippled the country.

There was plenty of pressure for Beckham to get off to a flyer on the football field following his high profile move from Manchester United last month and the ensuing fuss that has followed him.

With former Spanish coach Javier Clemente reportedly calling Beckham's transfer a "mistake" on the eve of the game, he was also out to prove he is more than a commercial product for the Spanish giant's money men.

For this reason alone, Beckham, if nobody else, would have been treating this fairly trivial match with all seriousness.

And for the 77 minutes before he was substituted he showed signs of why Real signed him on a four-year contract worth an estimated six million euros a year before bonuses.

Coach Carlos Queiroz said he was pleased all round in what was his first match in charge at Madrid since replacing Vicente del Bosque who was unceremoniously dumped a day after steering the side to its 29th league title.

"All the players did well in what I asked them to do," he said in brief after match comments, without commenting on Beckham's performance.

The Spanish side though were put through their paces by China's A league players who held the nine-time European champions until Figo weaved his magic in the 43rd minute, latching on to a Ronaldo pass to slot home at the far post.

Much of the early ball was swung away from Beckham to Figo who turned on the fancy footwork, producing some glorious football in tandem with Roberto Carlos and Zinedane Zidane.

Ronaldo should have opened the scoring in the 4th minute but fluffed the chance and missed several more before being taken off in the 70th minute.

Beckham has conceded that his fumbling attempts to speak Spanish have impeded his ability to coordinate with his colleagues, but he showed plenty of intuition when he got the ball, feeding his characteristic long passes towards the rusty Ronaldo.

He got his chance for glory in the 20th minute when Carlos was brought down 10 yards outside the box, but his curling right foot drive was easily punched clear.

Another chance came 16 minutes later when Figo was sent clattering to the ground. Carlos also lined up for the spotkick but it was Beckham who sent the ball grazing past the left hand post as camera bulbs lit the stadium.

With the heat sapping the players' energy, Real switched seven players in the second half, including Zidane, Figo and Beckham before Fernando Morientes sealed the game in the 80th minute, meeting the rebound from a Carlos left boot missile.

He scored an easy tap in the 90th minute before a clearly offside Javier Portillo wrapped it up in the dying seconds.