Soccer-Holders Real back on song with 5-1 rout of Basel

By Iain Rogers MADRID, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Holders Real Madrid chased away some of their early-season blues when Gareth Bale scored the pick of the goals in a 5-1 rout of FC Basel in their Champions League Group B opener on Tuesday. After a deflected Nacho effort put Real 1-0 ahead in the 14th minute, Bale raced on to a Luka Modric pass and dinked the ball brilliantly over onrushing Basel goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik before volleying into an empty net. A minute later, Bale found space on the right of the penalty area and sent over a low cross for Cristiano Ronaldo, last season's Champions League top scorer with 17 goals, to tap in at the far post. New Real signing James Rodriguez made it 4-0 in the 37th minute when he started and finished a sweeping counter attack before Derlis Gonzalez almost immediately pulled a goal back for the visitors when he sped clear and beat Iker Casillas with a low strike. Karim Benzema completed the scoring in the 79th minute when he lashed a left-foot shot into the net off the underside of the crossbar as Real became the first club to score 1,000 goals in European competition. (Editing by Justin Palmer)