Having scored just 11 goals in eight pre-season games, Real fired blanks again and slipped two points behind Barcelona and Atletico Madrid after the first round of matches in La Liga. 

It was Benitez' first game back in Spanish football 11 years after he left Valencia for Liverpool. The result means he matches Jose Mourinho’s first game in charge at Madrid – he also opened with a goalless draw away from home in 2010.

Benitez will point to the absence of the injured Karim Benzema but to have presided over five matches since the start of the summer in which Madrid have failed to score will be a concern.

Gareth Bale was Real’s best player in the opening 45 minutes, shooting into the side netting after racing away from the Sporting defence on to a pass from Luka Modric with Real's best early chance. Bale then got away down the left again and crossed but Jese was unable to finish.

The Welshman had started the game in the number 10 position but had drifted out to the left and with space to run into was causing Sporting Gijon plenty of early problems.

Despite the threat he carried, the game had little goal-mouth action but game could easily have had two before half-time with a chance at both ends within the space of 60 seconds.

First Paraguayan striker Antonio Sanabria thundered a header against the crossbar. The ball came down once and bounced out back into play. Replays from behind the goal appeared to show it had crossed Keylor Navas' line while others suggested the whole of the ball had not crossed the line. 

With no technology in place in La Liga to make the referee’s mind up for him, play continued and Madrid immediately thought they should have been awarded a penalty when Ronaldo tangled with Sergio Alvarez in the area. Again the referee decided not to give the attacking team the advantage.

The second half started at the same pace with Isco shooting on target and Carlos Carmona heading just wide after a mistake by Rafael Varane had allowed Sporting to cross from left.

Bale then won a free-kick on the edge of the area and took it himself but bent it over the wall and Ivan Cuellar’s bar. Then Varane headed a corner straight at Sporting’s goalkeeper.

After James Rodriguez replaced Jese he sent a perfect cross towards the head of Cristiano Ronaldo but Sporting defender Ivan Hernandez got the slightest of touches and it was enough to divert the ball beyond Real Madrid’s number seven. 

Rodriguez then forced Cuellar’s into another save down to his right – the Colombian had given Real Madrid a different dimension since coming on and his introduction had pushed Ronaldo into a more central position. 

From there the Portuguese failed to connect Danilo’s cross with the goal at his mercy. To Ronaldo's relief, the offside flag was raised meaning the goal would not have counted.

With ten minutes left Madrid were now camped in Sporting’s area. The newly-promoted side were hanging on with tired legs and no out-ball. There still seemed to be a certain inevitability about Real breaking the deadlock but somehow the first goal of the Benitiez era did not come.

The Real Madrid striker who scored 61 times last season had another chance to get off the mark but from a deep cross from the right he headed well over Cuellar’s bar. 

With Real's last opportunity Ronaldo fired a free-kick into the Sporting wall. They deserved their point... Real are already two behind their big La Liga rivals.

(dailymail.co.uk)