And who could blame him. His superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, had put on an exhibition, scoring one goal and delighting the crowd with his dazzling skills. Ronaldo looked bright and happy in his work, and Benitez was quick to scotch any idea that the Portugese frontman had fallen out with him or might want to leave Madrid.

Reports in England were quick to suggest a minor show of dissent at at training session earlier in the week might indicate that Ronaldo and his new boss did not see eye to eye. But Benitez moved to pour water on such claims.

"People were talking about something that happened in a training session. He is happy and playing well, scoring goals, everything is fine," the Madrid manager said.

Benitez has had to deal with a degree of uncertainty over the future of his captain, Sergio Ramos, amidst interest from Manchester United, since taking over the top job at the Bernebeu, and there have also been reports that a cashed up Arsenal could pursue Karim Benzema, the striker who scored Madrid's first goal here.

Benitez has stressed his certainty that Ramos will remain with Real, and he was equally convinced that the Frenchman would also be in Madrid when La Liga kicks off in late August.

"Karim is our player. I am sure that he will stay with us," was his rejoinder to a question about a potential shift to London.

The Real coach has been less than complimentary about the MCG's playing surface this week, but he was effusive in his praise of Australia as a training ground for his club's pre-season.

"It has been a very good time here, the facilities were good, the people were very professional and polite. Today we played really well. I am really pleased with everything. The idea was to train really hard.

"I am very satisfied with the number of people who turned up today.Its been a fantastic show, positive overall."

That couldn't be said for an undermanned City, who were taken apart by the fluidity and movement of Madrid through midfield and in forward areas.

Still the Sky Blues boss Manuel Pellegrini wasn't letting the result get to him.

The Chilean was without the core of his defence - Martin DeMichelis was not here after playing in the Copa America for Argentina, Vincent Kompany had returned to Manchester for the birth of his child, while Eliaquim Mangala was sick on the morning of his game - and that provided some mitigation for their lack lustre effort. Pellegrini rates Cameron Humphreys as a prospect for the future, but the 16-year old centre back was always going to be up against it faced with such high class opposition at this stage of his career.

If he was looking for another excuse he could have pointed to the loss of busy midfielder Fabian Delph, who was forced off with a hamstring injury after barely 20 minutes when the score was still 0-0.

"We knew before the game it was difficult to play without three centre backs against a team with such good attackers. Mangala was sick this morning and could not play.

"Unfortunately he [Delph] has pulled his hamstring in the first minutes of the game. Its difficult to know now [the extent of the injury]. I think Fabian is a very important player. We had to make some change in the way we were playing when he was injured."

Pellegrini said that although it looked bad the scoreline was "not a concern" giving the missing personnel and the fact that some players had only come in to the squad less than a week earlier.

"Preseason is to work hard and play against important teams, but at this moment you cannot be worried about whether you are winning or losing. Maybe the team was not so fresh as we were on Tuesday against Roma.

"I think we choose the correct path to make the pre-season. Good weather, good training grounds."