Bale, Rodriguez lead Real to Audi final

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Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez said on Tuesday that he was already seeing signs of improvement in his team after James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale led Real to the Audi Cup final with a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
"I think that the team is improving in defence. We can see they are more solid, more compact. It is too early. We have been in Australia and China, and in China we couldn't train too much. So I am really pleased to see the team working as hard as they did today in defence. And they also scored two goals, so the balance is really positive because we have been on the plane all the time," he told reporters at a news conference after the semifinal match in Munich.
Rodriguez scored the first goal in the 36th minute and Bale, who was playing against his former team for the fIrst time since he left in 2013, secured the win with a 25-yard blast in the 79th minute.
The Spanish giants will now face Bayern Munich who defeated AC Milan 3-0 with goals from Juan Bernat, Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski.
Real were without stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. But some of the younger players have joined the team instead.
"I have talked with the coach and he has told me not to worry and to focus on training and play these games with Real Madrid. Let's see what happens from there," Marco Asensio, who made his debut with Real alongside Borja Mayoral, said.
Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino said his team, who finished fifth in the Premier league last season, should have deserved a better result.
"The first 30 minutes we created many chances to score. But they are Real Madrid, and they are a very good team and one of the best teams in the world. We got the chance to score. And (for how we played in) the first 45 minutes I think we deserved a draw or to win the first part.
"In the second half I think we kept the same momentum, played in the same way and it is true that in the after-time mistake, we gave Bale the opportunity to score and to finish the game. But there are a lot of positive things that we need to take from this game," he said.