Believe it, because it happened. Thirty seconds into his Real Madrid debut, the world's most expensive footballer is sprawled on the Tallaght turf after his first meeting with arguably the League of Ireland's most prolific hard man.

In the build up to this game, Pat Flynn did little to correct the image that accompanies his colourful disciplinary record when asked if he was looking forward to the challenge of taking on Cristiano Ronaldo.

“Everyone has been asking me to get his jersey,” he said, “And I've been saying I'll go one further and get his blood on my boots.”

Maybe if the Portugese superstar had read those words, he would have taken a different route to the diagonal path he chose when he got his first touch of the ball, powering from his right wing berth towards the right of the Rovers defence where, to paraphrase the Rovers chant, Flynny was going to get him.

The tackle was hard, but just about fair and those who watch the Waterford native on a regular basis lapped it up. Such improbable match-ups were the theme of this evening.

They will last longer in the memory than the result, a single goal success secured by £30million purchase Karim Benzema in the 86th minute.

Given the in-built Irish inferiority complex, fans felt there had to be a catch — they're not going to pay £80million for a player and give him his debut in Tallaght, are they?

The cynics got their answer an hour before kick-off as the Madrid selection filtered through. Dudek, Torres, Metzelder, Pepe, Marcelo, Gaga, Diarra, Guti, Higuain, Raul. Oh, and that Ronaldo fellow.

Other household names like Robben and Van Nistelrooy are on the way out of the club anyway and weren't even on the bench.

Instead, it was Rovers boss Michael O'Neill who took the cautious approach, leaving star striker Gary Twigg out of his eleven.

The hastily installed temporary seating brought the capacity up to 10,915.

The match itself was typical friendly fare with no great tempo. Marcelo forced Barry Murphy into making a smart early stop, while Ronaldo delighted the pantomime detractors by failing to come close to the target with two free kicks.

In total, there were 15 half-time substitutions; nine from Madrid and six from Rovers with only Lassana Diarra and Jerzy Dudek remaining from the visitors' starting team. The £80million man was gone, so the punters had to settle for the presence of Benzema.

Alas, Flynn had also been replaced, so there was no unique welcoming party for the Frenchman. Within ten minutes of his arrival, he smashed a left footed strike against the post.

Tadhg Purcell's speculative attempt was cleared off the line by Alvaro Negredo.

Then, Dessie Baker was presented with a golden chance to put the purple shirts ahead after a quickly taken free kick but the local lad panicked and fired over the bar.

Duggan prevented Rafael Van Der Vaart's acrobatic volley from breaking the deadlock. Then, Baker stumbled over himself when faced with Dudek.

The headlines will go to Benzema who had looked menacing before latching onto a Gabriel Heinze punt to nip away from Aidan Price and calmly slot the ball past Duggan.

Not quite a fairytale ending, but a fairytale all the same.

Shamrock Rovers: Murphy (Duggan 45), Flynn (Treacy 45), Sives (Price 45), Maguire (Madden 80), Bermingham (Cahill 45), O'Connor (Twigg 70), Rice, Robinson (McGill 55), Gal-Andrezly (Purcell 45); Jurco (Bradley 45), Amond (Baker 55).

Real Madrid: Dudek, Torres [Selgado], Metzelder (Garay 45), Pepe (Heinze 45), Marcelo (Drenthe 45); Gaga (Parejo 45), Diarra (Tebar Ramiro 63); Ronaldo (Sneijder 45), Guti (Van der Vaart 45), Higuain (Benzema 45); Raul (Negredo 45).

Referee: Alan Kelly (Cork).