Madrid, Aug 24 (IANS): Spanish giants Real Madrid's coach Rafael Benitez was unable to start his reign with a win as his side was held to a 0-0 draw away to Sporting Gijon.

Despite a handful of chances which fell to star strikers Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, Real Madrid were unable to find the target against a side playing its first game on its return to La Liga, reports Xinhua.

The result means that Madrid have failed to score in five games this season and there are doubts about the effectiveness of Benitez's plan to give Bale a free role in attack, although the coach believes it will be a matter of time before things start to work out.

"What is clear to me is that this is the beginning... I'm going to take positives from the second half. In the first half we lacked certain things and we have to make some changes, but I remain optimistic," said Benitez, who defended his policy of allowing his strikers greater freedom of movement.

"To get the best out of the players we've got to give them a certain amount of freedom. The front players created a lot of moves but they didn't have a lot of space."

"Our reaction in the second half was good. We showed character and personality. In the second half we were a team clearly going for the win. We lacked the final ball and didn't hit the target often enough," said Benitez, who was also impressed by the newly-promoted Sporting Gijon.

"You can see that they are a team with players who have been together for a while. They have a very clear system. They played very well, they were very organised and they deserve credit," he concluded.