Never a dull day for Real Madrid fans and when you have Raul Asencio in your team, you can just watch and pray that the youngster does not get booked by a referee or concedes a penalty.
Real Madrid 3-1 Pachuca
This is Xabi Alonso’s first win as the Real Madrid manager and the Spaniard would be happy with the 3-1 scoreline after going one-man down in the 7th minute of the game.
Raul Asencio’s second game on the trot when he had committed a serious foul
This was Raul Asencio’s second game on the trot when he had committed a serious foul that affected Real Madrid in many ways. The first game vs Al-Hilal, he fouled a player inside the Madrid penalty box and conceded a penalty. In this game, he fouled Rondon outside the box but he was the last man of Madrid, so the referee awarded a Red card for denying an open chance for scoring a goal.
The immediate replacement for Asencio came in the form of Tchouameni as dropped from the midfield position into the centre-back pairing with Dean Huijsen.
Arda Guler also drifted into the midfield and helped in the buildup.
The first 20-25 minutes were scrappy for both the teams as no one could get the hold of the ball for a long period and it looked like after going one-man down, Real took a conservative approach by sitting deep and playing on the counter. But after the 1st cooling break, Real started building up from the back and started weaving passes regularly to impose their authority.
Thanks to this continued possession, Jude Bellingham scored the 1st goal from a late midfield run found by Fran Garcia and beautifully finished by the Englishman.
This goal came inside 24 hours after Jobe scored for Dortmund previously.
And just 8 minutes later, Arda Guler scored the second for Madrid as he calmly finished a side-netting shot after Gonzalo Garcia gracefully placed the ball into Arda’s path.
The second half was much more controlled as Real Madrid was playing to keep the ball and only attack when in numbers. After the 60th minute mark, Modric and Ceballos were also introduced to increase the control of the ball and see off the game.
The game became predictable and Madrid casted their magic spell all over the midfield area.
The 3rd goal came after a convincing run from Fede Valverde into the box which was picked perfectly by Brahim Diaz.
At the 70th minute, Real Madrid went 3-0 up and it looked like game over.
But in the 80th minute, Montiel scored after a big deflection from Tchouameni, which sent Courtois the wrong way.
To the contrary of Pachuca fans, the game finished with the scoreline of 3-1. Also, the scoreline that we had predicted.
