Zinedine Zidane marked his return to Real Madrid by recalling several of the stars of his previous reign, and was rewarded as they starred in victory over Celta Vigo at the Bernabeu.
The Frenchman, who replaced Santiago Solari this week, preferred Keylor Navas to Thibaut Courtois in goal, and also brought Marcelo and Isco, who had not started a league game since October, In from the cold.
After a laboured team performance, it was the Spanish midfielder who made the breakthrough, before Marcelo teed up Gareth Bale to seal a 2-0 win late on.
Early on, Navas had justified his inclusion with a brilliant reflex save to deny Maxi Lopez, but it took until the half hour mark for Real’s first proper chance, Bale crashing a kung-fu volley off the crossbar.
The home side began to grow, and Marcelo went close with a fizzer from range before Karim Benzema had a tap-in ruled out for an elbow by Bale in the build-up.
Shortly after the break, they had the ball in the net again only to see the goal chalked off once more, this time in more controversial circumstances.
Toni Kroos’ corner was cleared as far as Luka Modric, and when his mishit volley bounced into the far corner it looked as if the second Zidane era had lift off. However, after a lengthy delay, it was decided the Raphael Varane had interfered with play from an offside position, despite not appearing to impair the goalkeeper’s sight line or move towards the ball.
But it was a case of third time lucky just after the hour mark, when Asensio drove from deep to release Benzema, who squared for Isco to supply the easiest of finishes and finally break the deadlock.
And the points were safe shortly after, when Marcelo carved Celta Vigo open, setting up Bale to scuff into the bottom corner.
Relive the action in our match blog below…
