Real Quality

Real Madrid showed their quality with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Champions League-chasing Valencia at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano. But it didn't start out that easy; Valencia actually started the match well; and held their own against the title-chasers both offensively & defensively. They even scored what looked to be a legitimate goal through Rodrigo Moreno; although it was waved off correctly through VAR.

Slowly but surely; Real Madrid did manage to assert their control on this match; and their quality soon shone through. A brilliant one-two between Eden Hazard & Luka Modric saw the former expertly relaying the ball to his strike partner Karim Benzema; who needed no second invitation to score past Jesper Cillesen in the Valencia goal.

Another beautiful story to this game was the return of Marco Asensio; who had been out for almost a year due to a serious cruciate ligament injury. In fact, he scored with his very first touch after coming on; latching on to a smart cross from Ferland Mendy to volley beautifully home with his left foot.

Valencia were seriously deflated at this point; and two soon became three with the best goal of the night. Casemiro started it off with a superb tackle inside his own half; the ball was relayed up from Modric to Asensio; who deftly flicked the ball with the outside of his left boot into the path of Benzema; who wondrously control-chipped the ball with his right boot; then volleyed with his left-foot perfectly in to the top corner. It was a breathtaking goal from the French forward; one reminiscent of that sizzling left-foot volley scored by his manager himself in the UEFA Champions League final.