Real Madrid 3 – Valencia 0: Three takeaways from the important win

Real Madrid made it two wins in two and tallied three goals once again on Thursday night at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano. Los Blancos shook off a slow first half and held on to a clean sheet against mid-table Valencia. Here are three takeaways.

Electing to deploy a 4-4-2 after experimenting with a 4-3-3 on Sunday, manager Zinedine Zidane’s squad needed some time to adjust to the formation change, but managed to keep the match scoreless through 45 minutes.

VAR helped out Real Madrid big time in the first half as Valencia had a beautiful goal ruled off due to a player being in an offside position during the build up.

The goals from the home side came from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio who made his first appearance of the season replacing Fede Valverde with just over 20 minutes to play.

Asensio’s dream debut, Benzema’s brilliance, and Hazard’s passing

During this match, Los Blancos deployed four forwards. Other than Vinicius Jr. – who came on with the match already decided and eight minutes to play – every forward who made an appearance was simply magnificent.

Marco Asensio marked his return to the Real Madrid lineup with a volley goal on his first touch in a live game in over 10 months. Asensio’s recovery process since tearing his ACL and damaging his meniscus in a preseason match last summer has been daunting, but this will go down as one of the feel good moments of the season.

Marco looked like himself in a little over 25 minutes of work and his assist on Karim’s brace was top notch.

The Big Benz has been stunning since play resumed. He didn’t get credit for a goal or assist in the win over Eibar, but it was clearly one of his best performances of the season. Tonight, he got his payment for his hard work in that match with two fantastic goals.

I, for one, am going to be watching that second goal for weeks to come.

Eden Hazard has been dazzling fans with his ability to jump into the attack, dribble, and create chances for himself and others. The Belgian was energetic all 82 minutes he was in the game and registered four shots (three on target) and an assist for the second consecutive match.

The first goal happened all because of the give and go between Eden and Luka Modric. The finish from Karim was scintillating, but it was the setup that created it all.