Real Madrid just played a brilliant friendly against WSG Tirol which was full of entertaining highlights.
Kylian Mbappe scored a brace, Arda Guler was in form and Aurelien Tchouameni showed exactly why Xabi Alonso trusts him so much. Dean Huijsen acted like one of the best centre-backs in the world.
It may have been a friendly, but it made fans feel like life is good again. Real Madrid have not had a lot of fun in terms of how they have played, but it felt like that fun was back.
There was also one more player who rightfully earned plaudits for his performances. Alvaro Carreras was great on the left-back position for Real Madrid, and that is a sentence not heard from fans in a very long time.
Alvaro Carreras was really solid for Real Madrid against WSG Toril
Fran Garcia definitely showed how that could feel back in the Club World Cup, but this was different. It was more all-rounded, and Carreras actually looked like an upgrade that everyone has been hoping for.
Carreras was a left-back needed by Real Madrid for a while. Even if Garcia plays as well as he did in the Club World Cup, the club needed another left-back who was taller and better with his two-way presence.
Carreras showed that on Tuesday. Again, it is a friendly so I am taking everything with a grain of salt, but it was refreshing. Vinicius Jr had someone on the overlap more times than he could count.
It was just good. It wasn't groundbreaking. It was not anything Real Madrid fans have not seen in their lifetime, but it was something those fans have been craving for the longest time.
It was only the first game, so I am hoping there is more to it. There should be. There is a reason why Real Madrid paid all this money, and it is going to be interesting to see how much better the two Spaniards are able to make each other.