Real Madrid 3-1 Pachuca: 10-man Madrid send North American champions packing | OneFootball

Despite going down to 10 men, Real Madrid defeated Pachuca 3-1 at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, picking up their first win under Xabi Alonso at the Club World Cup and sending their Mexican opponents packing in the process.

Raúl Asencio was given his marching orders in the first 10 minutes after denying Salomón Rondón of a goalscoring opportunity, but despite hitting 12 shots in the first half, they went in at the break 2-0 down after goals from Jude Bellingham and Arda Güler.

More shots followed and Pachuca would eventually score thanks to a deflected effort from Elías Montiel, but not before Federico Valverde made the score 3-0 with what was Real Madrid’s first chance of the half.

The result means Real Madrid briefly go top of Group H, while Pachuca’s journey has come to an early end.

As it happened

There’s something so inevitable about Real Madrid. They may be in the teething phase of a new manager; they may be without some of their star players; in this game, they may have gone down to 10 men remarkably early and looked at sea for much of the first half. But they’re still Real Madrid, and you can always rely on them to pull the rabbit out of the hat.

It was in the seventh minute that Asencio stacked the odds up against his own team. Rondón – of all players – had proved himself a nuisance in the early exchanges (he’d already spurned a golden chance on the volley by this point), and when he got on the wrong side of the young centre half, baiting him into a shirt pull which denied a clear shot on goal, there was no surprise the red card was produced.

He departed for an early bath and his team looked more than a little unsettled as a result. Aurélien Tchouaméni took his place in the back four and was given just as potent a headache by the Venezuelan frontman; it was only a shirt pull from Rondón in the 20th minute which denied another goalscoring chance, and an embarrassing moment for the makeshift centre half who would have been left in the dust.

Chance after chance came and went for Pachuca, but they were invariably denied by the magisterial Thibaut Courtois, whose double save in to deny former Chelsea man Kenedy and Alan Bautista was the pick of the bunch, or their own poor finishing.

Sometimes in football, though, the cliches are all too accurate. In this case: if you miss chances against Real Madrid, don’t be surprised when you’re left to rue them.

After seven Pachuca shots, Bellingham popped up at the end of a slick Real Madrid counterattack and fired an effort into the bottom corner with his weaker left foot. That goal came in the 35th minute, and the lead would be doubled just before halftime, with Güler this time slotting home after a similarly suave move.

Real Madrid went into the break largely outplayed, with 10 men, seven fewer shots than their opponents and a two-goal led.

At halftime, Pachuca decided one Kenedy wasn’t enough and introduced John Kennedy for good measure. He proceeded to hit shot after shot from distance, twice forcing Courtois into full-stretch saves, as his side camped around the Real Madrid box. By the 65th minute, they’d hit 20 attempts, eight of which being on target.

And yet, five minutes later there was another goal, and it did not come from a Pachuca player. Instead, Vinícius Júnior was played in behind before spotting Valverde on the edge of the area. Then, after a give and go between himself and Brahim, the latter return dinked the ball into the box to pick out the Uruguayan whose run was unmarked and his leg outstretched just enough to poke home past a static Carlos Moreno.

They’d spent the entire second half in their own box, they’d been battered from pillar to post, utterly reliant on Courtois, and then they didn’t just win, they won by a margin. In tournament football, no one does it like Los Blancos.

Finally, 10 minutes from time, Pachuca would score the goal their football had deserved, but they still needed a helping hand to get the ball over the line. Montiel had picked up the ball just outside the area and spun before hitting a strike destined for the bottom corner. Courtois flew down to meet it, but a little deflection from Tchouaméni redirected the shot into the centre of the goal. After 22 attempts, they finally had their goal.

But it was too little, too late. Their attacking performance deserved more, but after 10 Courtois saves and the superior quality across the pitch from their gigantic rivals, defeat and elimination from the Club World Cup was their ultimate fate. For Real Madrid, the journey continues with an all-European clash against RB Salzburg, while Pachuca’s final game against Al Hilal will be little more than a formality.

They did, though, learn a vital lesson: if you’re going to shoot at the king, you’d better kill the king, and nothing less than perfection is enough to kill off Real Madrid.

The lineups

RMA: Courtois; Alexander-Arnold, Asencio, Huijsen, F. García; Valverde, Tchouaméni, Bellingham; Güler, G. García, Vinícius Jr.