Real Madrid ran out comfortable 2-1 winners over ten-man Elche courtesy of two wonderful goals from Vinicius Jr on Saturday.
Surprisingly it was Elche who had the first real chance of the game, with Lucas Boye turning David Alaba inside out on the right of the penalty area before forcing Thibaut Courtois into a decent save at his near post.
That effort on goal sparked Real Madrid into life, as they made their way up the pitch to score the opener a minute late. The goal came courtesy of Vinicius, who latched onto a wonderful backheel from Mariano Diaz to rifle the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
After assisting the opener, Mariano almost nabbed himself a goal in the 25th minute. The forward, through one on one with Kiko Casilla (yes, the guy who the FA banned for racist abuse a few years ago), faked a shot on goal to put the goalkeeper on the floor but was then only able to hit the side-netting with his subsequent strike on goal.
Just before half-time Elche probably should've drawn level. Lucas Perez ran onto a clever flick from Javier Pastore just seven yards from goal, but could only drill his strike wide of the post.
