It’s a duel of the respective league winners, with Segunda Division champions Almeria taking on the team that won Spain’s top flight by a staggering 13 points last season. As well as winning a treble of league, Champions League, and the Supercopa de Espana in 2021-22, Real have already begun the new season with some silverware, defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in Helsinki to claim the UEFA Super Cup.

ALMERIA (5-3-2): Fernando Martinez; Chumi, Kaiky, Rodrigo Ely, Srdjan Babic, Sergio Akieme; Samuel Costa, Inigo Eguaras, Lucas Robertone; Largie Ramazani, Umar Sadiq.

SUBS: Diego Fuoli, Francisco Portillo, Curro, Dyego Sousa, Arvin Appiah, Jose Carlos Lazo, Arnau Puigmal, Alex Centelles, Carlos Mosquero.

Several new faces in the Almeria XI, led by Srdjan Babic, arrived this summer from Red Star Belgrade. He formed one part of a five-man backline featuring Brazilian defender Kaiky, who had recently joined from Santos.

REAL MADRID (4-3-3): Thibaut Courtois; Lucas Vazquez, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho Fernandez, Ferland Mendy; Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Toni Kroos; Federico Valverde, Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior.

SUBS: Andriy Lunin, Luis Lopez, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Jesus Vallejo, Eden Hazard, Luka Modric, Marco Asensio, Casemiro, Alvaro Odriozola, Dani Ceballos, Mariano Diaz.

Real Madrid has won each of their past two trips to Almeria in LaLiga under Carlo Ancelotti, scoring nine goals in the process. . A triumph for the president was like a fantasy that had no place in reality. Almeria President made it very obvious his first priority was not to lose terribly, and a tie would be fantastic, but when you don’t have anything to lose, who cares? All that matters is how hard they tried. Almeria’s president did a superb job of eliminating pressure off the squad. That was also obvious on the field. The players were not holding back. They were striking with freedom.

The new paring of Nacho Fernandez and Antonio Rudiger wasn’t clicking. Rudiger seemed to be someone who loved to craft offside traps. First, he was lucky as the linesman came to his rescue. But when the assist is too good, What a ball from Eguaras, A delightful first-time pass from the outside of Eguaras' boot saw Ramazani race clear of the defense, which put world-class defenders like Rudiger in no man's land and allowed Ramazani to surge away bring the ball down and smash it beyond Courtois into the bottom corner!!! That wasn't in the script!!!!

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Carlo Ancelotti didn’t like what he saw. He talked to the center paring as soon as he got the time—no shakier defense. That was pretty visible. Madrid was on a roll. Attack after attack. Corners were flooding, but Fernando Martínez wasn’t having any. The arrival of Fernando Pacheco makes him the second choice for picking orders. But his performance suggests otherwise. He was just unbelievable that night. Though he conceded two, it doesn’t change the fact he will be a threat to Fernando Pacheco. To be honest, he was more of a prime Buffon and Iker Casillas that night. Twenty-nine shots, fifteen on target, fifteen corners, twenty-seven crosses, and eleven free kicks were not enough to beat that monster in front of the Almeria goal post. A dodge from the bar-post and two quick rebounds were necessary to beat him.

Despite the loss, Almería's Fernando Martínez can be proud of his display v Real Madrid:

🧤 13 saves
📥 10 saved shots from inside the box

The only GK in the last three seasons to make 13 saves in one LaLiga match. 👏👏

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That free kick from David Alaba!!!! WHAT A STRIKE!!! And what an introduction!!! Alaba steps up as casually as you like, with his very first touch, to smash the free-kick straight into the top corner to make it 2-1 to the champions! What a free kick, and for the first time in this game, Martinez had no answer to that one!

Regarding the new boys. It was ok, but they have to level up; otherwise, they will fall far behind in picking order. Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni did a decent job, but they didn’t do enough to bench the primary holders of their starting position.

Just one word for Federico Valverde “Love.” This guy cares for his team more than anyone. He is literally everywhere. I don’t know how many lungs this guy possesses.

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Vinicius has been at his magnificent best all day long, making a mockery of defenders for 83 minutes. He may not have scored or assisted, but Vinicius Junior shined down the left for Real in this encounter. He concluded it with two on-target shots from four attempts, as well as four key passes. He was involved in 10 duels, having 18 touches in the box and completing 35 passes in the final third. He was fouled four times, too; getting Curro booked in the process, and in that kind of form, would be an enormous nightmare for any defender in world football.

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