In their opening La Liga match of the year on Sunday, defending champion Real Madrid rallied from behind to defeat Almeria 2-1 thanks to a fantastic free-kick from David Alaba, who had just been substituted.
Largie Ramazani's early goal against their promoted opponents gave Carlo Ancelotti's team the lead, but Lucas Vazquez drew them level shortly after the hour mark.
After Luka Modric was fouled just outside the box with 15 minutes left to play at Almeria's Power Horse Stadium, Alaba strolled onto the field and curled a free-kick in off the upright.
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Almeria, who won the second-tier title last season and returned to La Liga after a seven-year hiatus, made Real work hard for the points.
“We had lots of shots on goal but once we got the first goal it made things much easier for us,” said Ancelotti.
“I am happy with the way the game went. We were not spectacular but there were lots of things to take into account, like the game on Wednesday and the heat.”
At one point it looked like Madrid might suffer a defeat in their opening league game of the season for the first time since 2008, with Ancelotti’s decision to rotate his squad not initially paying off.
In the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday in Helsinki, when the defending European champions defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 thanks to goals from David Alaba and Karim Benzema, the Italian manager made five alterations to the starting lineup.
While close-season additions Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni received their first competitive starts for their new team, Alaba and Modric were among the players who were moved to the bench.
Rudiger caught out
Yet the game was just six minutes old when former Chelsea defender Rudiger was caught out by a ball over the top and Ramazani ran through to beat Thibaut Courtois.
Ramazani, the 21-year-old Belgian winger who used to be on the books at Manchester United, ran off to celebrate in acrobatic fashion as Saudi-owned Almeria enjoyed a dream start to their top-flight comeback.
Yet the hosts needed some inspired goalkeeping from Fernando Martinez to keep them ahead into half-time, with the standout save coming low to his left to deny Rudiger five minutes before the break.
Vazquez then had the ball in the net in the 43rd minute only to be denied by a very tight offside call, but the full-back was the man who dragged the away side back level in the 61st minute as he pounced on a loose ball in the area to score.
Almeria soon gave up again after seeing a hanging Vinicius cross hit their goal's frame earlier on its way behind.
Rodrigo Ely fouled Modric right outside of the penalty area, and Austrian defender Alaba was waiting on the sidelines for his turn to enter the game.
He was able to substitute Ferland Mendy during the break in the action, and he immediately took the ensuing free-kick and scored spectacularly to cap off Ancelotti's team's most recent comeback.
Takefusa Kubo of Japan made his Real Sociedad debut earlier by scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Cadiz.
Kubo, 21, left Real Madrid for San Sebastian last month on a five-year contract after failing to make the Santiago Bernabeu's first squad.
After being acquired by Madrid as an 18-year-old from FC Tokyo in 2019, he was loaned to Mallorca, Villarreal, and then Getafe before going back to Mallorca last season.
Valencia defeated Girona 1-0 thanks to a Carlos Soler penalty in their first La Liga game under new coach Gennaro Gattuso.
Eray Comert, a Swiss defender, was dismissed early in the second half, but Valencia managed to hang on.
In their opening match at Camp Nou on Saturday, Rayo Vallecano held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw.
In the first of three games on Monday, Atletico Madrid travels to Getafe to start their season.
