10 men? No problem for Real Madrid as Courtois shines in victory against Pachuca

Xabi Alonso earned his first win as manager of Real Madrid as his side claimed a 3-1 victory over Pachuca on Sunday at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

The new boss called the game a "must-win" in his pre-match comments, as Real Madrid could only muster a draw against Al-Hilal in their tournament opener. Sunday's match looked like it could be another disappointing outing for the famed side at this Club World Cup after Raul Asensio was sent off inside the opening 10 minutes, allowing the Tuzos to play assertively and test Thibaut Courtois frequently.

However, the goalkeeper stood tall and the class of Los Blancos showed in their attacks as they were able to put the match out of reach with three straight goals before Pachuca finally solved Courtois for a consolation goal towards the end of the match.

The result boosts Real Madrid to the top of the Group H standings, at least temporarily, and affords them a good chance at moving on to the knockouts.

Here are the key talking points from Real Madrid's unorthodox victory over Pachuca, as seen by DAZN News.

Real Madrid vs Pachuca match highlights

A moment of madness

Raul Asensio will not look back at this Club World Cup fondly as he had a game to forget against All-Hilal and a red card early in Sunday's encounter.

The young defender was overcome by Salomon Rondon's savvy in the seventh minute on a Route One ball over the top that the experienced Pachuca attacker did well to run on to while holding off Asensio, who resorted to a hefty shirt tug to bring down the big Venezuelan. That action gave the referee little choice but to brandish a red card, and Asensio's day was over almost as quickly as it started.

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It was a moment that Alonso promised to talk to Asensio about, and it gave Pachuca hope as they were able to dictate large stretches of play in the first half and for parts of the second. If the Mexican side had more quality on the attacking end, it would've been much more costly.

Class comes through

As already mentioned, Courtois stood tall against a Pachuca side that attempted 25 shots, putting 11 of them on target.

The one that got through didn't happen until the 80th minute though, as the goalkeeper did enough to allow his side the time needed to figure out how to adjust to going down a player so early.

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Once they did that, the gulf in class was obvious. While there wasn't many of the prolonged stretches of possession that would've been expected by a Real Madrid side sporting so much talent, what did happen was that every attack from the Spanish giants felt genuinely threatening, as they were often able to quickly slice through the Pachuca defence with superior passing and movement.

And, unlike Pachuca, once Real Madrid were in shooting range they put the ball in places goalkeeper Carlos Moreno couldn't stop them — scoring on all three of their shots on target.

New boys integrating

It was the second match for Real Madrid in this summer's tournament, and the second start for their newest additions: Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Both players looked the part in the victory, as Huijsen has seamlessly integrated into the Real Madrid back line and even did some "keepy-uppies" at one point in the first half when under no pressure from Pachuca — although we don't recommend that become a regular feature of his game.

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As for Alexander-Arnold, he looked much more comfortable in his 60 minutes on Sunday than he did in his debut. 

Against Pachuca, he was often part of the counterattacks that 10-man Real Madrid relied upon to claim the victory, and he was directly involved in Arda Guler's first-half goal.

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