Real Madrid put Real Betis aside 5-1 in their first game of 2025 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night. A hat-trick from Gonzalo Garcia, as well as goals from fellow academy graduates Raul Asencio and Fran Garcia, ensured a smooth sailing for Real Madrid before their Supercopa trip to Saudi Arabia.
Here are three observations from the game:
La Fabrica’s gems
Real Madrid very rarely give a chance, much less a spot in the first team, to Castilla players as of late. Their first team’s talent pool is too deep for some to even get a look in from outside, and it had been a while since a Castilla graduate directly became a first-teamer, even partially.
That changed last season, when two of those players signed first-team contracts, and both of them had special firsts on Sunday night.
Gonzalo Garcia scored a perfect hat-trick — and also his first goal at the Santiago Bernabeu, as well as his first for Real Madrid in La Liga — while Raul Asencio scored his first ever Real Madrid goal in any competition.
For someone who has watched Castilla throughout this decade, it was very wholesome to see these players who used to play at the Alfredo Di Stefano, hoping to even get a glimpse of the first team, get this far in their career. You could argue that some of the other players at Castilla were talented enough to play first-team minutes, but they never did.
It is not just about talent or quality. It is also the timing and positional needs. If Kylian Mbappe and Endrick hadn’t been injured in the Club World Cup, Gonzalo Garcia would never have got the opportunity he rightfully deserved. Same with Asencio, who took his opportunity with both hands after an ACL injury to Eder Militao.
It is difficult sometimes for these players to feel that something has to go wrong with the team for something to go right with them, as that is not the case with teams like Barcelona.
One can hope other players like Thiago Pitarch, Jorge Cestero and Joan Martinez can make the same jump into the first team, but time will tell if they luck out with the timing of it all.
Going back into the game, though, it showed just how good Gonzalo really is as a striker. He is a versatile forward who has played the most minutes on the left wing, but he plays the centre-forward position as if that’s where he has played all his life. Constant pressing, great off-ball movement, good link-up play, incredibly efficient with his finishing (three shots, three goals), and just knows when to make the right decision.
Gonzalo is a player who is tailor-made for Real Madrid, whether as a starter or off the bench. In one of the very few starts he made all season, the Spaniard ended up scoring a hat-trick. If that is not an indication of his quality and impact, nothing is.
Once again, he was only on the pitch because of Mbappe’s injury, which should not be the case. A player of his quality, who has more goals than anyone apart from Mbappe during Xabi Alonso’s tenure at the club, should be playing more minutes alongside the Frenchman. Both players could greatly benefit from each other, as Gonzalo has shown how well he can work with speedy wingers (see: Vinicius Jr at the Club World Cup and Victor Munoz at Castilla last season).
Rodrygo’s form, a floor raiser
In a game where both Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo (at least at the start) tormented the Betis defense, it showed the importance of Rodrygo’s form, especially when he is playing as a right-winger. Rodrygo, in that 30+ game run where he did not register a single goal, was simply not playing well. He was not explosive, his take-ons were unsuccessful, and he suffered from a lack of confidence, too.
This version of Rodrygo is much, much better, and it helps Real Madrid so much more, even from a position where he does not like to play.
Xabi Alonso emphasised how important his presence is for Real Madrid before the turn of the year, and all he needs to do is keep his streak going for as long as possible. Rodrygo, when he is physically fit and in form, is one of the most entertaining players on the Real Madrid roster, and it goes both ways.
His balance and defensive contributions cannot be ignored, and the way he takes people on and sets his teammates up (21 shot-creating actions in the last three games alone) shows his importance and what he can provide to this team going forward.
Hiccups
Real Madrid have a lot of them. Fede Valverde, after the game, said: “We were very good in the first 30 minutes. We pressed hard, we played well, we created chances, but then in those last 10 minutes of the first half, we relaxed a little bit. Then in the second half, we relaxed way too much because we were winning, and they started creating a lot of chances. We need to work on that, for sure.”
Real Madrid won 5-1, but that was due to their dominance in certain parts of the game, and their striker’s efficiency in front of goal, but it cannot hide the fact that Real Betis still created a lot of chances.
This is nothing new. Real Madrid, from the moment the season started, have faced this problem, and it is one of the things that has happened in even their best games of the tenure so far.
In some of these moments, you need a controller on the pitch. You don’t need him to be starting every game, or even playing every game, but just having that profile, especially with what Alonso wants to do with this team, makes perfect sense.
There was one player on the bench who could, to an extent, provide exactly that. The only risk was that he was one of the Castilla names mentioned above.
Thiago Pitarch is one of the most technically gifted midfielders Real Madrid have produced this decade, and it is clear to see why people want him to get minutes. He has his flaws, and he is still an unproven player at the top level — which is probably why Alonso is hesitant to give him minutes — but so was Raul Asencio last season. So was Gonzalo (largely) in the Club World Cup. Real Madrid don’t have to wait for problems to show up at their doorstep before they turn to the academy.
It is clear that Alonso wanted a controller profile over the summer, and he did not get one. It makes complete sense to at least try Thiago in a game or two, especially one that Real Madrid were leading 5-1. If he does not work, he does not work, but it seems like a profile like Thiago’s is, sometimes, what Real Madrid are lacking.