Goals from Nacho, Ramos, Morata, James and Mariano
Real Madrid emerged victorious in their final tune-up before the start of the La Liga season with a 5-3 victory over Stade de Reims in the Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night in Madrid.
While Real did show at times that they are prepped and ready for the season's start, manager Zinedine Zidane will have been left concerned by some of the defensive lapses suffered by his club, notably in the second half. Nevertheless, there were positives for Zidane to take home, especially the play of youngsters Mariano and son Enzo Zidane.
Much to the surprise of everyone, it was Reims who struck first as Pablo Chavarria opened the scoring in the seventh minute on the French side's first chance of the match. However, three minutes later Real were back on level terms 1-1 through a Nacho header off a Toni Kroos corner kick.
The chances continued to pour down for Real, with Bale, Alvaro Morata, Nacho and James all with good looks at goal. Finally the second goal came, and again via a corner but instead it was Ramos who breached the Reims defence. Like so many times before in his career, The Andalusian centre-back rose above everyone and spun in a header to hand Real a 2-1 lead.
It was then only fitting that the first half ended with Morata heading in a Marcelo cross to increase the lead to 3-1: Three goals, all coming via headers for Los Blancos in the first 45 minutes.
Much like last season's Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu, a narrow 2-1 win over Turkish side Galatasaray, Reims were intent on keeping things close, and a Real side clearly with their heads back in the half-time dressing room were caught by surprise when Remi Oudin cut the lead to 3-2 just three minutes into the second stanza.
If not for Casilla, Reims could well have tied it up shortly after the Oudin score. Real were lacking in intensity and the Frenchmen were more than happy to take advantage of the time and space they were afforded. The two-goal lead would be restored though, as Danilo found James with a cross from the right, and the Colombian's second effort at goal found the back of the net to make it a 4-2 affair on the hour.
Real had a number of chances to stretch it to a three-goal advantage, but back Reims came and once again exposed the Real defence when Grejohn Kyei slipped in to score with 20 minutes left.
But minutes after having a goal disallowed by being inches offside, Mariano struck for Real's fifth in the 80th minute after a spectacular chipped pass in from Mateo Kovacic to wrap up the scoring at 5-3.
Next up for Real is their La Liga season opener on Sunday in San Sebastian versus Real Sociedad.
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