The Azerbaijan State News Agency

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Real Madrid swerve scare at Almeria to begin title defence with win

Baku, August 15, AZERTAC

Real Madrid came back from behind to get their Liga title defence off to a winning start as Los Blancos sealed a 2-1 victory over Almería at the Estadio Mediterráneo, according to Eurosport.

Almería, who have conceded a total of 21 goals in their last five meetings with Real Madrid, took a shock lead in the ninth minute to send the Los Rojiblancos fans wild.

Largie Ramazani latched onto a beautifully weighted outside of the foot through ball from Íñigo Eguaras to race clear of the defence and place a low shot beyond Thibaut Courtois in the Madrid goal.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side responded brilliantly, and created many clear-cut chances to get back on level terms. The pick of the bunch was just a few minutes after the opening goal, but Karim Benzema could only send Vinicius Jr’s cut-back into the box from the left byline over the bar from five yards out.

Los Blancos eventually had their equaliser in the 61st minute as Lucas Vazquez struck. The right-back advanced forward to place home a low strike from inside the box following a cut-back from Benzema.

Then, with his first touch after coming on as a late substitute, David Alaba won it for Real Madrid with a superbly struck free-kick 15 minutes from time to break Almeria hearts after such a spirited showing by the newly-promoted side in what was their first La Liga match in seven years.

David Alaba is just one of the two La Liga players to have scored two direct free-kick goals across all competitions since last season, alongside Nabil Fekir.

Real Madrid had 12 corners in the first 45 minutes against UD Almeria, their highest total in a first half of a La Liga game since at least 2003/04.

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