Raphael Varane was the unlikely goalscoring hero as Real Madrid kicked off the defence of their Copa del Rey crown with a 4-1 victory over lower league Cornella.
Young French defender Varane netted the first brace of his career last night (Wednesday) with a pair of first half headers to help give his team a more than comfortable advantage ahead of December’s second leg at the Bernabeu.
In between Varane’s two goals, Oscar Munoz provided Cornella with a memorable moment by equalising, but Madrid bounced back to claim the spoils and ultimately show the gulf in class between themselves and their third tier part-time opponents.
Chicharito Hernandez and Marcelo added second half goals to complete the scoring in a game which was which switched to nearby Espanyol’s Power8 Stadium to satisfy the demand for tickets, attracting a crowd in the region of 30,000.
With Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti resting plenty of regulars including Cristiano Ronaldo, German international Sami Khedira wasted a good early chance to mark his first start of the season with a goal by heading too close to home keeper Jose Segovia.
But the deadlock was soon broken when James Rodriguez delivered an inswinging corner to the edge of the six-yard box where Varane arrived to power home a header.
At that point it seemed to be just a question of how many Madrid would score, but they were shocked when a long ball forward from home team defender Xavi Pelegri was turned on by Xemi and Josele, allowing Munoz to turn away from Alvaro Arbeloa and thrash a fierce drive past Keylor Navas.
The visitors proceeded to enjoy plenty of possession but initially struggled to create chances other than from set pieces, with Nacho Fernandez seeing a header blocked before Varane struck again to restore his team’s advantage by glancing home Isco’s corner.
Hernandez made it 3-1 shortly after the interval, combining with Karim Benzema and picking up a loose ball on the edge of the box before swivelling to strike a low right-footed effort into the bottom left corner with deadly accuracy.
Cornella refused to give up and threatened when substitute Alex Gallar sent a free-kick into the defensive wall, but Hernandez nearly had a second when he shot just wide after running onto a cross from substitute Marcelo.
The Brazilian then netted the fourth, slotting home into an empty net after Segovia could only parry a low shot from Isco, and Ancelotti was able to give a first team debut to young striker Raul De Tomas as the clock wound down on a straightforward victory.