Real Madrid had a successful outing at Estadio El Montecillo on Saturday night as they eased past fourth-division side Arandina 3-1 to begin their Copa del Rey title defence.
Despite a two-goal win and a dominant performance overall, Madrid’s biggest victory of the night was that their new signing, Arda Guler, finally made his debut with the team and played 59 minutes without any physical problems.
The 18-year-old made a strong statement on his debut, having played just 59 minutes, he created three big chances, had a 90% passing accuracy, one shot on target and hit the woodwork once. Overall, he was involved heavily in the game.
Guler opened up after making his debut with Los Blancos in a post on X, formerly Twitter, where he showed gratitude and expressed his desire to play many more matches for the Whites.
“I'm very happy to have worn this legendary jersey and won my first match. The first of many beautiful days…VAMOS,” he posted on X.
Real Madrid fans on X were short of words after finally watching the Turk prodigy in action after waiting for over seven months for his debut.
Here is how Madridistas on X reacted
Madrid’s head coach Carlo Ancelotti weighed in on Guler’s debut saying that the Turk will improve with every passing game and the most important thing for tonight was to get him to play with the team.
“Arda Guler will improve more little by little. The important thing is he's back and he showed his quality,” Ancelotti said after the match. “The important thing for Guler was to get used to playing with the team.”
It is worth mentioning that Los Blancos won the Copa del Rey in May 2023 after beating Osasuna 2-1 for the first time since 2014 and only the third time in this century courtesy of a brace from Rodrygo. They would look to win it for successive years for the first time in the last 42 years.
Real Madrid’s injury list and their expected return time
Lucas Vazquez (Early February)
Eder Miltao (Late February/Early March)
Thibaut Courtois (April)
David Alaba (August/September
