Enzo Zidane made his Real Madrid debut – and scored – as Los Blancos swept aside Cultural Leonesa 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the Copa del Rey last 16.
Madrid were predictably second-string for the second leg of this Copa del Rey last-32 tie, although Martin Odegaard – making his first-ever Blancos start – was one of just two Castilla players in their line-up.
Los Merengues came into the match 7-1 up on aggregate from the first leg, and they made that eight less than a minute on the clock, when Mariano Diaz finished off a breakneck counterattack from close range from a Cultural mistake.
Mariano should’ve put Madrid two to the good with another tap-in, given he was clearly behind the cutback that went his way, but the linesman begged to differ.
Nonetheless, Dani Carvajal bent a cross into the penalty area for James Rodriguez to nod across Cultural goalkeeper Leandro Montagud.
The visitors wait for a first chance soon ended, and it was almost worth the wait as Benja headed inches wide after he got the beating of both Madrid centre-backs in the penalty area from a cross.
Odegaard, meanwhile, eased past his marker down the right before pulling inside and cutting back for a teammate, but his ball was cleared off the line by a Cultural player.
Two more Madrid opportunities saw Isco curl a shot a fraction wide of Leandro’s top-left corner after a rapid Madrid breakaway, before Mariano blasted just over and had an attempted toepoke through the goalkeeper’s legs crucially deflect off-target.
Still, the custodian could do nothing when Dani Carvajal’s long ball into the box from the right was chested down by Mariano, the attacker smashing a half-volley past Leandro at his near post.
However, it was Yeray Gonzalez who lit up the Santiago Bernabeu with an absolute missile from 25 yards out, leaving Kiko Casilla with no chance, on the stroke of half-time.
Cultural were clearly on a high from their shock goal going into the restart as Toni Villa quickly fired a shot just wide of Casilla’s goal from the Madrid D.
Normal service was resumed just as promptly, however, although Leandro got a hand to Nacho’s strike at his near post and subsequently turned it around for a corner.
Enzo Zidane, son of Madrid boss Zinedine, came on during the break for his first-team debut, and just 17 minutes later, the 21-year-old angled a shot past Leandro from the edge of Cultural’s box.
Equally impressive was full-back Alvaro Tejero, and he managed to meet Marco Asensio’s chipped cross at Leandro’s back post, only for the goalkeeper to somehow keep out the youngster’s vicious, first-time volley.
Alex Gallar peeled off Pepe at the far post of substitute Madrid goalkeeper Ruben Yanez from a corner late on, but the attacker couldn’t get his header on target.
That was followed by Mariano scoring a free header in the penalty area for his hat-trick and Cesar Morgado sliding into his own net.
Real Madrid 6-1 Cultural Leonesa (13-2 agg.)
Mariano 1, 42, 87, James 23, Enzo 63, Cesar og 90 (RM) Yeray 45 (CL)
Real Madrid: Casilla (Yanez 76); Carvajal (Varane 46), Pepe, Nacho, Tejero; Isco (Enzo 46), Casemiro, James; Asensio, Mariano, Odegaard
Cultural Leonesa: Leandro; Ivan, Angel, Cesar, Victor, Cristobal, Yeray, Toni, Benja (Zuiverloon 53, Abdulsalam 72), Gallar, Orti (Moreno 82)
