Real Madrid cruised to victory against Elche on Wednesday night, as the Karim Benzema put on an exhibition following his Ballon d’Or award on Monday night.
Elche did manage to hang tight with Los Blancos for some time by virtue of three disallowed goals due to offside. With the introduction of Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga and Marco Asensio, Real Madrid went on to seal a comfortable 3-0 win.
Speaking to Diario AS after the match, Carlo Ancelotti highlighted the value of that squad depth.
“It’s quite obvious that there are more than eleven players in the team who deserve to play. Also today we had Camavinga, Tchouameni, Lucas on the bench.”
“It’s clear that we have more than eleven that can play as starters because they all come off the bench with a lot of energy, and I’m very happy about it. When you have Camavinga who can come on with a lot of energy in the 70th minute, when you have Tchouameni who can come too, it’s something to take into account.”
Asensio also got on the scoresheet late on with an aesthetic controlled volley beyond Edgar Badia.
As tends to be the case whenever Asensio is a talking point these days, his contractual situation was brought up. Asensio is free to discuss terms with clubs in January.
“We haven’t talked about the issue of Asensio’s contract. He has played little but when he does, he shows that he can do it. He has been decisive and he will have more minutes in the future, and after the World Cup we will talk about his contractual position.”
His lack of game time has been a source of frustration of late for the Spanish international who is hoping to go to the World Cup with Luis Enrique. Given Rodrygo Goes, who has been performing at a high level, can barely get in the side though, it is hard to see Asensio getting more minutes in the immediate future.
