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La Liga giants Real Madrid were on Wednesday left to rue their recent change on the club’s bench.
This comes after Los Blancos were condemned to a shock elimination from the Copa del Rey.
A new era in Spain’s capital was kicked into gear this evening, as Real took to the pitch for the very first time under the watch of new head coach Álvaro Arbeloa.
The capital heavyweights were tasked with a trip to 2nd-tier outfit Albacete in the Last-16 of the Spanish cup.
What many expected to be a routine victory for the visitors, however, quickly developed into nothing short of a nightmare outing.
With the likes of Rodrygo, Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham back at home, Real fell behind on three separate occasions in Castilla-La Mancha.
The third and final goal netted by Albacete came deep into injury-time, and proved the decisive one in a five-goal thriller.
This result of course comes just 48 hours on from the board at the Bernabéu making the hasty call to send head coach Xabi Alonso on his way.
And safe to say, for tonight at least, the Spanish tactician appears to have been vindicated…
Conor Laird – GSFN