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Real Madrid returned to home turf knowing that they were days away from a Copa del Rey semi-final against Barcelona. It didn’t see Santiago Solari’s team take their foot off the gas at all though as they blew Alaves away in La Liga for a fifth consecutive win.

Karim Benzema broke the deadlock with a poacher’s tap-in inside the box to maintain his fine form, whilst Vinicius Junior added a second with a pinpoint finish. Mariano Diaz put the icing on the cake with his header in injury time to seal a 3-0 victory. Here, our tactical analysis will use statistics to identify what key points Real Madrid can take from the game.

All change in attack

For the first time starting together, Benzema and Vinicius were joined by Gareth Bale as the Welshman returned from injury to start in the trident, replacing Lucas Vazquez. It worked well too, with Benzema maintaining his fine form of late. The two wide men were clearly conscious of the fact that they may well have been battling it out for a starting spot in Wednesday’s El Clasico.

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