Real Madrid beat Deportivo La Coruña 1:0 in a Club Friendlies fixture on Tuesday evening, the only goal arriving just before the interval. B. Diaz struck at 45+1 to give the visitors a narrow lead they carried into the break. The match was a pre-season warm-up rather than a contest with stakes, but the result still matters when you consider what it says about form heading into August.
By then, the game had settled into a rhythm Real were happy to control. They created two big chances compared to Deportivo's zero, and that gap in quality showed in the expected goals: 1.09 against 0.34. Shots accuracy was identical at 0.30 for both sides, which tells you something about finishing rather than chance creation. Several substitutions came around the hour mark, with Aubameyang and Navarro both introduced by Deportivo.
And here's the thing about friendlies — the minutes matter less than the movement. Real Madrid pressed higher, registering 131 attacks to Deportivo's 89, while their passes into the final third reached 170 compared to just 43. The visitors held 56 per cent possession and completed 551 successful passes, but possession alone doesn't win matches. Deportivo cleared 25 balls, twice as many as Real's 15, which suggests they spent more time defending than they'd have liked.
To be fair, the yellow cards came at predictable moments. A. Rudiger picked up a booking at 29 minutes, followed by Camavinga early in the second half, and Dumfries later still. The substitutions tell their own story about rotation — Real brought on six players around the break, including Endrick and Guler, while Deportivo responded with three changes at the same interval.
The result extends Real's recent run of results, though this was a friendly and the table doesn't move. Deportivo came into the match with a mixed record in their last five: a win, a draw, a draw, a win, and a draw. Real had won one, drawn two, and lost one in similar time. What matters now is whether the patterns hold when the competitive season starts.