With the attacking spearheads ‘BBC’ ‘rested’, Marco Asensio showed why he is so highly rated and regarded as the next wonder kid in Spain by scoring one minute from time to help Real Madrid beat a lowly Leganes 1-0 in the first leg of quarterfinal of Copa del Rey.
There is a huge speculation that Real Madrid would be replacing their entire frontline of Karima Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristian Ronaldo in the summer. The once threatening ‘BBC’ is on the verge of getting dismantled.
Real coach Zinedine Zidane left out Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in a largely second-string side but even that didn’t help Madrid, who are really low on confidence. It needed a superb volley from Asensio’s in the 89th minute to end a run of three games without a win for the European Champions.
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Mateo Kovacic blasted Real’s best chance wide before halftime after making a superb tackle just outside the box. A header from Leganes was hit on post before goalkeeper Kiko Casilla then swatted away a Claudio Beauvue volley in the 72nd minute to deny Leganes shortly before Spain international Asensio met Theo Hernandez’s cross at the near post and buried it low in the bottom corner.
The second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu is on January 24th.