Real Madrid escaped unscathed from their uncomfortable cup match against a solid, resistant and daring Cacereño who is three divisions below the European champion.
A fantasy by Rodrygo, who takes Cáceres as seriously as Qatar, prevented Ancelotti's men from reaching an extra time that would have made the 300-kilometre return journey by bus even more uncomfortable, and qualified the whites for the round of 16, which will be raffle on saturday
When the show opened at the Príncipe Felipe, the great unknown was the classic of these qualifiers with such a difference in categories.
Until when could the illusion of Cacereño hide the distance.
Or how close to the best version of him Madrid was going to manifest offstage and armed with a few strange pieces, with eight starters at home.
The enthusiasm of the locals allowed them to balance the duel during a very remarkable stretch.
There was no trace of the 16,000 kilometers they had covered since the day after Christmas, when they flew to Nepal for two friendlies, a journey that returned them to Cáceres with barely enough time to count the New Year's Eve grapes.
They did not look like squeezed and battered footballers, but rather what they would have been if they had stayed in Extremadura preparing for a match that they felt was the most important of their careers.
Julio Cobos's team even pushed Lunin up, one of the unusual ones that appeared in Cáceres.
They complicated the start, with energy, courage and order.
Also with sense when they recovered the ball.
And with a fang.
They threatened Carmelo, Télles, Iván Fernández and Manchón, who shot more times (9) than the whites (7).
These games, in the big teams, also serve to measure commitments and ambitions.
Among Ancelotti's men, the temperature recorded by Eden Hazard was freezing.
The Belgian, who withdrew from his team after the disappointing World Cup, did not appear in Cáceres either.
His emptiness was even more obvious due to the contrast with his two teammates above, Rodrygo and Asensio, the Spaniard especially applied and persistent.
💃 SAMBA OF JANEIRO!
💥Rodrygo scores this work of art to make Cacereño's defense dance and score the first of the game
🕰️20' to go #CopaDelRey #LaCopaRTVE https://t.co/QbmBMjaRdI pic.twitter.com/0anNmumTM7
– RTVE Sports (@deportes_rtve) January 3, 2023
Like Hazard, Odriozola also had an opportunity, to whom Ancelotti gave his first minutes of the season, on the left side.
He was barely able to take advantage of it, between the strangeness of the position, the lack of habit and the bad luck of an injury that forced him to retire after 51 minutes.
At that time, Cacereño, still with a clean sheet, was holding his own, continuing to bother Madrid and threatening Lunin.
And the stands, double the capacity for the occasion, celebrated with the wave.
However, a little further on, resistance reached him, to a point that coincided with the departure of Hazard, who was replaced by Castilla striker Álvaro Rodríguez, who was making his debut with the first team and headed high the first ball they put to him.
But it was not the youth squad player who unblocked the mess that Madrid seemed to be getting into, but rather a dazzling flash from Rodrygo.
The Brazilian linked two dribbles from a corner of the area and a fantastic shot with a defender on top of a corner that Iván Moreno could not reach.
Rodrygo, who has done everything this season, from supporting Madrid when Benzema was absent, or Brazil without Neymar, to unlocking a tricky Cup match, vented with three punches to heaven and then raised the indexes at night.
He was pointing to Pelé, fired yesterday with his last journey: to the cemetery from the Santos stadium, where the Madrid striker grew up.
Not even so did Cacereño melt, who sustained the push and finished the match, and his exciting path in the Cup, stepping on the Lunin area.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on
and
, or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
.