Eden Hazard scored his first goal for Real Madrid to help his side to a 1-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg in Austria on Wednesday evening.
The Belgian forward scored a trademark strike from outside the box 19 minutes in to settle a well-contested friendly at the Red Bull Arena.
Los Blancos, who handed a first appearance to Eder Militao and had fellow Brazilian Casemiro back in their side for the first time this summer, have now won back-to-back matches following a tricky start to pre-season.
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Cican Stankovic produced an impressive point-blank stop to deny Karim Benzema 13 minutes in, but the French striker played an important part in Hazard's opener six minutes later.
Hazard was played into space by his new teammate and carried the ball 50 yards, before cutting inside from the left and curling it away from Stankovic.
Salzburg initially responded well to the setback as Andreas Ulmer teed up Takumi Minamino for what should have been a simple finish from six yards out, but he failed to find the target when picked out unmarked.
The visitors then took control of the match and could have had a second before half time as Hazard was denied by Stankovic from a one-on-one position after carrying the ball past Jerome Onguene with ease, while Isco headed over from close range.
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After changing nine members of their starting lineup at half time, though, Salzburg came out for the second half rejuvenated and tested Thibaut Courtois early on through Youba Diarra's tame effort.
Patson Daka then fired just over the crossbar and Zlatko Junuzovic had a free kick saved, but that was as good as things got for the Austrian side, who started their competitive campaign two weeks ago.
Madrid were massively off the pace in the second half, with Luka Jovic's on-target attempt from a tight angle in the final 10 minutes as good as things got for them, but they held on at the other end to pick up a morale-boosting win.
Zinedine Zidane's men have one more pre-season friendly, away to Roma on Sunday, before their La Liga campaign begins on August 17.
RED BULL SALZBURG (4-4-2): Stankovic (Carlos 46'); Kristensen (Farkas 59'), Ramalho (Vallci 46'; Van der Werff 75'), Onguene (Mensah 46'), Ulmer (Okugawa 46'); Minamino (Mwepu 46'), Bernede (Junuzovic 46'), Samassekou (Ashimeru 46'), Szoboszlai (Diarra 46'; Camara 76'); Koita (Hwang 46'), Haland (Daka 46')
REAL MADRID (3-4-2-1): Courtois; Militao, Varane, Ramos; Carvajal (Odriozola 76'), Casemiro (Valverde 46'), Kroos, Marcelo; Hazard (Jovic 62'), Isco (Vazquez 76'); Benzema (Vinicius 76')
Daniel Lewis
