{"id":884,"date":"2025-08-22T17:29:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=884"},"modified":"2025-08-22T17:29:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:29:54","slug":"alonso-and-real-madrid-look-for-more-fluidity-on-trip-to-oviedo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/22\/alonso-and-real-madrid-look-for-more-fluidity-on-trip-to-oviedo\/","title":{"rendered":"Alonso and Real Madrid look for more fluidity on trip to Oviedo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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After winning without convincing against Osasuna in their opening match of the season in La Liga, Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid head to Real Oviedo on Sunday for what will be a gala occasion for the newly-promoted side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oviedo returned to Spain’s top flight after an absence of almost quarter of a century by beating Mirandes in the second-tier play-off final in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club from the northern region of Asturias, coached by Serbian former player Veljko Paunovic, were therefore left facing a quick turnaround before tackling life back in La Liga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a 40-year-old Santi Cazorla coming off the bench and Venezuela veteran Salomon Rondon leading the attack, Oviedo lost 2-0 away at Villarreal in their first game back in the elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they host the 15-time European champions in front of what will be a sell-out 30,000 crowd at the Estadio Carlos Tartiere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alonso took charge of Madrid ahead of the Club World Cup, in which his new charges reached the semi-finals before suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a short close-season break, Real returned to training before edging Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday thanks to a Kylian Mbappe penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After a two-week pre-season, against a team who had longer, there were things missing but the result gives us stability going forward,” said Alonso after that match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen, signed before the Club World Cup, made their Liga bows for Madrid in that game while left-back Alvaro Carreras made his debut after joining from Benfica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teenage Argentine sensation Franco Mastantuono also came on for his first appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alonso will now hope for a more fluid display as his side continue what looks like a kind opening run of fixtures building up to the derby away to Atletico in late September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Player to watch: Franco Mastantuono
The Argentine teenager is tipped for a huge future and made his La Liga debut on Tuesday off the bench for Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mastantuono moved to the Bernabeu in June, signing from River Plate for just over 63 million euros ($72 million) and penning a six-year deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winger or attacking midfielder, who made his senior Argentina debut in early June just before playing at the Club World Cup with River, will hope to make a big impact in La Liga this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He has that Argentine grit and competitive spirit,” said Real coach Alonso this week, while also hailing the youngster’s ability to play the final pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Rodrygo still being tipped to depart Real in the transfer window, that would leave Mastantuono and Brahim Diaz to contest a spot on the right wing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After winning without convincing against Osasuna in their opening match of the season in La Liga, Xabi Alonso’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":886,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions\/886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}