Pachuca was unable to defeat Real Madrid.

Real Madrid earned their first win of the Club World Cup by beating Pachuca 3-1, despite playing almost the entire match with one less man due to Raúl Asensio's sending off in the seventh minute.

Asensio received a straight red card after bringing down Salomón Rondón as he faced Courtois alone. The defender committed a penalty in the 1-1 draw against Al-Hilal in the opening match of this tournament.

The Real Madrid goals came from Jude Bellingham (35'), Arda Guler (43'), and Federico Valverde (70'). Youngster Elías Montiel scored the only goal (80').

The Spanish team, led by Xabi Alonso, dominated the match with discipline and efficiency. "It was a very important victory; we value it greatly given the context. I'm very satisfied with how intelligently we played," said the Spanish coach.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had a remarkable performance, making at least six saves, four of them from shots by Brazilian John Kennedy.

“Our personality is very important,” Bellingham emphasized after the match. “We all had to take on that responsibility. They had several shots, but Courtois was fantastic. We won, even though we didn't play a perfect game. We have to keep working in the direction the coach wants,” the Englishman added.

Pachuca, coached by Jaime Lozano, suffered its second defeat and was eliminated from the tournament. In its debut, it lost 2-1 to Salzburg.

“I'm sad because these are great opportunities. We lacked decisiveness. We're in a transition,” Lozano said after the match. “The team started well, even getting a red card. We lacked decisiveness. We're in a transition, and it prevented us from getting more out of the games,” the coach added.

Accusation of racism

At the end of the match, Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger accused Gustavo Cabral, the Tuzos captain, of racially abusing him in the closing stages of the match. Cabral denied the accusations.

In the post-match press conference, "Jimmy" Lozano said he was unaware of such accusations. "I just found out. I can vouch for my captain."

On the other hand, Xabi Alonso expressed his support for his player against "unacceptable" behavior.

"We support Toni. We'll see. Now the FIFA protocol will be activated and they will investigate what happened. We support Antonio; it's unacceptable. There's no tolerance for that," he stated.

Juventus defeated Wydad of Morocco 4-1 with a double from Turkey's Kenan Yildiz to take the lead in Group G with six points.

The Italian team secured its place in the round of 16, although it remains to be seen whether it will advance as the group leader or finish second.

An own goal by Abdelmounaim Boutouil (6'), after deflecting a shot from Yildiz, opened the scoring. The Turk himself scored in the 16th and 69th minutes.

“Just go out there and do your thing. Get the ball, create chances,” Lloyd Kelly said he told Yildiz. “I would hate to play against him if he was on the other team,” the British defender added.

Thembinkosi Lorch pulled one back in the 25th minute, but Dusan Vlahovic sealed the victory in the 94th.

With this score, the Bianconeri reached six points with a goal difference of +8, the same as Manchester City reached after beating Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates 6-0.

The citizens scored three times in the first half: Ilkay Gundogan (8'), Claudio Echeverri (27'), Erling Haaland (45').

For the second half, Gundogan (73'), Oscar Bobb (84') and Rayan Cherki (89') sealed the victory.

In the final match of Group G, City will face Juventus on Thursday for the top spot.

In the other match of yesterday's matchday, Salzburg drew 0-0 with Al-Hilal and remained in second place in the group behind Real Madrid (both with four points).— AP and EFE