Isco Alarcon who captained Real Madrid against Melilla and got a brace might not get a starting place against Huesca, but at least the Copa del Rey match served the player well in that he has shown his worth to Santiago Solari and Real Madrid. Same for Marco Asensio, not that it was ever in doubt in any case.

Weeks ago, both players happened to belong to a group who did everything wrong.

Asensio and Isco were just pieces in that bad moment and not guilty of everything that was going wrong.

Solari arrived with the mission of recovering the good general tone of the team in general and, a month later, the pair have shown that they’ve not forgotten how to play good football.

Melilla is not the ideal match on which to base a decision, but these cup matches ensure that forgotten players or, as in this case, criticised ones, recover and overcome bad moments of form.

Three goals and three assists were Asensio’s numbers in the two matches against Melilla; a job well done then from Solari.

However, the Mallorcan still has to get back to doing it on the biggest stages with Isco, because if Eden Hazard or other players join the squad, only the strongest and best are going to survive not being culled.