Alvaro Carreras spent the summer being told, politely and repeatedly, that his place had gone. Real Madrid signed Marc Cucurella from Chelsea, the left-back slot looked settled, and the Galician was recast as the useful alternative. Seventeen minutes against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday night were enough to turn that story on its head.
Seventeen minutes that reopened the debate
Madrid beat Rayo 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu, and the first two goals belonged to Carreras as much as anyone. In the 13th minute he drove into the box with the kind of run that refuses to be talked out of itself, and Florian Lejeune arrived late and took his legs. Referee Garcia Verdura pointed to the spot without hesitation. Kylian Mbappe, who had missed from twelve yards against Real Betis a week earlier, sent Emil Audero the wrong way and Los Blancos were ahead.
Barely two minutes later, Mbappe returned the favour. Carreras found himself in the area again, played a one-two with the Frenchman and finished past Audero one-on-one. As Marca put it, that was seventeen perfect minutes, and the rest of the night barely troubled him: solid in defence on the rare occasions Rayo came down his side, and the main supply line for everything Madrid built. The pitch tilted left and stayed there. Mundo Deportivo’s player-by-player verdict gave him a single word: reivindicado – vindicated. It was his first goal of the season and only the third of his Real Madrid career, the other two both against Valencia last term.
What Alvaro Carreras said after the Rayo win
Speaking to Real Madrid TV, quoted by Mundo Deportivo, the full-back kept the focus on the collective before allowing himself a little pride.
“It was a great team performance, but I’m happy with the goal, which is my first of the year,” he said. “I got the ball from Jude, I gave it to Kylian, I was lucky that he gave it back to me in the box and I finished to one side.”
Asked what Jose Mourinho demands of his full-backs, the answer was revealing. “He wants intensity. It’s difficult to sustain ninety minutes at one hundred per cent,” Carreras said. “In the last few minutes I think he brought Cucurella on to help me defensively and help the team. We were suffering a bit. In the last match it was my turn to help him, and today it was his turn to help me.”
That is a squad player’s answer from someone who has stopped behaving like one.
How the Alvaro Carreras Real Madrid selection call now looks
The competition is real and neither man is losing it. Carreras started the first two La Liga fixtures of the campaign and appeared to have been overtaken once Cucurella found competitive sharpness. Mourinho had said in pre-season that there would be “space” for less-used players to contribute their energy, and he made four changes from the side that beat Inter Milan, with Carreras and Antonio Rudiger coming in for Cucurella and Dean Huijsen.
What has changed is the response. Carreras was the outfield player with the most pre-season minutes and he has carried that form into the competitive calendar. Last season he flourished under Xabi Alonso, then found life harder under Alvaro Arbeloa and finished on the bench; a summer reset appears to have restored him. He is not the only Madrid player currently making Mourinho’s team sheet harder to write – we covered the Arda Guler debate reopened by his Rayo cameo on Sunday – and the manager’s promise that everybody would play is being tested by the quality of the men he is leaving out.
Compare it with Federico Valverde’s spell as an emergency full-back last season and the difference is obvious. Carreras is a specialist playing his way into a shirt, not a midfielder filling a gap.
Elche next, then the derby
The squad returned to Valdebebas on Sunday, the Rayo starters doing recovery work while the rest went through pressing drills and finishing. Madrid travel to Elche on Tuesday 15 September for a 21:30 CEST kick-off at the Martinez Valero, with Rodrygo, Eder Militao and Ferland Mendy still working their way back. Atletico Madrid away follows at the weekend.
Two away trips, one left-back shirt, and a manager who has just watched the man wearing it win a penalty and score inside a quarter of an hour.
