It was late on a peculiar Wednesday night, and Zinedine Zidane walked into the press room at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia. What he'd seen hadn't been great—it might have even bordered on troubling—but amid the laborious, down-gearing feel of it all, there had been some shoots of encouragement.
Against Levante, Lucas Vazquez had started on the wing for Real Madrid and had stood out. In midfield, Casemiro had done something similar. At the back, Nacho had started, too, and on the bench were Jese, Martin Odegaard, Marcos Llorente and Alvaro Tejero.
Up front, meanwhile, the 18-year-old Borja Mayoral had led the attack.