David Alaba free kick gives Real Madrid 2-1 win and perfect start to Spanish title defense

By Ben Morse, CNN

Updated 1009 GMT (1809 HKT) August 15, 2022

David Alaba celebrates after scoring against Almería.

(CNN)David Alaba's inch-perfect free kick earned Real Madrid a 2-1 comeback victory on Sunday night and gave it the perfect start to its La Liga title defense.

The Austrian whipped his effort in off the post with his first touch of the game having come off the bench, earning the reigning champion a hard-fought victory at recently promoted Almería. The home side actually took the lead with Largie Ramazani powering home inside the first 10 minutes. Although Lucas Vázquez had an equalizer disallowed just before halftime, he did eventually get his goal, slamming in from close range shortly after the hour mark. And Alaba's brilliant free kick from the edge of the penalty box completed the comeback, giving Los Blancos a winning start to their season. Read MoreAfter the game, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said he expected a tough start to life as champions. «We expected to have to dig in here, even more so when we made life difficult for ourselves with a defensive error we could have avoided,» he told Real Madrid TV.«We struggled from then on. (Almería) defended very well, we had a lot of shots on goal and once the first one went in, things got easier.»Alaba celebrates scoring against Almería.Madrid began its league campaign in earnest on Sunday having beaten Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in the UEFA Super Cup earlier in the week — played between last season's winners of the Champions League and the Europa League. Having received a guard of honor by the Almería players when its players came onto the pitch, Real Madrid was pegged back shortly after. Just six minutes into the game, Belgian forward Ramazani — who came