Charlotte: Jude Bellingham and Arda Güler scored first-half goals and short-handed Real Madrid bounced back from a disappointing performance in their Club World Cup opener to beat Pachuca 3-1 in front of 70,248 spectators at Bank of America Stadium.
Seven minutes in on Sunday night, defender Raul Asencio received a red card, forcing Real Madrid to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.
It hardly mattered as Madrid dominated the Mexican club rest of the way to give Xabi Alonso his first win as coach of the Spanish giants.
Bellingham got Madrid on the board in the 35th minute when he took a pass from Fran Garcia just inside the box and belted a perfectly placed left-footed shot past goalkeeper Carlos Moreno into the right corner.
Eight minutes later, Güler made it 2-0 when he delivered a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom left corner off an assist from Gonzalo García. Federico Valverde put the final touches on the win in the second half with a sliding right-footed shot off an assist from Brahim Díaz.
Meanwhile, Ilkay Gündogan had a pair of goals, Erling Haaland scored on a penalty and Manchester City locked up their spot in the knockout round of with a 6-0 rout of Al Ain on Sunday night.