REAL Madrid got their title defence up and running this morning grinding out a 4-3 home victory over newcomers Numancia who shocked the reigning champions by taking the lead twice.
It was a first win of the campaign for Real following their 2-1 loss to Deportivo La Coruna and bolstered confidence for Wednesday's Champions League opener against Belarus unknowns BATE Borisov.
Stand-in captain Guti had the honour of scoring Real's 5,000th league goal to equalise before Gonzalo Higuain netted and Rafael van der Vaart scored his first goal in a Real shirt.
An own goal from Domingo Cisma proved decisive as Real registered their first three points of the campaign - something their bitter rivals Barcelona have yet to achieve.
Real were less convicing in their match against Numancia, on a high after defeating Barcelona, and took a sixth-minute lead with Juan Moreno arriving at the back post completely unmarked to head home.
Guti equalised on 18 minutes with the help of a huge deflection but Jose Barkero put Numancia back in front with a terrific 21st-minute long range effort.
Own goal
The lead was shortlived as Higuain equalised for Real four minutes later and van der Vaart caught the goalkeeper off guard to put Real in front before an own goal handed Real a 4-2 lead at the interval.
Moreno scored a fantastic free-kick to make it 4-3 and Real had some hairy moments in the closing stages but survived to move eighth.
'It was to be expected. These games after international weeks are always the hardest,' Real boss Bernd Schuster said.
'When we were 4-2 up we didn't manage the game very well. We deserved to win by more but eased off too much in the second half.'
