The absence of Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale were barely felt by the visitors in a painfully one-sided first leg, as their second string attack carved through Wednesday’s opponents.
Alvaro Morata and Marco Asensio led the way as a much-changed Real Madrid eased to a 7-1 win at third-tier Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey round-of-32 first leg on Wednesday.
Madrid’s esteemed attacking trio of Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale were among those rested, but the visitors cruised in their absence, with the brilliant Morata and Asensio both scoring twice.
Zinedine Zidane’s men needed a helping hand from Cultural for the opener, though, as Gianni Zuiverloon scored an early own goal, before Asensio added a second just after the half-hour mark.
LaLiga leaders Real enjoyed a blistering start to the second period, with Asensio’s long-range second sandwiched between two clinical Morata finishes inside the first nine minutes.
Their sixth goal was the pick of the bunch, though, as centre-back Nacho Fernandez scored a sensational acrobatic effort.
The hosts pulled one back towards the end through Benja Martinez, but Mariano Diaz nodded in a late seventh as Madrid take what should be an unassailable lead into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu on November 30.
Cultural managed to keep their illustrious visitors at bay for all of six minutes.
The breakthrough came in fortuitous circumstances, though, as Toni Kroos’ right-wing free-kick was headed on by James Rodriguez and Zuiverloon deflected the ball beyond his own goalkeeper.
Madrid almost had a second shortly after, but this time Jorge Palatsi was able to rescue the home side, palming away Isco’s diving header.
