Isco is sure to be the hero for Real Madrid many times in his career.

The young Spanish international midfielder joined Los Blancos from Malaga with great fanfare at the end of last season, and he has already started repaying his hefty transfer fee after just one La Liga outing.

In Isco’s bright future there will be countless dead ball masterpieces, perfectly weighted assists, dribbles, passes and the occasional expert finish. But even after all the highlights that are certain to come, Isco will never forget his La Liga debut for Real Madrid.

The Madrid giants were made to sweat by Real Betis in their season opener, and in the end, their hard fought win came from the unlikeliest of sources: Isco’s head.

Surging into the box from midfield late into the game, Isco rose above the stretched Betis defence to power home an expert, and unexpected, winning header.

It was a dream debut for the amiable youngster, and he was overjoyed to announce himself as a Madrid man in such heroic circumstances.

“It’s the first goal I’ve scored from a header in La Liga and I’m very happy to win three points,” Isco said breathlessly after the game.

“We were a little surprised by Betis, but it’s the first match of La Liga, we need to improve but it was important to win.”

Meanwhile, it was relief for Carlo Ancelotti after his own league debut for Madrid.

Having fallen behind to an early goal, Madrid looked in trouble. And itchy fingers were already trembling, waiting to get the knives out for a new manager who made the brave political decision to keep club legend Iker Casillas on the bench.

The Italian says that for now he will reassess who will be his first-choice ‘keeper on a game-by-game basis.

He was generally satisfied with the way Real got their league campaign underway, but accepts that his team must make steady improvements, especially as far as their defence is concerned.

“We can improve, it’s normal,” Ancelotti said after the game.

“We created lots of opportunities to score by combining well, especially on the wing. The problem was defence, on the whole.

“In the first-half there was no balance, we didn’t play together and we had problems. In the second-half we were better in this regard. In my opinion that was the problem in this match, the defence”.

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