Real Madrid defeated Osasuna 2-0 to move within five points of LaLiga leaders FC Barcelona on Saturday night.
Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was one of four changes from Real's FIFA Club World Cup triumph, as Antonio Rudiger, Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior returned too.
The newly-crowned Club World Cup champions targeted the opener on ten minutes where Vinicius grabbed hold of a stray pass before going straight at goalkeeper Sergio Herrera.
A minimal amount of penetrative entries unto the final third followed thereafter from the champions of Europe, who had dominated the for most of the early exchanges.
Osasuna worked their first threat late in the opening half with a snap attempt by Ante Budimi, but he couldn't guide the strike on target.
With no substitutions introduced at halftime, the visitors pushed up for the opener and were close when Rodrygo opened for an angle in the box and curled wide of the mark.
Rodrygo's countryman Vinicius did have the ball in the net after 53 minutes from a pass in space by David Alaba, but his strike was ruled out for offside.
Osasuna were a bit closer to the deadlock nine minutes apart when Moi Gomez skipped past Federico Valverde for an angled shot to the near side, but hit the post.
Los Blancos made their first substitution midway in the second half after Dani Ceballos made way for fellow midfielder Marco Asensio.
Madrid went ahead in the last 12 minutes when a well-timed pass by Vinicius picked out the run of Valverde, who made no mistake with a first-time tap-in.
The travelling side doubled their lead a minute before additional time after Vinicius applied a close-range finish to beat Herrera, but it was disallowed for offside by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
Real eventually secured a second goal in the latter seconds as Asensio got on the end of Alvaro Rodrigues' pass and slotted in the bottom-corner to confirm the victory.
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