returned to the santiago bernabéu stadium, cheryshev made top flight debut for real madrid on 19 september 2015, playing 13 minutes in a 1–0 defeat of granada. he scored his first competitive goal for them on 2 december, featuring 45 minutes in a 3–1 away victory over cádiz in the spanish cup's round of 32. however, his appearance in the match drew controversy as he was ineligible for selection after having collected three yellow cards in the previous edition of the tournament, and resulted in real madrid being expelled from the tournament. president florentino pérez claimed that the royal spanish football federation had not informed the club that the player was suspended and challenged the action taken against the team, though he was unsuccessful.