Real Madrid narrowly defeated Deportivo Alaves 3-2 thanks to a goal from Kylian Mbappe, who extended his goal scoring run in a thrilling La Liga encounter on Tuesday night.
Real Madrid’s victory reduced Barcelona’s lead in the league to just one point, and Barcelona’s next matchup is against Getafe.
In La Liga on Tuesday, Real Madrid overcame a late scare to defeat Alaves 3-2 thanks to a goal from Kylian Mbappe, who scored for the fourth straight game. Before the leaders host Getafe on Wednesday, Real Madrid, in second place, closed the gap on Barcelona to one point.
Lucas Vazquez, Kylian Mbappe, and Rodrygo scored goals as Madrid destroyed Alaves, but a late attack from the visitors startled Carlo Ancelotti’s team. In the closing minutes, Madrid hung on despite two goals in two minutes from Carlos Protesoni and Kike Garcia.
“This is football, you can think the game has finished, (then there’s) a small slip and they score the first, they get confidence and you lose it, this is what happens,” Ancelotti told the press.
“Obviously, we hope that this won’t occur, but it might.
“We have to highlight that for an hour the team played well and that gives us confidence.”
Despite the Basque team’s strong start to the season, Los Blancos dominated Alaves from the off in a clash that was wildly unequal for the most part. Vinicius Junior returned to the starting lineup under Ancelotti, giving Vazquez a rare start, and the two connected within the first minute.
Arriving from the left flank, the Brazilian winger cut the ball back for an easy finish by Vazquez. After Madrid had only scored one goal in the first half of either La Liga or the Champions League this season, Ancelotti stated on Monday that he wanted more intensity at the beginning of games. His desire was promptly fulfilled.
Alaves could hardly make it to Thibaut Courtois’ penalty box as Los Blancos dominated. Nevertheless, Mbappe and Jude Bellingham’s wonderful combination five minutes prior to halftime gave Madrid their second goal.
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A deft flick pass from France’s captain, Kylian Mbappe, found the England international, who finished a one-two by putting his teammate through for goal. Mbappe scored his fifth league goal with a clinical stroke after making two slick moves to slip past his man and get a look on goal.
Soon after the break, Rodrygo increased Madrid’s lead by freely moving in from the right and shooting through Antonio Sivera’s legs of Alaves. Alaves attempted a rare attack, but teenage Brazilian attacker Endrick smacked the post with a deflected shot, and Abde Rebbach also touched the woodwork.
When Endrick, an 18-year-old replacement for Madrid, kicked out at Alaves defender Santiago Mourino, he was lucky not to be dismissed.
After 80 minutes, Mbappe was hauled off the field and appeared to be in some pain, clutching his rear thigh.
“He’s fine, he’s fine, a little overloaded, he asked me for the change to avoid problems,” said Ancelotti.
After 85 minutes, Protesoni curled home a lovely strike from the edge of the box to give the visitors a one-point lead back. Kike Garcia skillfully scored a beautiful over-the-top ball that Protesoni had then turned provider of.
Ahead of Sunday’s derby matchup with Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano, Madrid managed to hold on to the victory, marking their 39th straight league game without a loss under Ancelotti’s 300th game in charge of the team across two stints at the club.
It was precisely one year ago at the Rojiblancos’ stadium when they had their last loss in the top division.
The victory makes me pleased, Vazquez said on Real Madrid TV. “I believe we played a terrific game up until the 80th minute, when two errors cost us two goals, making us suffer more than we ought to have.
“With the game that we played, we didn’t deserve that ending.”
Ancelotti confronted the referee at full time, apparently upset that some of his players had received bookings while some of Alaves’ hard tackling had gone unpunished. This caused tensions to flare.
A more composed Ancelotti later stated, “Fair or unfair, we have to adapt to the new rules,” after many of his players were carded for challenging rulings.
After Endrick got away with lashing out, Luis Garcia Plaza, the coach of Alaves, became enraged at full time as well.
“The Endrick incident should have been a red card, we should have played the last 10 minutes with an extra player,” the head coach stated. “It’s red, there’s nothing more to it, I won’t speak more about this topic.”
Among other games, Diego Simeone’s Atletico host Celta Vigo on Thursday.