In what was heading to be a comfortable victory, Real Madrid ended up surviving a late Alaves scare as Los Blancos ended up winning the game 3-2. Kylian Mbappe made yet another start along with Jude Bellingham who was eager to play in this fixture.
Real Madrid hit the ground running just over a minute into the match as Vinicius Junior found Lucas Vazquez inside the box, with the Spaniard opening the scoring.
Los Blancos perhaps looked at their best in the first half, with the side controlling and dominating the proceedings. Thibaut Courtois was barely tested while Alavés’ keeper Antonio Sivera had to be on his toes at all times.
Jude Bellingham continued to prove his brilliance and importance to the side when he played a sublime one-two with Kylian Mbappe and ended up assisting the Frenchman‘s 7th goal of the season. Mbappe had even scored earlier in the first half but the goal was ruled offside. It is visible that we are starting to see the Kylian Mbappe the world knows about.
The Merengues headed into half time with a 2-goal lead. With these goals, Real Madrid have taken their tally to 3 goals scored in the first half in all matches this season.
Alavés were clearly struggling to contain Vinicius and Rodrygo and ultimately paid the price as Rodrygo made a quick run inside the box and smashed one home through the keeper’s legs to seemingly put the game to bed.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side threatened to score more but Alavés all of a sudden had began defending well to prevent this from being an embarrassing loss. Even on the attacking front, the visitors looked organised and threatened to ruin a perfect night for the Belgian keeper.
The Italian manager began making substitutions, not willing to take any further risks as his side was already 3-goals up. Fede Valverde was the first one and Rodrygo followed pursuit. This was also the Uruguayan’s first time on the bench this season as he had played every minute of every game so far.
In the 80th minute, Arda Güler and Jesus Vallejo were brought on for Mbappe and Militao respectively.
Alaves’ hard work finally paid off as they scored twice in the space of a minute due to some poor defending – in particular from Vallejo – and some clinical finishing.
What seemed like a walk in the park suddenly became a complex affair for Real Madrid because only Endrick was the attacking presence with the rest of the players forming a low to mid-block.
Ultimately, the referee blew the final whistle and the fans, the players, and Ancelotti breathed a sigh of relief.
Speaking of the referee, he had a questionable game. To put it into perspective: 10 fouls were made by Alaves with no cards given. On the contrary, Madrid players received 4 yellow cards out of 7 – and 3 of the cards were not even for a foul. Carlo Ancelotti even went on to confront the referee after full-time for his decisions.
To sum the match up, Real Madrid need to keep up the same intensity throughout the game no matter what the situation is. If it were another team with good finishers, they could have cost the Merengues.
Real Madrid grab the victory and three points to continue to put pressure on FC Barcelona. Los Blancos will now be travelling to the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday for the Madrid derby..