Alaves vs Real Madrid Review
Real Madrid faced a setback when Kylian Mbappé received a red card in the first half, but they managed to secure a 1-0 victory over Alavés at the Estadio Mendizorrotza. The home team, currently in 17th place, started strong, aiming to exploit Real’s poor away performance, which had seen them win only once in their last four away games. However, they were unable to create any clear chances. As the match progressed, Real Madrid found their rhythm, and after Rodrygo’s attempt to score was saved by Jesús Owono, a corner kick led to Raúl Asencio’s effort, which was ruled out due to a foul on the goalkeeper by Antonio Rüdiger, preventing him from scoring his first senior goal.
The Babazorros pressed on but struggled to convert their chances, with Kike García notably missing a clear opportunity to score from inside the box by shooting over the goal. Their lack of finishing proved costly in the 34th minute when Eduardo Camavinga linked up well with Arda Güler, allowing the Frenchman to score a beautiful curling shot from over 20 yards, putting Madrid ahead.
However, just five minutes later, their joy was short-lived as Mbappé received a straight red card for a terrible tackle on Antonio Blanco after a VAR review. With a man advantage, Eduardo Coudet’s team started the second half strongly, but despite García missing a header and both Carlos Vicente and substitute Toni Martínez forcing easy saves from Thibaut Courtois, the visitors’ lead remained largely unchallenged as the match approached its final stages.
In another turn of events, Alavés lost their player advantage by the 70-minute mark when Vinicius Junior pursued a ball and was awkwardly fouled by Manu Sánchez. VAR intervened again and reached the same decision, resulting in the expulsion of Manu Sánchez. This did little to boost the attacking efforts of Carlo Ancelotti’s team, who seemed unlikely to score a second goal until Bellingham forced a great save from Owono in the 89th minute. However, the Blancos had already done enough to maintain their position against league leaders Barcelona.
