Real Madrid survived a late scare as goals by Lucas Vazquez, Kylian Mbappe and Rodrygo gave them a 3-2 home win over Deportivo Alaves in LaLiga on Tuesday.
Carlos Benavidez and Kike Garcia scored in the 88th and 89th minutes for Alaves but Real held on to win a match they had mostly dominated.
Real are second in the LaLiga standings on 17 points, one behind leaders Barcelona who have a game in hand and will host second from bottom Getafe on Wednesday.
Real opened the scoring a little over a minute after kickoff when Vinicius Jr took a long Federico Valverde pass in his stride and ran up the left channel before setting up fullback Vazquez who fired home from close range.
The champions produced a commanding performance after a bumpy start to the season, with Vinicius, Mbappe and Bellingham a constant threat to their rivals.
Mbappe fired into the back of the net in the 22nd minute but his goal was ruled out for offside.
Real kept dominating the action throughout the first half and extended their lead in the 40th minute when Mbappe played a neat one-two with Bellingham before cutting inside and slotting a tidy finish to the right of the goalkeeper.
Real looked to be heading for a comfortable win when Rodrygo scored their third three minutes after the break, firing a low shot under the goalkeeper’s legs to finish off a quick counter-attack.
Both Benavidez and Garcia capitalised on some poor defending to get Alaves back in the contest but their comeback came too late to prevent Real taking all three points.
“It’s a shame that, with the performance that we were putting throughout the match it had to finish the way that it did,” captain Vazquez told Real Madrid TV.
“We were happy with the win because we played a great game until the 88th minute, when two lapses in concentration led to two goals and we had to suffer a bit more than we should have.
“We didn’t deserve this ending, with the game we had played, but let’s look on the bright side: we did a lot of things right.”
Real will be back in action in a highly anticipated derby against Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
(Reuters)
