Spanish football giant, Real Madrid, 17years unbeaten run against Valencia inside the Santiago Bernabeu stadium has been brought to a halt after losing 2-1 to their opponents during the league game.
Aside from that, Valencia’s victory against the multiple league winner denied Real Madrid opportunity of going level on points with Barcelona at the top of La Liga table.
During the week 30 league game played on Saturday, Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti named a very strong side inspite of their Champions League quarter-final match against English club, Arsenal, on Tuesday.
With Kylian Mbappe on the starting lineup, the France national justified the manager’s trust in the 10-minute mark after winning a penalty following Valencia defender, Cesar Tarrega’s decision to pull him down, giving the host an opportunity to take the lead.
But the joy of taking the lead never lasted for Real Madrid after Vinicius Junior, who was assigned to take the spot-kick, could not get the ball pass the opponent’s goalkeeper, Giorgi Mamardashvili. following a poor penalty kick.
Real Madrid and Vinicius were made to pay for that miss only a few minutes later when Valencia took a shock lead. Diego Lopez delivered an excellent corner that landed perfectly on the head of Mouctar Diakhaby, who powered the ball past Fran Gonzalez, who was making his first team debut for Los Blancos as Andriy Lunin was not risked by Ancelotti due to a calf problem.
Valencia kept their lead until half time, but just five minutes into the second period, Real Madrid forced an equaliser when Luka Modric’s corner was flicked into the path of Vinicius, who stabbed home from close range to make up for his penalty miss.
From that moment on, Real Madrid dominated in search for a winner, but on every occasion, they were denied by strong Valencia defending and Mamardashvili, who was in inspired form – his save to deny Federico Valverde was particularly special. And in the end, it was Los Che that stole the victory that Hugo Duro headed home in the 95th minute to secure their first Bernabeu victory since 2008.
It is a result that keeps Real Madrid three points behind Barcelona in the title race, but that gap could grow to six if the Catalans defeat Real Betis on Saturday night. Valencia rise to 14th with the victory, and they are now seven points clear of the drop zone.
