One of the toughest stadiums in Spain, at one of the worst possible moments. For Real Madrid, it is no longer just raining, it is pouring. More absences, more noise around the team. They survived the storm at the Bernabéu and escaped a near-disaster against Rayo Vallecano. There is relief, a deep breath, a sense of how close it all was. But survival always leaves bruises, and this time they are everywhere.
Madrid will try to storm Mestalla without Jude Bellingham and without Vinicius Jr. With Raúl Asencio right on the edge. And just to make things harder, with confidence only partially restored. Sunday night looms large. This is as hard as it gets.
Vinicius out of his personal ground zero
The first confirmed absence is Vinicius Jr. He will not return to what has become his personal ground zero. Mestalla is the stadium where he has endured some of the most hostile nights of his career. It is where he was sent off after being subjected to appalling racist abuse. It is where he raised his fist after scoring. It is where every visit feels different.
This time, he will not be there. Vinicius picked up his fifth yellow card against Rayo Vallecano and is suspended. He will stay in Madrid and face a rare break, 12 straight days without a match. There is no midweek game this week or next, a side effect of Madrid’s Copa del Rey elimination.
Until now, Vinicius had played in every match this season except the cup trip to Talavera.
Jude Bellingham sidelined
Bellingham is the other guaranteed absentee, and his injury was the worst news of last weekend. In the eighth minute against Rayo, during an attack down the right flank, he felt a sharp, alarming pain in his left hamstring. He knew immediately his night was over.
He walked off the field under his own power, but in tears. Medical tests have confirmed a muscle tear in his left leg. Mestalla is out of the question. So is the next month.
A defense held together by tape
The injury list does not stop there. Asencio has been managing a crack in his right shin for weeks. It is not considered a high risk for a serious rupture, but it causes significant pain, and with no real chance to rest, the situation is becoming delicate.
There are more concerns at the back. Dani Carvajal has played just 29 minutes since undergoing knee arthroscopy. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Antonio Rüdiger, and Ferland Mendy are expected to be included in the squad, but none are fully match-fit.
Valencia’s “game of the year”
Then there is Mestalla itself. The recent history is unforgiving. Madrid have just three wins in their last 11 league visits, scoring 17 goals and conceding 19, with five defeats and three draws. It is a stadium that rarely offers mercy.
Former Madrid defender Álvaro Arbeloa summed it up perfectly. “This is Real Madrid,” he said. “To beat Rayo Vallecano, we already have to do more than most teams in LaLiga. The same happens when we go to Villarreal or Valencia. Valencia will treat it as the game of the year at home. And for us to win, we will have to play a great match.”
That “game of the year” is approaching fast. Madrid arrive short-handed and emotionally bruised. The style of plau remains difficult to defend, and the team appears to be grinding out results through sheer will rather than quality.
There is at least one small positive. This is the first of two consecutive weeks with time to train, without the constant pressure of playing every three days. It cuts both ways. On Sunday, there will be real curiosity to see signs of tactical work, anything that shows ideas starting to take hold.
The climb is steep. No Bellingham. No Vinicius. Asencio on the limit. The rain keeps falling on already soaked ground. Operation Mestalla is underway. The hardest challenge yet.