Jude Bellingham scored one and created the other as two late goals gave Real Madrid a 2-1 victory at Valencia on Friday despite Vinicius Junior's red card.
2024/2025 La Liga
1-2
Match Report
Madrid moved back to the top of LaLiga at the end of a night when it seemed everything would go against Carlo Ancelotti's side.
They went behind to Hugo Duro's goal after 27 minutes and passed up a huge chance to equalise early in the second half when Bellingham's poor penalty bounced away off the post after Kylian Mbappe had been fouled.
Vinicius was then shown a straight red card 11 minutes from time for slapping Valencia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Yet Luka Modric, brought on in the aftermath of that incident, soon equalised following a cute pass from Bellingham.
And there was still time for Bellingham to dash through and finish coolly in the seventh minute of stoppage time, moving Madrid two points ahead of rivals Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand.
T E A M pic.twitter.com/SNR0LEeMmR
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) January 3, 2025
Data debrief: Madrid milestone after rare recovery
Victory took Madrid to 5,002 LaLiga points all-time, making them the first club to move past 5,000, but few of those have been won in such spectacular and unlikely fashion.
Not since November 1999 against Rayo Vallecano had Madrid been shown a red card while already trailing and gone on to win.
Valencia were perhaps the ideal opponents for such a scenario, however, as they have now dropped 19 points from winning positions this season, a league high that leaves them still in the relegation zone.
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
5' Match Event for Valencia vs Real Madrid
5' Almeida passes the ball to Hugo whose shot forces a good save out of Courtois
9' Almeida has a shot from distance which is wide
13' Foulquier shoots from a tight angle and forces another good save from Courtois
20' Guerra's first-time shot ends up sailing over the bar in the end
26' Bellingham has a shot over the bar
27' Duro does well to finish the rebound into an empty net! Valencia 1-0 Real Madrid
33' Highlight from Valencia vs Real Madrid
36' Vinicius goes down claiming a foul in the box but the referee says no penalty
38' Valverde takes a rocket of a shot from way out of the box but it's over the bar
43' Vinicius takes a shot with his left foot which is saved
52' Bellingham misses the penalty which bounces off the right post!
59' Mbappe scores the equalizer but it's disallowed for OFFSIDE!
67' Highlight from Valencia vs Real Madrid
74' Vazquez takes a shot which goes well wide of the goal
79' Red Card! Vinicius sent off for pushing and putting his hand on Dimitrievski
85' Modric scores the equalizer from Bellingham's assist! Valencia 1-1 Real Madrid
Line-ups
Valencia XI: Stole Dimitrievski, Foulquier, Rioja, Almeida, Hugo Duro, César Tárrega, Diego López, Enzo Barrenechea, Cristhian Mosquera, Yarek Gasiorowski, Javi Guerra
Subs: Domenech, Sergi Canós, Maximiliano Caufriez, Hugo Guillamón, Dani Gómez, Germán Valera, Jesús Vázquez, Rubén Iranzo, Iker Córdoba, Martín Tejón, Vicent Abril
Real Madrid XI: Courtois, Rudiger, Vazquez, F Mendy, Ceballos, Mbappe, Valverde, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham
Subs: Modric, Vallejo, Brahim, Andriy Lunin, Fran García, Eduardo Camavinga, Arda Güler, Raúl Asencio, Endrick, Fran González