Vallecas once again hindered Real Madrid, who have only won in one of their last five visits to the neighborhood. Ancelotti’s team overcame the 2-0 lead with which they were surprised by an Electric Ray, and thanks to a wonderful performance by Rodrygo they even took the lead, but Íñigo Pérez’s platoon, generous to the limit, got up again and cut the deadlock. passing to Madrid, which was already sniffing one night as leader of the League. They reacted with solvency but Isi’s fireproof toe reduced them to a tie four days before they faced Pachuca in Doha for the Intercontinental Cup.
3
Augusto Batalla, Pep Chavarría, Abdul Mumin, Andrei Ratiu, Florian Lejeune, Unai López (Pedro Díaz, min. 65), Jorge de Frutos (Iván Balliu, min. 65), Adri Embarba (Álvaro García, min. 53), Pathé Ciss (Óscar Valentín, min. 59), Randy Nteka (Sergio Camello, min. 59) and Isi Palazón
3
Thibaut Courtois, Fran García, Antonio Rüdiger, Lucas Vázquez (Endrick, min. 78), Aurélien Tchouaméni, Jude Bellingham, Luka Modric (Eduardo Camavinga, min. 71), Arda Güler (Dani Ceballos, min. 78), Brahim Díaz ( Vinícius Júnior, min. 62), Federico Valverde and Rodrygo
Goals
1-0 min. 3: Unai López. 2-0 min. 35: Abdul Mumin. 2-1 min. 38: Federico Valverde. 2-2 min. 44: Jude Bellingham. 2-3 min. 55: Rodrygo. 3-3 min. 63: Isi
Referee Juan Martínez Munuera
yellow cards
Augusto Batalla (min. 26), Nteka (min. 33), Isi (min. 43), Modric (min. 61), Vinicius Junior (min. 73), Sergio Camello (min. 91)
Vallecas is mined territory for Madrid, and Íñigo Pérez ordered the charges to be reactivated. El Rayo littered the small meadow with traps and made the Royal desperate, shock after shock. They received the ball to try to escape and were met with volleys from the vanguard platoon: each touch, a peck. When they had the ball, Rayo was driven by the same electricity, always moving forward. Especially on the right, which De Frutos attacked.
The youth player played a couple of tricks on his former teammate Fran García and took a cross to the far post, where Unai López appeared in a clear part of the area, behind Lucas Vázquez, distracted by the decoy of another attacker. Rayo rushed into Courtois’s area like a swarm, with the same density with which they defended. Unai López connected a cross header to the base of the other post that made the Belgian’s stretch insufficient.
Madrid had not yet cleared the exit routes when they had already conceded the first blow, while Íñigo Pérez harangued his people to continue pressing. I was looking for permanent agitation, suffocation, and a ball that flew fast. Real, in a hurry, tried to lower their pulse with the pause of the touch, but Rayo was holding on to the rope that fueled the initial assault.
Rodrygo, for one night in charge of the attack, with Mbappé injured and Vinicius on the bench, appeared with an attack from the right that Batalla saved by stretching his leg for a clearance with his studs. But Rayo insisted and found the net again with a similar pattern. Isi hit Mumin’s header from the right corner and Courtois also missed this header.
Rayo insisted, but Modric’s touch was eroding the wall. The ball gave Madrid air. Although Valverde began to undo the knot without even stepping on the hot areas. It was a sniper maneuver from a rooftop. He pulled the trigger without warning and the projectile crossed the line out of Battle’s reach.
The goal fueled Madrid’s step forward, which was beginning to appease a Rayo team that seemed to be beginning to decline. Rodrygo directed the advance from the left, elusive in the conductions. Until he also spotted Bellingham in the area from that side and put the ball on his head. The Englishman scored, and it was the sixth game in a row in which he did so, a series that refers to his arrival to the team last year, after having started this season without scoring in the first 11 days.
The increasing control of Modric, Valverde and Bellingham and the deployment of Rodrygo continued to push Rayo, which was losing momentum. The Brazilian became increasingly indecipherable as he gained confidence with the ball. Until he danced near the front and fired a left foot that grazed Andrei’s tibia. The detour helped him save Batalla and complete the comeback from Rayo’s two headers.
Íñigo Pérez immediately maneuvered to add more coal to the boiler and try to regain the initial momentum that had complicated Madrid so much. He introduced Camello and Óscar Valentín, and Ancelotti responded with Vinicius. The movements reactivated Rayo, who regained his pulse to push again. Lejeune believed above all. The center back hit a free kick from where the exuberant Baby, a guy who is oblivious to distances, would have done it. Rayo rescued Courtois’ clearance and returned the ball to Lejeune, who unleashed another whip into the area, where Isi was crossing, who extended his left leg and scored with a caress of his toe.
The game picked up, with a wild duel for every piece of grass and the twins cramping in every corner. Even Valverde, so endless, seemed to approach the edge of the reserve tank in the final stretch that he faced as a right back, when Ancelotti moved the formation to bring on Endrick and Ceballos. Vinicius was close to scoring with a left foot shot that scared Batalla and was also about to assist Rüdiger in the area. But not even that could dissuade Rayo, who had one last chance in another Lejeune free kick that complicated Courtois. The night died there, an exchange of blows until the end, a frustration for Madrid.
