Clinical Real Madrid Overcomes Valencia At The Mestalla
Real Madrid forwards Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema scored two late goals within the space of two minutes in the second half to propel the Spanish giants to a 2-1 win against Valencia at the Mestalla stadium in match day 5 of the La Liga.
Valencia had made a strong start to the season under new coach Jose Bordalas but suffered a setback in the build-up to kick off when captain Jose Gaya was ruled out injured. More problems followed as midfielder Carlos Soler came off injured in the 15th minute while right back Thierry Correia soon followed him in hobbling off in the 23rd.
However, Valencia still managed to outrun and overpower their opponents for most of the game and took a deserved lead when Hugo Duro fired in a bouncing ball beyond the reach of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and into the net.
Valencia continued to cause Real problems but eased off in the final 10 minutes and the visitors made the most of their deadly firepower.
Madrid equalised with a deflected strike from Vinicius, scoring his fifth goal of the season.
The visitors weren’t stopping there and moments later, Vinicius turned provider when he set up the in-form French international Benzema.
The Brazilian’s cross found Benzema, who headed home the winning goal in the 88th minute. It was Benzema’s sixth goal of the season after bagging a hat-trick against Celta Vigo last week.
The win was on the back of another Real Madrid late show in midweek when Brazilian forward Rodrygo struck in the 89th minute to secure a 1-0 victory at Inter Milan in their first Champions League group game.
Valencia would have gone top had they held on for the win but instead Carlo Ancelotti’s Real side lead the standings on 13 points from five games, with the hosts third on 10 points..
“It’s never easy to come here especially when you concede the first goal but we never gave in, we kept working and kept persisting,” said Vinicius.
“We’ve got a great result here thanks to the work of the whole team and things are coming off for us right now.”
La Liga results
Mallorca 0-0 Villarreal
Real Sociedad 0-0 Sevilla
Real Betis 2-2 Espanyol
Valencia 1-2 Real Madrid
Chidi Nwoke/Reuters.
