Real Madrid Tops La Liga Table After Granada Win
Real Madrid went to the top of the Spanish La Liga table in match day 13 after a thrilling 4-1 victory against Granada at the Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes in Spain.
The visitors started with Karim Benzema in attack, supported on the flanks by Vinicius Jr. and Marco Asensio. The hosts had Luis Suarez up front as they looked to cause an upset against the Galacticos.
Asensio opened the scoring in the 19th minute for Madrid when he fired the ball into the bottom-left corner of the net after he was picked out by a clever pass from Toni Kroos.
It was Asensio’s for fourth La Liga goal this season.
It was 2-0 in the 25th minute as Kroos and Luka Modric played a neat one-two at a corner that resulted in the German crossing low from the left for Nacho Fernandez at the near post to fire past goalkeeper Luis Maximiano.
Asensio had a shot superbly cleared off the line by Alberto Soro, and Karim Benzema threatened, but Granada hit back when Luis Suarez’s fierce 25-yard strike deflected off Nacho and whistled past goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
In the second half, Vinicius scored at the end of a brilliant counter-attack after Benzema carried the ball and fed Modric, who unselfishly squared to the young Brazilian.
Granada’s Monchu was then shown a straight red card after a wild challenge on the in-form Vinicius, reducing the hosts to 10 men. A member of the home side’s staff was also shown a red card for his protests.
However, Ferland Mendy then added a fourth for Madrid in the 76th minute to make matters worse for Granada.
The match ended 4-1 to Madrid and the victory took them to the top of La Liga, as Real Sociedad played a 0-0 draw with Valencia later on Sunday.
Madrid are on 30 points from 13 games, while Sociedad are on 29 points from 14 games. Sevilla are in third place with 28 points from 13 games.
La Liga results
Getafe 4-0 Cadiz
Granada 1-4 Real Madrid
Elche 0-3 Real Betis
Real Sociedad 0-0 Valencia.
Chidi Nwoke/La Liga.