Victory over Valencia

Real Madrid closed the first half of LaLiga with three points against Valencia at the Santiago Bernabéu. The win was forged by a great start to the second half, in which the Whites scored both goals in just two minutes. Asensio, with a spectacular left-footed shot in the 52nd minute, and Vini Jr. after a surging run and even better finishing in the 54th minute, were the players to get on the scoresheet.

The first half ended goalless, although Madrid had clear chances to avoid that eventuality. They did in fact score in added time; Rüdiger headed in from a corner, but Alberola Rojas disallowed it after being alerted by the VAR and concluding that Benzema had fouled Musah. Thereafter, Ancelotti's men deserved to beat a Valencia side that created little danger. The first chance came early, after just four minutes in fact. A lovely diagonal pass between the lines from Modrić and Mamardashvili was forced to block Asensio's right-footed shot.

With fifteen minutes on the clock, Vini Jr. slipped the ball through to Benzema, who back-heeled it to Asensio, with the Mallorca-born man's strike being turned behind for a corner after a wonderful block by Paulista. Real Madrid kept plugging away and had another chance to break the deadlock, but the ball ended up in Mamardashvili's hands after Vini Jr's deflected shot in the 27th minute. Camavinga fired into the side netting four minutes later after a neat team move".

The Goals
Everything changed after the interval as with 52 minutes gone, the well-deserved goal came. Asensio brought the ball down on the edge of the box, lifted his head and unleashed a wicked left-footed effort that the visitors' keeper could do nothing about. The match was even more poised as two minutes later a great through ball from Benzema on the left, picked out a surging run by Vini Jr. who carried the ball into the area and finished on his 200th appearance for Real Madrid. The Whites were on fire and almost made it three in the 57th minute as Modrić found himself one-on-one with Mamardashvili, but he was unable to beat the onrushing Mamardashvili. The minutes ticked by and Valencia went down to ten men in the 72nd minute after Paulista was shown a straight red card for a vicious tackle on Vini Jr. Ancelotti's men dominated the closing stages of the game, taking three more points in the race for the league title.