Real Madrid won the match against Elche, in the 28th round of the Spanish championship, with a final score of 3-1, on home soil, in a match in which Federico Valverde rose to a high level once again, scoring a spectacular goal, and central defenders Antonio Rudiger and Dean Huijsen, respectively, added their names to the scorers’ list. Alvaro Arbeloa rested some basic “pieces” of the team’s gear in view of the match against Manchester City, in the UEFA Champions League, and, in the second half, players from the club’s academy made an appearance at the “Bernabeu”.
At the Bernabeu, Real Madrid hosted Elche in the 28th round of LaLiga, and before the game, the Galacticos were in second place in the current standings, four points behind Barcelona, while the away team was in 17th place, one point away from the relegation zone. The team from the Spanish capital was coming into this match a few days after a resounding victory in the UEFA Champions League against Manchester City, and in the most recent domestic league round, Real Madrid had narrowly beaten Celta Vigo away.
On the other hand, the players coached by Eder Sarabia had lost in the previous round at Villareal, and Elche had not achieved any success in the last 10 rounds of LaLiga, scoring six defeats and four draws. The Alicante-based outfit had never beaten Real Madrid in the Spanish capital in a total of 24 matches, 20 of which ended in a home win, and the most recent match between the two sides at the Bernabeu was in 2023, when Los Blancos won 4-0. In the duel played this season in the domestic championship, the two clubs ended in a draw, with a final score of 2-2, with Dean Huijsen and Jude Bellingham scoring for the visitors.
Alvaro Arbeloa could not rely on a lot of important players at home: Jude Bellingham, Dani Ceballos, Eder Militao, Rodrygo, Alvaro Carreras, Kylian Mbappe, Franco Mastantuono, David Alaba, Ferland Mendy and Raul Asencio, while his counterpart could not count on Hector Fort, the right-back who is on loan from Barcelona this season. In their last home match in the domestic championship, Real Madrid lost to their “neighbor” in the community, Getafe, by a goal difference, while Elche had not achieved any success away from home this season, being one of the three teams in the top five European championships to check this counterperformance.
In fact, in the most recent eight trips that the Alicante team has made to the community of Madrid, in various competitions, Elche has lost five times and recorded three other equal results. The last time Real Madrid lost to the team currently led by Eder Sarabia was in 1978. The visitors had their first chance in the seventh minute of the game, when Andre Silva headed in a cross from Lucas Cepeda from a few metres, but his shot went into the side netting.
Due to a head-on collision with Eduardo Camavinga, Buba Sangare was forced off the pitch and was replaced by Adria Pedrosa. Federico Valverde then threw a ball into the box from a corner kick, and Antonio Rudiger headed it in, but the ball fell into the Elche net. The opening goal came in the 39th minute, when Vinicius Junior moved the ball for Federico Valverde’s powerful shot, the visitors’ goalkeeper blocking the ball in front, but Antonio Rudiger was on the ball. The German centre-back fired a powerful shot from the first, shaking the visitors’ net.
The second goal came from the boot of Federico Valverde, Real Madrid’s most in-form player. The Uruguayan received the ball from Fran Garcia, placed his right foot on the edge of the penalty area and “handed” the ball into the net of the goal defended by Matias Dituro, reaching four goals in two matches in a row. A huge opportunity to extend their advantage on the scoreboard appeared at the beginning of the second half for Real Madrid, when Brahim Diaz was left alone with Matias Dituro, but the Moroccan footballer sent it into the pitch.
The third goal of this match was scored by Dean Huijsen, another central defender, the Spanish defender rising in the opponent’s box to replay the quality cross sent by Daniel Yanez, a player who made his debut in the “galactic” group’s shirt, thus providing the first goal assist in his role as a first-team footballer.
Elche managed to appear on the scoresheet in the 85th minute, when Eduardo Camavinga passed the ball directly to an opponent and, then, Manuel Angel put the ball into his own net while trying to clear the danger. The fourth goal of Real Madrid was scored by Arda Guler, with a magnificent strike from the half of the pitch, making the fans go crazy in the stands.
The success achieved at home by the team from the Spanish capital allows Real Madrid to move within one point of the competition leader, Barcelona, with the mention that the Catalan team has one less match to play at the moment. On the other hand, the players trained by Eder Sarabia are “deepening” even more in the fight for survival in the first echelon of Spanish football, the next round bringing for Elche a duel against Real Mallorca, at home, while “los blancos” will host Atletico Madrid in the city derby.