Real Madrid managed to win against Deportivo Alaves, final score 2-1, in the 16th round of LaLiga, thanks to goals scored by Kylian Mbappe and Rodrygo. The Brazilian footballer brought the victory for the team trained by Xabi Alonso, after Carlos Vicente restored the tie, three minutes after entering the field. “Los Blancos” achieved their second consecutive away success in the Spanish championship and the first after the failures recorded at home in the company of Celta Vigo and Manchester City, respectively. The group from the Spanish capital remains four lengths behind the rival, FC Barcelona and four and five points ahead of Villareal and Atletico Madrid, respectively.

Real Madrid travelled to Vitoria-Gasteiz to face Deportivo Alaves in a new round of the domestic competition, the “galactics” being in second place in the current hierarchy before the start of the match, with a total of 36 points, seven lengths behind their rivals from Catalonia and with huge pressure felt from outside. On the other hand, the Basque team was in 12th place in the general classification, with 18 points collected after the first 15 rounds played, being six lengths away from the last position that ensures presence in the European cups, respectively three points away from the first relegation zone.

In the recent LaLiga match, Deportivo Alaves had achieved a narrow 1-0 home win against another team from the northern region of Spain, Real Sociedad, in a duel in which the only goal was scored by Lucas Boye, from a penalty kick. In the camp of the group coached by Xabi Alonso, the last round that took place in the domestic competition had not been a good one, as “los blancos” had lost at the “Bernabeu” to Celta Vigo, by two goals, in a match in which three players from the hosts were eliminated, two of them on the pitch, and another receiving a red card from the bench.

The Basque coach of Real Madrid had no less than nine first-team players available to prepare for the match played at the “Estadio Mendizorrotza”, these being: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Daniel Carvajal, Fran Garcia, Alvaro Carreras, Eduardo Camavinga, Ferland Mendy, David Alaba, Eder Militao and Endrick. Facundo Garces, on the other hand, was the only unavailable player from the squad prepared by Eduardo Coudet. In the previous season in the Spanish championship, “los blancos” had prevailed in this arena, by the limit, final score 1-0, the goal scored by Eduardo Camavinga being the only one scored during the 90 minutes, just as it happened in 2023, when Lucas Vazquez was the “hero” of the guests, managing to score in the extra time of the meeting.

The first big goal-scoring opportunity in this duel belonged to Kylian Mbappe, who, after receiving a ball on the edge of the box, tried to finish with a shot placed in the corner of the goal defended by Antonio Sivera, but the execution launched by the French striker went over the crossbar of the hosts’ goal. A few minutes later, the “ten-year-old” of the team from the Spanish capital received a pass from Jude Bellingham, when the guests initiated a counterattack, and, after easily overcoming the direct opponent, finished with the width of his right foot into the far corner, shaking the net of the Deportivo Alaves goal and opening the score at the Basque Country arena, at the same time.

A few moments later, a corner kick from Arda Guller found Jude Bellingham free in the goal, who took it and scored from close range with a powerful shot that went under the crossbar of the Vitoria-Gasteiz team. However, after consulting the replays, the referees assigned to lead this confrontation did not validate the English footballer’s success, due to a contact with the arm that occurred during the phase. Deportivo Alaves appeared, seriously, in the vicinity of the Real Madrid goal in the extra time of the first half of this match, when Pablo Ibanez resumed with the tip of his boot from a few meters, but Thibaut Courtois blocked with his head and kept his team in the lead.

The equalizer on the scoreboard would come in the 70th minute of the game, when Antonio Blanco, one of the central midfielders of the “blue and whites”, launched Carlos Vicente, an offensive player who had just entered the pitch, into free space, and, after a takeover in a forward position, the striker of the club trained by Eduardo Coudet scored with an execution sent to the short corner, without giving too much hope to the Belgian goalkeeper of Real Madrid. Although the assistant referee on that side of the field initially signaled an irregular position in which the Basques’ attacking midfielder was, replays proved that the one who had started the match on the bench was kept in the game by Antonio Rudiger, so the score would become 1-1 with approximately 20 minutes left to play.

“Los Blancos” returned to attack, and Vinicius Junior managed, at one point, to outrun Deportivo Alaves’ right-back, Jonny Cotto, and the Brazilian left winger passed with the outside, on foot, in the middle of the opponent’s box, for Rodrygo, who scored, from the fall, with an empty net, after, a few minutes earlier, he had sent a free kick from the edge of the penalty area well over the goal. For the South American player, this success was the second in the last two matches in which he was involved, and the first in this edition of the domestic championship.

Towards the end of the match, Vinicius Junior was involved in a direct duel with Nahuel Tenaglia, the Argentine central defender of the Vitoria-Gasteiz team, hitting the Real Madrid player on the shin, but both the referee of the match and the people in the VAR room decided to let the game continue, despite the protests of the player and the technical bench of the “los blancos” group. Real Madrid resisted until the end of the match, and the three points accumulated on the field of Deportivo Alaves restored the four-point gap between the team trained by Xabi Alonso and FC Barcelona, ​​while the Basques remained in the second part of the general ranking.

In the next round, the “galactics” will receive the visit of Sevilla, and Deportivo Alaves will travel to Pamplona to play against Osasuna. However, before the two teams return to La Liga, Real Madrid will “face off” with CF Talavera in the round of 32 of the “King of Spain Cup”, while the students coached by Eduardo Coudet will receive a visit from Sevilla, in a match that will take place in the same phase of the domestic competition.