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Real Madrid’s victory was very rare. He accumulated shots and shots and Celta ended up scoring the goals. Rüdiger’s outburst after 2-0 summed up the paradox of Sunday afternoon at the Bernabéu: he enthusiastically celebrated a goal that will go down in the records as Guaita’s own goal. But the road to that point had been a bit desperate. Madrid ruled completely, shooting 24 times, but they did not finish turning the duel in their favor. Rüdiger found himself at the center of this confusion. In the first half he headed a corner that Guaita stopped on the line and that Vinicius could only convert into a goal from the second rebound. In the second, he hit another one against the crossbar and only a rebound off the goalkeeper’s back took it into the net.
4
Andriy Lunin, Nacho, Rüdiger, Lucas Vázquez, Ferland Mendy, Modric (Kroos, min. 82), Camavinga (Dani Ceballos, min. 88), Brahim Diaz (Aurelien Tchouameni, min. 82), Federico Valverde, Vinicius Junior (Arda Guler, min. 88) and Rodrygo (Joselu, min. 73)
0
Guaita, Unai Nunez, Oscar Mingueza (Hugo Sotelo, 76th minute), Carl Starfelt, Manquillo, Manu Sanchez (Franco Cervi, 60th minute), Fran Beltran (Carlos Dominguez, 77th minute), Jonathan Bamba (Tadeo Allende, min 60), Luca De La Torre, Jorgen Strand Larsen (Anastasios Douvikas, min. 82) and Aspas
Goals 1-0 min. 20: Vinicius Junior. 2-0 min. 79: Guaita (pp). 3-0 min. 87: Carlos Domínguez (pp). 4-0 min. 93: Arda Guler.
Referee Mario Melero López
Yellow cards Luca De La Torre (min. 24), Camavinga (min. 46), Óscar Mingueza (min. 54) and Manquillo (min. 81)
The 3-0 was also an own goal. Vinicius launched a delicate cross at Joselu’s head, but the ball passed a few fingers over him, ruffling his hair, and when Carlos Domínguez, who was retreating, was already falling, he accidentally put it into the goal. That’s how Madrid won, a little due to the force of the inertia it created, but which Celta ended up finishing off. And so they remain in the lead with seven points ahead of Girona and eight over Barça.
Thus, he emerged well from the valley of low tension that he had been going through since he knocked down Míchel’s team at home a month ago, also 4-0. Without Celta requiring him to raise his heart rate. Rafa Benítez set up a defense of five, delaying Mingueza to help Manquillo with Vinicius on the right. But the Brazilian did not come out with the expansive version of him. He tried a lambretta, yes, but the team attacked mainly from the other side. Without Kroos on the field, whose place Modric took, Valverde pushed insistently down the right, where Lucas Vázquez had one of his most incisive afternoons, often stepping into the Guaita area. The two of them, with Modric and some of Rodrygo, insisted on sinking a contemplative Celta there.
Valverde left another exuberant display while being measured and clear to find the cracks on the right. The attack was led by him and Camavinga, who, despite acting as a pivot, could be seen in very advanced positions. Celta pressed so lightly that the Frenchman happily looked into the opponent’s area. Five of the team’s first ten shots were his. He dominated the center of the field in all registers and between him and Valverde they allowed Modric to float freely between the lines.
When Celta had the ball, it was more from Madrid’s losses than from their own intensity to recover it. They were almost always very far from Aspas and Larsen, on whom Rüdiger had particularly focused his attention. He left her little air to breathe.
In that relaxed scenario, Madrid were close to scoring, but scored from a set piece. Rüdiger headed in a corner from Modric and Guaita saved with his feet. Vinicius caught the rebound, but the goalkeeper, already defeated, extended his left arm and saved again. But the ball returned to the Brazilian, who did not miss the second. Once again in goal-hunting mode, his third goal from the small area of the last four he has scored.
The Brazilian repeated a goal disconnected from dribbling or driving, and also an outburst of anger. In the second half, he pushed Mingueza to the ground at almost the same spot on the field where he knocked down Orbán on Tuesday against Leipzig. The Celta player had run about ten meters hooked on the shirt of Vinicius, who had just escaped from another hook. When he got tired of dragging Mingueza, he stopped and the referee whistled the foul, he relieved himself by pushing him.
Vinicius was not the only one frustrated. A game that had not demanded too much of them, but which did not end up tilting their side definitively, was beginning to feel like a ball for Madrid. The most bogged down was Rodrygo, who is going through another moment of downturn, the second of the season. He moved well in the company of Vinicius, but when he set his sights on the goal there he only saw Guaita. He shot from close range, with no interference in between, and the ball ended up in the goalkeeper’s lap. He did it from a little further away, and also, always in the center. He maintains that lightness of foot that allows him to wriggle as if on skates, but he has disconnected from the goal.
Brahim lasted longer on the field than the Brazilian, whom Ancelotti removed to bring in Joselu. The Bernabéu said goodbye to the man from Malaga, who left a minute before Modric. With the Croatian, the affection of the stands multiplied. Nobody says goodbye in Chamartín like Modric, always with the uncertainty of whether it will be the last time, always with the determination that he does not forget any of them, as if they were all the last.
The Croatian leaves and finally Arda Güler begins to arrive. The Turk relieved Vinicius in the 89th minute and with that he had enough to open his scoring tally. He was the only clean goal for Madrid, already in added time. Ceballos leaked a ball into the area, Güler cut Guaita to the right and scored with his less capable leg. A flash of excitement on a frustrating but overwhelming afternoon.