Madrid held onto their lead by four points going into the Sunday Clasico match after the Catalans lost to Valladolid on Saturday. They then overcame a late Celta comeback the following day to maintain the lead.
Real Madrid, the defending champions, were forced to hold on to a seventh-place Celta side in a game that would allow them to qualify for European football next season.
Los Blancos are still hopeful of beating Hansi Flick’s side in LaLiga despite Los Blancos’ Champions League defense crumbling and Los Blancos’ Copa del Rey final defeat last week.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side entered the match with a number of defensive injuries, but Arda Guler, a 20-year-old Turkish, took control after a number of Celta chances, were thrown away.
Rodrygo started playing in his place and made the most of Rodrigo’s illness.
In the opening moments, Guler showed that his ambition has no limits with a spectacular overhead effort that was directed wide of the intended target.
As a threat to Celta, former Barcelona defender Marcos Alonso headed just over before forcing a fine save from Thibaut Courtois.
As Madrid stifled the visitors, Aurelien Tchouameni headed over when he was in a better position at the other end.
After 33 minutes, Guler skillfully created some space in the box before brilliantly curled a strike past Vicente Guaita. Madrid opened the scoring.
At the close of a quick breakaway, Mbappe doubled Madrid’s lead after 39 minutes.
When Bellingham set Mbappe free down the right, Courtois successfully saved from Borja Iglesias and Madrid immediately moved forward.
The French superstar ruthlessly flew inside Guaita from within the area.
Mbappe scored his 24th league goal of the year just three minutes into the second half, putting him one point ahead of Robert Lewandowski, the top scorer for Barcelona.
Guler created the ball by playing in the striker with a match-matched ball, and Mbappe finished low with a left bootstroke.
Madrid appeared to have won the match, but Javier Rodriguez’s finish from close range after a corner gave it the impression that it was over.
Rodriguez was present to stop Pablo Duran’s backheeled effort on the line, but Lucas Vazquez blocked it.
The Galicians immediately had more attacking momentum when Iago Aspas was called off the bench and sent Williot Swedberg past in a superb pass.
The Belgian goalkeeper was heartbroken moments later when Duran’s shot slipped out of his hands and had potential to have squirmed across the line behind him if it hadn’t come to a stop on the grass. Real were able to withstand the late pressure to secure the victory, though.
Source: Aljazeera
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