La Liga made its big return for the first of 2025 this Friday evening with the late match of the 12th day between Valencia and Real Madrid. After a successful end of the year and a second place in the standings, the Madrilenians had the opportunity to take the lead in La Liga while waiting for the Atlético de Madrid match. For that, we had to take the three points against a Valencia team which was at the bottom, tied on points with Valladolid. On paper, this meeting was therefore largely unbalanced while Carlo Ancelotti could count on his quartet Mbappé, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Bellingham.
And this meeting started strong with a first opportunity for Real Madrid signed by Valverde. The Uruguayan midfielder sent a powerful shot but too axial to deceive Dimitrievski. In the process, Valencia responded with a powerful shot from Hugo Duro repelled by Courtois. The Belgian goalkeeper saved his team at the start of the match as he also won in front of Foulquier a few minutes later. Timid, the Casa Blanca showed a rather messy face especially technically and even ended up being punished shortly before the half hour mark. In all the good shots, the former Rennais Foulquier placed a cross on Guerra which Courtois miraculously repelled. But his save returned the ball to Hugo Duro alone in front of the empty goal (1-0, 28th).
Real Madrid never gives up!
Trailing, Real Madrid tried to come back, but Kylian Mbappé did not seem inspired up front (less than 10 balls touched in the first period). Same story for Vinicius Jr who tried to make the difference alone, without success. Returning from the locker room, the team led by Jude Bellingham moved into second place and clearly dominated the proceedings. But despite its domination, the Madrid team could not find the fault. Kylian Mbappé, more mobile, stood out by obtaining a penalty (55th). Penalty missed by Bellingham who saw his shot end up on the post. In the process, the England international thought he would make up for it by offering a goal to Kylian Mbappé.
The Frenchman, in almost a second, dribbled past the goalkeeper and followed up with a shot. A classy sequence, but not rewarded since it was flagged in an offside position (58th). In the tough, Valencia continued to hold on to hold on and obtain a very important victory. And Real Madrid, to make matters worse, finished at 10 after the expulsion of Vinicius Jr after a bad move on Dimitrievski (78th). How to end a chaotic evening? This was logically the scenario. But with Real Madrid, you have to expect anything. And an improbable turnaround took place. At the very end of the match, 10 against 11, it was Luka Modric, 39, who had just returned, who equalized from a good outside (1-1, 86th) on a serve from Bellingham. We then thought that the two teams would end in a draw. But that was without counting on Hugo Guillamon’s restart error, not helped by Foulquier’s very bad pass just before. Jude Bellingham, again, collected the leather and faced the goalkeeper. The Englishman did not tremble to offer the three points to his team (2-1, 90th + 6). A true miracle for Real Madrid who saw, at the last second of the match, Rioja’s long shot hit the inside corner of a beaten Courtois. With this success, Casa Blanca is leader of La Liga while awaiting the Atlético match.
