After a fantastic El Clasico win last weeked, Real Madrid invited Valencia to their home in hopes to keep their hot form going – and this was going to be my first ever game at the Santiago Bernabeu after arriving late for the Masters.
I had a bit of FOMO hearing all the stories about my classmates going to all of these games so I was extremely excited to finally watch a game. So, I decided to write a little match report of the first ever game at Real’s beautiful home:
From before kick-off to full-time, the night belonged to Kylian Mbappe. After receiving the Pichichi trophy from last season and displaying the entire Bernabeu the La Liga Player of the Month award from October, Kylian showed the fans why he deserved it today.
Real’s first chance came in the 5th minute as Mbappe ran on through to goal but his attempt was saved by the keeper which was immediately followed by a long-range effort by Valverde which bounced off the crossbar.
Throughout the first half, every time Mbappe got on the ball, it seemed like trouble was right around the corner for Valencia as Madrid kept pilling on the pressure.
And the deadlock broke after just 18 minutes as a Real Madrid corner kick resulted in a penalty for the home team as the referee deemed there was a hand ball offense. Madrid’s talisman stepped up and without any doubt, buried the ball into the net to make the score 1-0.
Just 12 minutes later, Mbappe found the net again after Arda Guler crossed the ball and put it on a plate for Kylian.
Despite going 2-0 up, Madrid’s pressure kept pilling and they won a penalty in the 43rd minute. Despite Mbappe on track for a hat-trick, he unselfishingly gave the ball to Vinicius Jr. However, his effort was stopped by Valencia’s Agirrezabala.
This wasn’t a problem though as just before half-time, Jude Bellingham, who received the ball from Valverde, found the bottom right corner to give the Los Blancos a 3 goal lead.
The second half which began with a Dani Ceballos and Camavinga substitution where Real opted to continue to dominate the game and secure the victory.
It wasn’t until the 68th minute when Valencia recorded their first shot on target.
In what was quite a quiet second half, Carreras scored a contender for the goal of the month, if not year, as he rifled a left footed shot into the top right corner.
Real Madrid ended up concluding the match as a 4-0 win against Valencia.