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While waiting for tomorrow’s attractive Villarreal – FC Barcelona (6:30 p.m.), Real Madrid did the job on their side this evening, despite a few avoidable scares. On their pitch, Carlo Ancelotti’s men brushed aside an Espanyol Barcelona side that had long been confusingly weak (4-1), who arrived with the lifeline and armbands to play for a draw, and ultimately left empty-handed. The score could have been much higher if the Merengues had been bloody in the first half… After ten minutes, they were close to opening the score thanks to Kylian Mbappé. On a clever pass from Güler, the French striker combined chest control and a shot, but came up against a vigilant Garcia (11th).
The moments of heat intensified on the Catalan goal, first with the attempts of Güler (14th), started to give Vinicius a breather, of Fran Garcia (16th), then on a low and on-target shot from Kylian Mbappé, again, after a relay with Bellingham and Rodrygo (20th). The Frenchman, enterprising but not always escorted by success this evening, completely missed his volley after a beautiful sequence (25th), then crushed his left-footed shot too much on a star service from Luka Modric (29th). In turn, Jude Bellingham let loose a bullet at the edge of the area, but Garcia intervened once again (38th). The Catalans, stifled and caught in the grip, tried to surprise Courtois from midfield via Puado. An admission of weakness, which somewhat symbolised their first period, without relief.
Kylian Mbappé scores for his fourth consecutive match
In the second half, Kylian Mbappé was again the first to shine. Found by Bellingham, the ex-Parisian unleashed a shot on the turn, but again caught by Garcia (48th), while the Englishman also bowed to a goalkeeper in a state of grace (50th). On the Catalan side, Romero finally threw a chill on Courtois’ goal, but his face flirted with the Belgian’s post (48th). The warning before the sanction, because against the run of play, Manolo Gonzalez’s men doused the Bernabeu. On an innocuous cross from Carreras, Courtois deflected the ball into his own goal (54th, 0-1). Ancelotti launched his lethal weapon, Vinicius, and Madrid equalised three minutes later thanks to Carvajal, attentive to Garcia’s poor clearance on a cross from Bellingham, certainly the best Madrid player of the evening (58th, 1-1).
Rodrygo was close to scoring after a superb solo from Mbappé (62nd), Bellingham threw a shiver in turn (64th), but the light finally came from Vinicius. The Brazilian delivered a cross on the outside of the foot to Rodrygo, who only had to score in the empty goal (75th, 2-1). As the appetite comes with eating, Vinicius joined in the party by perfectly adjusting Garcia after being found in depth by Kylian Mbappé (78th, 3-1). The Frenchman closed the party on penalty (90th, 4-1), after some nice work from Endrick. A fourth goal in his last 4 matches, that’s the record of Kylian Mbappé, decisive but above all influential. Real Madrid comes back to one point of Barça, who will have the possibility of stretching their lead tomorrow.
