Real Madrid 1 – Valencia 2, a poor performance from Real Madrid who repeated past mistakes and may have said goodbye to the league at the Bernabéu.
The match started with Brahim and Modric in the lineup, and the debut of Fran González in goal, giving Rodrygo and Lunin some rest. Once again, Ancelotti barely rotated the squad despite the team clearly being physically exhausted.
Normally, Real Madrid manages to win these types of matches even when playing poorly, but this time it didn’t happen. In the 15th minute, Valencia took the lead with a header from a poorly defended corner.
There was a penalty awarded to Real Madrid for a foul on Kylian Mbappé, which Vinicius took and missed. A Valencia own goal was also disallowed, and the first half ended 0-1.
El penalti que Vinicius falló ante el Valencia #LALIGAenDAZN ⚽ pic.twitter.com/7VKmVu292a
— DAZN España (@DAZN_ES) April 5, 2025
In the second half, Real Madrid closed the gap with a goal from Vinicius off a flicked corner by Jude Bellingham. Despite Vinicius having a poor game — he was even booed by the Bernabéu — at least he managed to score that goal. With the score 1-1, there was still plenty of time left to come back.
But today, as has been the case in many recent matches, Real Madrid looked completely drained. They barely managed to get forward and didn’t hold anything back, bringing on Rodrygo, Camavinga, Alaba, Endrick, and Arda Güler. Even with all that firepower, they couldn’t get the 2-1.
Then at the very end, while attacking with Rüdiger playing up front, Valencia scored the definitive 1-2 in the 95th minute, snatching away even that one point. With this loss, if Barcelona — as expected — wins today against Betis, they could go 6 points ahead plus the goal difference, with El Clásico still to be played in Barcelona.
Clearly, the squad management — including the decision not to sign much in the summer and no signings in the winter transfer window — has left Real Madrid physically weak at this crucial point in the season. In fact, in the Copa del Rey we’ve had to go through two extra times, and in the Champions League as well — we’ve been getting by on luck. But luck runs out, as it did today.
Now it’s time to focus on the Champions League quarterfinals against Arsenal — the favorite tournament of Madridistas — as well as the Copa del Rey final and the Club World Cup.
Ancelotti´s press conference: