Real Madrid – Espanyol, Getty Images September 22, 2024, 00:01

In the middle of the week, the current winner of the European Champions Cup, Real Madrid, started the defense of the trophy with a winning match at home against the German Stuttgart (3:1), where it was necessary to spend a lot of effort to overcome the opponents. And at the weekend, Carlo Ancelotti’s team returned to the domestic arena, where it had already suffered a painful loss of points.

Moreover, the “royal” club played with opponents of a not at all leading level – Las Palmas and Mallorca (twice 1:1), which included the Catalan Espanyol, which visited the Santiago Bernabeu as part of the sixth round. But with the remark that Manolo Gonzalez’s footballers did not come from the islands, even in their own updated arena, Real reluctantly conceded to their rivals.

Madrid didn’t want to lose points too much this time, but for that it was necessary to first open the foreign defense. And this turned out to be not too easy to do. No matter how hard Kylian Mbappé tried, even three goal-scoring moments inside someone else’s penalty area were not enough for him to eventually beat goalkeeper Juan Garcia.

It goes without saying about the partners of the French striker in this case – everyone who could do it in the appropriate opportunities in front of and inside other people’s possessions scored, but the goalkeeper of the “Parrots” pulled out everything that flew into the plane and generally gave great confidence to his teammates. Espanyol sat in their own half for a long time and started to attack only before the break. However, an adventure from Puido from the center circle was all that Gonzalez’s team dared.

At the beginning of the second half, Espanyol acted much more decisively, and this allowed the “parrots” not only to scare the opponents with the blows of Carreras and Romero, but also to accomplish the seemingly impossible – to score a goal. Well, how to score, on 54 minutes Carreras made a cross from the left wing of the penalty box, while Courtois managed to transfer the ball between his legs, so it was an own goal, but with the active assistance of the visiting player, for sure.

Ancelotti couldn’t stand it anymore and threw Vinicius into the fight, who then did everything almost by himself. Although Real won in four minutes without his participation, but with Bellingham’s cross from the left wing of the penalty area and approximately the same mistake by the goalkeeper Hoan, who was doing everything until then, and then missed the ball under him to Carvajal. It’s interesting, and how did the referees not see Jude’s offside when he ran for the rebound from a long shot?

And after that, Vinicius got into the game and in the three minutes between 75 and 78, he made a goal pass to Rodrigo the Swede from the wing and scored himself from a pass from Mbappe. It was already more like the prerequisites for a rout, but Real was limited to a simply ridiculous decision by the referee on a penalty for Romero’s foul on Endrik, when the defender fouled almost at the corner on the left flank of the defense, and the Brazilian fell inside the penalty area. Mbappé “enjoyed” this episode, but the unpleasant residue after these two moments remained.

In the next round, Real Madrid will play a home match against Alaves, while Catalan Espanyol will host Villarreal.

Real — Espanyol 4:1
Goals: Carvajal, 58, Rodrigo, 75, Vinicius, 78, Mbappe, 90 (pen.) — Courtois, 54 (auto)

Real: Courtois – Carvajal (Vazquez, 60), Chuameni, Militao, Fran García – Valverde, Modric – Guler (Vinicius, 55), Bellingham (Rüdigera, 83), Rodrigo (Andrik, 83) – Mbappe.

Espanyol: H. Garcia – El-Hilali, Cumbulla, Cabrera, Romero – Tejero (Aguado, 76), Losano (Graguera, 67), Kral, Carreras (Cardona, 76) – Sheddira (Vélis, 46), Puado (Milla, 80) .

Warnings: Mbappe, Valverde, Vinicius, Bellingham – Losano, Juan, Romero