Madrid dispatched Celta at the Bernabéu in a match in which they ended up scoring in the final stretch despite having wasted many chances before. With the victory they once again stretch the distance to seven points with respect to Girona and eight from Barcelona, with ten games left until the end of the championship.
It was a Madrid with four changes compared to Wednesday's match against Leipzig and with an eleven without Bellingham due to the Mestalla sanction, but with Modric, who had not played since his goal against Sevilla and with Brahim in the Englishman's position, a solution that already Ancelotti has adopted other times. The man from Malaga had a gray performance.
Rafa Benítez's Celta, an old acquaintance of the house, showed that he is not up to much trouble. He fights to try to save the category, which is not easy. At the Bernabéu he found himself facing a much improved version of Madrid that came out much more energized than in the last games.
The first part was light white. Madrid surrounded Guaita's area from the opening whistle with a very powerful Camavinga every time he came out with the ball from behind, which shows that he is a much better midfielder than Tchouaméni, whose slow play hinders the team's transition a lot.
Along with Camavinga, Lucas Vázquez also stood out, a shot from his right wing, almost always unstoppable for Celta. Already in the first ten minutes there were two clear shots from Camavinga and the goal came in the twentieth minute in a play that was dominated by the insistence of the whites. Rüdiger headed first, Guaita rejected the ball and Vinícius' first point-blank shot, but not the second.
Celta took a long time to react to the blow. The opportunities kept coming. Madrid claimed a penalty from Brahim that neither Melero López nor the VAR awarded and Guaita prevented another goal, this time from Rodrygo.
The Celtiñas finally showed their head in the last ten minutes of the first half through Aspas and especially in the last play before the break, a dangerous lateral foul for an infringement on Camavinga on Bamba that the Bernabéu protested a lot because it did not seem like it. and that was closed with a high header from De la Torre when he was in a good position because he had no mark.
The referee headed to the locker room amid a huge whistle and cries of corruption in the Federation. The game had already started with a banner supporting Bellingham: “Hey Jude. We are with you".
The second half began with the same players and the energetic attitude of Madrid, ready to score another goal as soon as possible so that the game would not get complicated. Since Celta was no longer self-conscious in the first minutes of the first half, the game became much more lively, from area to area.
Benítez's team had taken a step forward, stretched the defensive line almost to the center of the field and left a lot of free ground to run and try the counterattack.
At 54 minutes, Mingueza cut off a fast counterattack by Vinícius by grabbing his shirt several meters away and the Brazilian scrambled, giving him a push, a move that resulted in a yellow card for both of them.
From then on, Celta worked harder. Madrid had chances through Rodrygo and Vinícius, but failed again and again in the definition and Celta was still alive and the Bernabéu uneasy.
For the last quarter of an hour Ancelotti made his first change and brought on Rodrygo for Joselu. In the 78th minute came the goal of tranquility for Madrid and it was with some luck. The German headed a corner kick, the ball hit the crossbar, bounced off Guaita's back and went in. Then, a third would arrive, the work of Domínguez on his own goal after a bad clearance by Guaita and another by Güler, the fourth, which thus debuted in a shot from a low angle after Ceballos leaked the ball to him. The Turk celebrated in style and the Bernabéu audience went home satisfied.
