Madrid dispatched Celta at the Bernabéu in a game in which they ended up beating them in the last leg despite having previously wasted many chances. With the victory, they widen the gap again to seven points with Girona and eight with Barcelona, with ten days remaining until the end of the championship.
It was a Madrid with four changes compared to Wednesday's game against Leipzig and with an eleven without Bellingham due to the Mestalla suspension, but with Modric, who had not played since his goal in Sevilla. Brahim moved in place of the Englishman, a solution that Ancelotti has already adopted on other occasions. Malaga had a gray performance.
Rafa Benítez's Celta, an old acquaintance of the house, showed that he could not keep up. Fight to try to save the category, which is not easy. At the Bernabéu we found a much improved version of Madrid, who came out much more plugged in than the last few games.
The first part was clear white. Madrid laid siege to Guaita's box from the opening whistle with a very powerful Camavinga every time he came out with the ball from the back, showing that he is a much better midfielder than Tchouaméni, whose slow play slows him down a lot the transition of the team.
With Camavinga, Lucas Vázquez also stood out, a danger on his right side, almost always unstoppable for Celta. Already during the first ten minutes there were two clear shots from Camavinga and the goal reached 20 in a play that rewarded the insistence of the whites. First Rüdiger finished with a header, Guaita rejected the ball, and even Vinícius' first shot at the cannon mouth, but not the second.
Celta took a long time to react to the blow. The chances kept coming. Madrid claimed a penalty for Brahim that neither Melero López nor the VAR granted and Guaita prevented another goal, this time from Rodrygo.
Celta finally appeared in the last ten minutes of the first half through Aspas and, above all, in the last play just before the break. A dangerous lateral foul for an infringement by Camavinga on Bamba that the Bernabéu protested a lot, because it didn't seem like it, and that ended with a header too high by De la Torre when he was in a good position, since he didn't have a mark .
The referee went into the dressing room amidst a huge whistle and shouts 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 be complicated. Since Celta no longer played as complex as 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, had stretched the defensive line almost to the center of the field and had left a lot of free ground to run and try the counter-attack.
In the 54th minute, Mingueza cut off a quick counter-attack from Vinícius, grabbing him by the shirt for several meters and the Brazilian turned and pushed him, a move that ended in yellow for both.
Celta played harder from that moment on. Madrid had opportunities through Rodrygo and Vinícius, but failed time and again in definition, Celta remained alive and the Bernabéu, uneasy.
For the last quarter of an hour, Ancelotti made his first change and replaced Rodrygo with Joselu. In the 78th came the goal of tranquility for Madrid and it was with a bit of fortune. Rüdiger took a corner, the ball hit the crossbar, bounced off Guaita's back and went in. Then, a third would arrive, the work of Domínguez in his own goal after a bad rejection by Guaita, and another by Güler, which was thus released in a shot from a low angle.
