Madrid took the three points from Balaídos (and have nine again) in Celta's centenary thanks to another Bellingham goal, the fourth of the season, this time ten minutes from the end, but they lost Vinícius, which was torn by a hamstring strain on a run early in the game. It is the first injury suffered by the Brazilian in his time with the Whites, who already this season have Courtois and Militão sidelined for many months, and Ferland Mendy, Ceballos and Arda Güler for weeks.
Without Vinícius on the field, Ancelotti kept the scheme, but it was already something else. In the few minutes on the pitch, the Brazilian had gone to Mingueza's side several times and offered a lot of danger. He was replaced by Joselu, who in the entire first half barely connected with the ball except to score a goal clearly offside.
The match started with a scare for the Whites. Two minutes later, Strand Larsen scored with a heel kick, but after consulting with the monitor, Díaz de Mera disallowed the goal: he understood that Larsen had disturbed Kepa, who was making his debut, during the jump. Celta did not get any closer to the Madrid area in the first half until the end, in a counter that Bamba closed with a shot that narrowly missed the target.
Rafa Benítez mounted a defensive ferry with a defense of five and Madrid, who once again started without Kroosni Modric, had a lot of difficulty creating danger. Rodrygo was the biggest threat. In the first action, he was knocked down in the area. Neither the referee nor the VAR intervened in the play. In his other most relevant action, he went from two opponents, but when he was going to shoot Iván Villar, Starfelt intervened.
With Bellingham a little more muted than the other days, Madrid needed more speed on the ball to disarm the home team and establish their dominance with real chances.
Madrid changed the formation for the second half, with Valverde on the right, Rodrygo on the left and Joselu again in the 4-3-3. With a lot of ball but little finishing, Ancelotti returned to the classic at game time by giving Kroos and Modric entry for Camavinga and Tchouaméni.
Madrid were clearly looking for the match but Celta defended without losing face. In the 66th, Iván Villar brought down Rodrygo in the area and touched the ball before. Díaz de Mera whistled a penalty. Rodrygo kicked it quite badly and the keeper saved it. Earlier in this League, Vinícius had missed the previous penalty kicked by Madrid. Without Benzema, Madrid have a problem.
The matter did not go further for the whites; he scored ten minutes from the end. He took a corner, headed Joselu and Bellingham got ahead of the scoreboard to head home, beat Villar and continue the idyll with Madrid.
