Just like the two teams they’re chasing, Real Madrid conceded two goals and still made it out of Valencia with the 3-2 win thanks to a dramatic goal from the substitute Jese, finishing the job Angel di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo started.
Thanks to the win Real Madrid are now once again five points behind both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, and once again got a lot of help from the officials in order to get through a tough away match. Some might think it’s normal for a big team to get all the calls to go their way, but sometimes it feels a little ridiculous. The biggest of mistakes came when Real Madrid scored their second goal, as a foul that didn’t happen gave Real Madrid a free kick, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored from the offside position.
Real Madrid scored first as Angel di Maria scored only his second goal of the season, getting a start instead of Gareth Bale with fantastic finish to Guaita’s corner. Pablo Piatti, all 163 centimeters of him, found himself between Sergio Ramos and Alvaro Arbeloa and still managed to score the equalizer, his first goal of the season. Real Madrid still went down to the half time break in the lead thanks to that offside goal by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Valencia weathered the storm early in the second half and went on to play their finest 20 minutes of the match, also resulting in the second equalizer with another header, this time from Jeremy Mathieu. Valencia were quite close to scoring a goal that might finally put them in the lead.
Jese came on for a very bad Isco, and immediately changed the match. The youngster got a great pass from Luka Modric that found it wide open on the right side of the box, and he made the most of a badly positioned Vicente Guaita, scoring a goal that keeps Real Madrid in the title race.
Valencia? Their awful season continues, now falling to 11th place, only five points from the relegation zone and eight points below a spot that might get them to Europe.