It was a more than transcendental match that Real Madrid faced this Sunday in Medizorroza against Alavés. Ancelotti’s team had the obligation to win and thus settle the ‘mini-crisis’ that had arisen after two lost matches in the last week. Finally, with his eyes and mind on the Champions League quarter-final comeback against Arsenal at home, Ancelotti made a few minor rotations and it paid off: Real Madrid won convincingly 1-0 against Alavés. The goal was scored by Camavinga. The bad news is the expulsion of Mbappé.
Real Madrid came out with great intensity from the start against Alavés
The Whites, who are fighting for all three competitions, have seen their aspirations falter in just seven days. Last Saturday they suffered an unexpected defeat against Valencia (1-2) which has left them seven points behind FC Barcelona, who are further ahead in LaLiga after winning first at Getafe and this past Saturday at Leganés.
Despite this, the Whites approached their next game with ambition: the first leg of the quarter-finals against Arsenal. But the result was not what they were hoping for either. A resounding 3-0 defeat against a much superior Arsenal has left Real Madrid shaken.
Faced with this, and in order to achieve a good result, Ancelotti took to the pitch at Mendizorroza with Courtois in goal, while Fran García and Lucas Vázquez occupied the full-back positions. Tchouaméni returned to the pivot position after serving his Champions League suspension, accompanying Valverde and Camavinga. Güler was the new addition to the attack along with Rodrygo and Mbappé, where, initially, Bellinghan and Vinicus were rested.
The match duly kicked off at 16:15 with a fairly intense start from Real Madrid against Alavés, in a clear demonstration of a break with everything seen in recent days. In fact, in the opening stages, even before the 10th minute, the Whites had two good chances to take the lead.
With a fairly precise game and the fluency that this type of game requires, Ancelotti opened up his team comfortably to position themselves much better in the midfield. For their part, Alavés also wanted to be in the spotlight, with Kike García doing his best, but without luck. From the midfield came the first goal, in the 34th minute, after several chances for Real Madrid while Alavés tried to cover their gaps. The goal came with Camavinga, a great goal. The Frenchman received the ball, moved forward and shot with his left foot from outside the area, nailing a powerful shot to beat Owono’s dive. Brutal, the Frenchman.
Red card for Mbappé: Real Madrid down to ten men
But one of the surprises came from Mbappé, and not exactly from a goal. Barely four minutes after Camavinga’s goal, the Frenchman lunged in hard on Antonio Blanco, who could have been seriously injured. After reviewing the action with VAR, the referee changed the initial yellow card to a red one.
The Frenchman hit him from behind with no intention of contesting the ball. If he does not give a logical explanation for what happened, he could face a severe sanction. The striker’s next matches will be against Athletic and Getafe.
🟥 La expulsión de Mbappé. #LALIGAEASPORTS #LaCasaDelFútbol pic.twitter.com/FXYeU8G9Jp
— Fútbol en Movistar Plus+ (@MovistarFutbol) April 13, 2025
Already Real Madrid with one less, at times Alavés was very alert, where again Kike García caused one of the best chances for the Blue and Whites. So did Carlos Vicente, although neither of them could change the score in the first half. Asencio, very involved, had a chance to prevent Kike García from going one-on-one with Courtois with a key touch.
A horrible second half but enough to win the game
First half in Vitoria and much to analyze. Real Madrid went into the break ahead on the scoreboard after a fantastic goal by Camavinga from outside the area, but the bad news for Ancelotti’s team is the straight red card to Kylian Mbappé, who went over the top on Antoio Blanco Alavés has also had chances, some better than others, but they are standing up to the whites, taking advantage of the numerical superiority.
Probably thanks to that numerical superiority, Alavés grew in size again as soon as the second half began. For their part, the Whites were forced to cut back, in what were the babazorro team’s best minutes of the game.
However, Alavés’s 11 became 10 as did Real Madrid’s. Because Manu Sánchez, who tried to cut out a dangerous ball to Vinicius, finally saw the red card, which was initially shown as a yellow, but was corrected by the VAR.
Carlo Ancelotti has taken off two of his players who dropped back to the wing, Rodrygo and Güler, as well as a full-back, Fran García. Meanwhile, Coudet brought on Abqar, Jordán and Carlos Martín in place of the three players sent off.
After the sending off, the game calmed down from time to time, although Ancelotti’s side had the strength to try and get ahead on the scoreboard, but they didn’t succeed. They couldn’t close out the game because, even though they were still ahead on the scoreboard, Coudet’s side pressed insistently.
We can conclude this article by mentioning that the second half of the Madrid game was horribly awful, but that in the end it helped them to win by the smallest of margins against Alavés, who kept trying in the final minutes, as did the fierce Mouriño attack. The Whites are catching their breath and will continue one more game four points behind leaders FC Barcelona.