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Real Madrid beat Celta Vigo 3-1 to stay undefeated and top of La Liga. Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Danilo and Marcelo saw Madrid secure all three points in the away fixture. Noliti scored the consolation goal for Celta Vigo, who suffered their first league loss of the season.
First Half: Ronaldo and Danilo score to give Madrid two-goal advantage
Real Madrid asserted themselves on Celta Vigo right from the start. They earned a corner in just the third minute of the match but failed to capitalize on it. Los Blancos, quite naturally kept the ball to themselves, with Celta waiting to attack on counter. Marcelo and Jese were dominating the left flank as Ronaldo took more of a central role.
The Portuguese forward then scored from the first real chance of the match in the eighth minute, when he combined with Lucas Vasquez to open the Vigo defence. His movement to get to the ball and leave the defenders wrong-footed was commendable as he rifled the shot into Celta’s goal.
Celta had two back-to-back chances in the 16th and 17th minute to even the score but Keylor Navas had no problem in saving the first one, a looping header from Orellana. The second shot, however, was finely struck from Orellana, but the Costa Rica shot-stopper dived to his right and denied him again in a space of two minutes.
Real doubled their lead in the 23rd minute when Jese’s beautiful curling pass cleared the path for Danilo on the right wing, who blasted the ball into the back of the net. Just when it seemed like Celta were trying to fight back after the first goal, the Madrid outfit showed that they are no less of a counter-attacking threat.
In the 33rd minute, Celta got a free kick around 30 yards outside the box and Wass struck a stinging free kick. But the Madrid keeper was ready and got across to palm the ball for a corner kick. Daniel Cabral was the first one to be booked when he took down Marcelo right in front of the dugout in the 37th minute.
A minute later, Nolito weaved his way through the Madrid defence from the left, and passed the ball towards Iago Aspas who fired the ball straight in the path of diving Navas. It will be fair to say that the first half belonged to Navas as he made another tremendous save to deny Pablo Hernandez, this time in the closing stages of the first half.
Half-time: Celta Vigo 0-2 Real Madrid
Second Half: Nolito continues his fine form, but Madrid come away with three points
The team from Vigo started the second half on the front foot, as they tried to keep the ball and move forward. Orellana failed to capitalize after Nolito’s good work down the wing allowed him to curl in a shot from about 25 yards, but the shot went wide. However, they were caught by Madrid again on the counter-attack, when Vasquez was through on goal one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but his effort to chip the goalkeeper bore no fruit. He was subsequently booked in the 52nd minute for a foul in the middle of the park.
In the 56th minute, the match took a dirty turn, as Gustavo Cabral was sent off because he was shown his second yellow card when he confronted the referee after the official awarded Real Madrid a free kick for a foul on Sergio Ramos. Pablo Hernandez was initially booked for the foul, but the confrontation only agitated the referee. Iago Aspas and Augusto Fernández were also shown a yellow card. Nolito was also booked five minutes later for a foul.
Isco replaced Lucas Vasquez in the 61st minute to cap off a decent night for Madrid’s new signing. Ronaldo burst into life suddenly, as he tested the Celta goalkeeper with two stinging shots in a minute. The resulting corner taken by Luka Modric was finely headed by Casemiro, only to be saved by the goalkeeper.
The Real Madrid substitute started to display his skills from the word go as he entered the box beautifully from the right, but his cross did not reach Ronaldo. He also struck a fine shot from outside the box four minutes later but Celta shot-stopper Sergio just about managed to parry the ball onto the post. Meanwhile, Daniel Wass was replaced by Nemanja Radoja in the 67th minute. Rafa Benitez also introduced Cheryshev for Jese Rodriguez soon after.
Celta had a brilliant chance four minutes later when Nolito’s shot into an empty Madrid net was cleared by Marcelo of the line. The Celta Vigo winger showed great skills to get himself into a goalscoring position, but the shot was not powerful enough. Los Blancos had a nervous moment when Navas looked in discomfort after a clash with Aspas, but he got on with the game after some treatment.
Both clubs made substitutions soon after with Luka Modric taken off for Nacho Fernández while a double substitution saw John Guidetti and Carlos Planas coming on for Orellanas and Pablo Hernandez.
Nolito got a well-deserved goal with five minutes remaining in the game when he finally managed to break Navas’ resilience with a stunner from outside the box. However, Marcelo scored in the last minute of injury time to give Real Madrid the 1-3 win.
