Three talking points from Real Madrid 3-2 Deportivo Alaves | La Liga GW7 | OneFootball

Real Madrid’s 3-2 win over Alaves on Tuesday night was not as close as the scoreline suggests but was a hard-fought clash marred with controversy.

Lucas Vazquez opened the scoring for Los Blancos in the very first minute of the game after a lovely dribble and assist from Vinicius Jr. before Kylian Mbappe doubled the lead close to half-time.

Rodrygo Goes then made it 3-0 in favour of the hosts immediately after the restart and the team were cruising towards the finish line.

It was only in the 85th minute that Alaves pulled one back and they netted a second goal minutes seconds later, throwing the result into doubt and opening the possibility of a comeback.

Real Madrid held on despite the torrential Alaves attacks to take all three points in the bag and are now firmly second in the standings.

Madrid Universal brings you three talking points from Real Madrid 3-2 Deportivo Alaves.

Improvement in defence

Carlo Ancelotti returned to his first-choice centre-back combination against Alaves last night with Antonio Rudiger and Eder Militao taking to the field. The impact of their co-ordination was visible throughout the game.

Considering that both players did not start together in the team’s two previous meetings, last night’s game saw the team’s defence fall into place once more.

Militao and Rudiger acted as the starting point of all of Real Madrid’s buildups and clocked close to 200 passes together. They kept Alaves’ attacks at bay and ensured a clean sheet as long as they were on the field as a pair.

Militao, in particular, showed great resilience in defence on the night and clocked a staggering five clearances, blocked one shot and recorded one tackle against Luis Garcia’s men. Further, he completed 94% of his attempted passes.

The Brazilian star was taken off at the 80th minute and replaced by Jesus Vallejo and the flow of the game says the rest.

Alaves, who had not scored until that point, scored twice in two minutes after Militao’s exit as the centre-back pairing suddenly lacked coordination once more.

Mbappe’s injury scare

Real Madrid sweating over Mbappe’s fitness. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

It is clear that Kylian Mbappe is slowly but surely growing into his role at Real Madrid. Last night, he once again lit up the park with a goal and completed four of his five attempted dribbles.

The Frenchman sent a well-worked strike from the centre of the box to make the most of Jude Bellingham’s assist in the 40th minute, doubling Real Madrid’s lead and putting the ball past Antonio Sivera.

His night, however, did not end on a positive note as he asked to be substituted in the 80th minute with some discomfort in his thigh.

Despite initial reports playing down the extent of his injury, Mbappe appears to have suffered a mild hamstring overload and is a doubt for the next game.

The blow for Real Madrid could not have come at a worse time for the Madrid derby is the next game on their calendar. The club hope he will recover in time but there is not long before the next game and the management may prefer to err on the side of caution.

Dubious refereeing

A lot has to be said about a refereeing during last night’s clash at Santiago Bernabeu for it was quite frankly scandalous for a greater part of the game.

Deportivo Alaves took to the field on the night with a plan of going reckless against the defending champions and their intent was clear from the get-go.

The visitors racked up foul after foul continuously going after the Real Madrid players with rash challenges and reckless fouls. In fact, they recorded a staggering ten fouls on the night.

Flabbergastingly, the referee did not show one yellow card to the visitors last night despite them clocking fouls in double-digits, quite simply encouraging stern tackles against Real Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side meanwhile produced seven fouls against Alaves and were shown four yellow cards for the same. Of them, three were not even linked to physical challenges but simply to conversing with the referee.

Staying on the topic of poor refereeing, there was one incident on the field that attracted severe criticism from Luis Garcia Plaza after the game.

In the 81st minute, Real Madrid’s new signing controversially charged towards an opposition defender and appeared to kick out at him, leading to a yellow card – something that did not sit right with Alaves as they wanted to see a red card.