Jude Bellingham’s fourth goal in three La Liga games gave Real Madrid a victory over a tenacious Celta Vigo on Friday night.
A goal from Madrid’s new hero in the 80th minute won a closely contested match. The England international later scored from a set piece.
Madrid now has three victories to open the 2023–24 La Liga season.
How the game went
Amazingly, Celta Vigo believed they had taken a surprising lead through Jorgen Strand Larsen inside the opening three minutes. After Kepa Arrizabalaga pushed a Celta corner out to the edge of the box, the Norwegian wide player moved quickly in the Real Madrid six-yard box to flick a foot at a spectacular first-time volley from Fran Beltran and steer the ball into the net.
But after a VAR review, it was determined that Larsen had intentionally fouled Kepa while the goalkeeper was clearing the corner kick. Madrid was lucky, to put it mildly.
After giving up the initially disallowed goal, Madrid generally found it difficult to take control of the game. This was largely because star player Vinicius Junior had to leave the game in the 18th minute due to what appeared to be a hamstring injury. An obvious talent dip occurred when the Brazilian superstar was replaced up front by the ex-Stoke City player Joselu.
The better chances of the first half were actually created by Celta, with Oscar Mingueza missing a fantastic chance to give the home team the lead at the halfway point. Iago Aspas skillfully dinked the ball into the back post area and onto Mingueza’s path to find the wing-back at the back post. However, when he slid in to reach the ball, Mingueza simply wasn’t able to get a decisive touch on it, sending the shot high and wide of the right post.With Joselu scoring from a horribly offside position following some exquisite movement from the new tight midfield, Madrid began to find some attacking rhythm in the final few minutes of the first half.
While the attacking rhythm was established, the defensive flaws persisted in showing themselves. In extra time, Jonathan Bamba, who had been a pain in Madrid’s side for most of the first half, came dangerously close to scoring his first La Liga goal. The international for Cote d’Ivoire quickly turned and positioned Dani Carvajal on the edge of the box before shooting just wide of the post.As predicted, Madrid came alive a bit more in the second half, and on the hour mark, they finally produced a true clear-cut opportunity. Federico Valverde would have the chance when he nicked the ball off Jude Bellingham’s foot and fired just wide of the goal from outside the six-yard box.
Real Madrid would miss the game’s best opportunity from the penalty spot eight minutes later. Ivan Villar knocked Rodrygo to the ground in the box, and the Celta goalkeeper made a wonderful save by diving low to his left to divert the ball around the post.Celta managed to keep Bellingham relatively quiet for the majority of the game until finally falling victim to the absolute genius of the England superstar in the 80th minute.Bellingham capitalized on a Joselu flick-on from a set piece to head in his fourth goal in three La Liga appearances.