Heart-stopping win for Real Madrid

Madrid, December 22

With a late goal after a lacklustre performance, Real Madrid found their way to victory and to the top of the La Liga standings.

Lucas Vazquez scored with a header in stoppage time and Madrid pulled off a 1-0 win on the road against Alaves to reclaim first place after Girona conceded a late equaliser in their 1-1 draw at Real Betis earlier on Thursday.

Madrid and Girona are tied on 45 points but Madrid was ahead on a tiebreaker. Defending champions Barcelona were third, seven points off the lead. The Catalan club edged last-place Almeria 3-2 at home on Wednesday.

Madrid got the late win despite playing with 10 men from the 54th minute after central defender Nacho Fernandez was sent off with a straight red card for a hard foul.

“It was a complicated match, and with a player down everybody thought that maybe today we were going to lose,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. “But this team finds energy out of nowhere. We held tough and in the end we got rewarded.”

Vazquez was left free inside the area to score the winner with a header after a well-placed corner-kick cross by Toni Kroos.

Alaves coach Luis García was livid by the bench after the goal, kicking objects, throwing his jacket, screaming and even grabbing a staff member by the jacket and shoving him back to his seat.

“We can’t let Lucas finish like that,” he said. “You can’t let the game slip away from you like that.” — AP

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