Los Blancos aimed to respond to the gauntlet laid down by title rivals Barcelona after their win over Mallorca yesterday, as they faced a Valencia team scrapping for every point in a precarious battle to beat the drop.
With that in mind, Carlos Corberan understandably set up his side to stifle the visitors, who needed patience to break down a resolute Valencia backline in the opening exchanges.
Kylian Mbappe had an early sighter when he was denied by Stole Dimitrievski at his near post, before teeing up David Jimenez with a close-range strike that was parried away by the North Macedonia shot-stopper.
It just wasn’t quite clicking into gear for Alvaro Arbeloa’s side before the break, with Mbappe cutting an increasingly frustrated figure upfront as the half-time whistle blew.
Valencia looked to inflict a sucker punch after the restart when Arnaut Danjuma raced down the left and delivered an enticing cross towards Lucas Beltran, whose unorthodox right-footed strike just flew past the post. Overall though, the second half initially looked like it would follow the same scrappy pattern as the first.
That was the case, at least, until Alvaro Carreras broke the deadlock for Real in the 65th minute. The full-back showed superb persistence as he strode into the box before unleashing a right-footed strike, which went through Eray Comert’s legs and beat Dimitrievski at his near post.
It was only his second goal of the season – with both coming against Valencia – but Beltran came agonisingly close to restoring parity moments later, when Filip Ugrinic spotted him in space, only for his sliding left-footed strike to clip the post.
There was still time for Mbappe to add extra gloss to the scoreline in stoppage time when he clinically dispatched a first-time right-footed strike past Dimitrievski to score his 38th club goal of the season.
This was hardly a sparkling performance from Arbeloa’s side, but the Los Blancos coach has now won his four league matches in charge and Real continue to breathe down the necks of their Catalan rivals in pursuit of a 37th top-flight crown.
Meanwhile, Valencia will take the plaudits, but no points from this battling display. The unthinkable prospect of relegation still looms large, with Corberan’s side still sitting just a point clear of the bottom three after succumbing to a third straight defeat across all competitions.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Alvaro Carreras (Real Madrid)
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