After FC Barcelona's surprise defeat against Las Palmas on Saturday (1-2), Real Madrid had the opportunity to move within one point of the La Liga leader's chair. And Carlo Ancelotti's men seized the opportunity by winning against Getafe this Sunday afternoon (2-0).
Faced with a harmless and very rough opponent (26 fouls), the Madrilenians had a fairly calm start to the match despite a clear domination (76% possession). Before accelerating at the half-hour mark and opening the scoring thanks to a penalty converted by Jude Bellingham (30th).
The referee did not hesitate to designate the penalty point after yet another duel in the area between Allan Nyom and Antonio Rüdiger. The Cameroonian, who was very nervous in the first half before giving up his place at half-time, had already been warned for holding the German defender before a corner, and logically could have received a second yellow card, synonymous with expulsion.
Aligned on the left side of the attack in the absence of the injured Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappé also managed to find the fault a few minutes later. Perfectly launched by Bellingham, the French international easily overcame Juan Iglesias with a devastating boost and control from the outside of the right foot to definitively gain the upper hand over his Spanish opponent.
The former Parisian then left David Soria no chance by placing a low shot, hitting the post before entering the Peruvian goalkeeper's net (38th). An eighth goal for him this season in La Liga, which should do him good after his completely failed performance against Liverpool in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Confident after his great achievement, Mbappé could even have scored a double in the second half, if he had not rushed, all alone in front of the empty goal, after having bypassed David Soria. The Bondynois crossed his shot too much, flirting with the left post of the Getafe goalkeeper (74th), who proved decisive a few minutes later by winning another duel, again against Real's number 9 (77th).
Harmless in the first period, the Getafe players, 17th in the standings, returned from the locker room with better intentions, and could even have come back to score. The Azulones hit the left post of Thibaut Courtois (55th) for the first time. Before showing enormous bad luck when seeing a heavy shot from their Irish striker Patrick Finn crash onto the crossbar then onto the post of the Belgian goalkeeper, completely beaten.
After this third victory in a row in the league, the Madrilenians therefore temporarily return to one point behind the Barcelona leader. Kylian Mbappé's teammates have one more match to play against Valencia, which was postponed due to the floods which heavily affected the south-east of Spain.
