Valencia 1-2 Real Madrid: Last-gasp Bellingham winner sends 10-man champions top

Jude Bellingham scored one and created the other as two late goals gave Real Madrid a 2-1 victory at Valencia on Friday despite Vinicius Junior’s red card.

Madrid moved back to the top of LaLiga at the end of a night when it seemed everything would go against Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

They went behind to Hugo Duro’s goal after 27 minutes and passed up a huge chance to equalise early in the second half when Bellingham’s poor penalty bounced away off the post after Kylian Mbappe had been fouled.

Vinicius was then shown a straight red card 11 minutes from time for slapping Valencia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.

Yet Luka Modric, brought on in the aftermath of that incident, soon equalised following a cute pass from Bellingham.

And there was still time for Bellingham to dash through and finish coolly in the fifth minute of stoppage time, moving Madrid two points ahead of rivals Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand.

T E A M pic.twitter.com/SNR0LEeMmR

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) January 3, 2025

Data debrief: Madrid milestone after rare recovery

Victory took Madrid to 5,002 LaLiga points all-time, making them the first club to move past 5,000, but few of those have been won in such spectacular and unlikely fashion.

Not since November 1999 against Rayo Vallecano had Madrid been shown a red card while already trailing and gone on to win.

Valencia were perhaps the ideal opponents for such a scenario, however, as they have now dropped 19 points from winning positions this season, a league high that leaves them still in the relegation zone.