Arda Güler scored his third goal in five matches to fire Real Madrid to an eighth straight victory and move them level on points with Barcelona with a 3-0 win at Valencia.
With Vinicius Junior unavailable due to the final match of his four-game ban, Güler was again chosen by Jose Mourinho and responded with a sweet first-time finish after 36 minutes to put the visitors two goals ahead at Mestalla.
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Madrid captain Fede Valverde had opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a low strike into the bottom corner before Jude Bellingham set up Turkish attacker Güler.
A third goal evaded Madrid for large periods of the second half, but Kylian Mbappe clinched the points with a 17th effort of the campaign with 15 minutes left.
Second-from-bottom Valencia ended with 10 men after Jose Gaya was sent off late on, but Madrid marched on and moved level with Barcelona ahead of their clash with Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
Mourinho shuffled his pack from the midweek win at AEK Athens and preferred captain Valverde at right-back to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who watched from the bench.
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Alexander-Arnold’s former Liverpool team-mate Ibrahima Konate went close early on with a header from a corner before at the other end Thibaut Courtois was forced to deny Aaron Mayol.
Mbappe won a free-kick soon after, with Pablo Maffeo penalized with a yellow card for the poor challenge, but worse was to follow for Valencia.
Mbappe curled the set-piece into the wall, but Madrid captain Valverde took a touch before he rifled a shot into the bottom corner from 22-yards.
The 28th-minute strike made it back-to-back goals for Valverde after his long-range winner in the Champions League against AEK and eight minutes later Mourinho’s men were 2-0 up.
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England midfielder Bellingham burst into the area and his deflected cross was fired home by Güler for his fourth goal of the campaign.
Yan Diomande sent an effort wide before half-time, which was followed by a clash between both sets of players.
Valencia head coach Javier Aguirre reacted by introducing Luis Rioja at the break, but Madrid remained dominant, with Stole Dimitrievski called on to thwart Mbappe.
Aguirre made further changes to spark a response from struggling Valencia, but Mbappe made the points safe for Madrid with quarter-of-an-hour left.
Güler, who started in place of the suspended Vinicius, raced on to a ball over the top and passed into Mbappe, who rounded Dimitrievski and slotted into the empty net.
Valencia’s night continued to go from bad to worse as Jose Gaya was sent off with 11 minutes left.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
