{"id":28705,"date":"2025-11-24T12:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=28705"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:04:03","slug":"real-madrid-drop-points-at-elche-atletico-scrape-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=28705","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid drop points at Elche, Atletico scrape win"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jude Bellingham struck late on to secure Real Madrid a 2-2 draw at Elche on Sunday, keeping his team top of La Liga by a point from rivals Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Xabi Alonso’s side struggled against their mid-table opponents in an entertaining battle in which Madrid twice came from behind.<\/p>\n

Aleix Febas fired the hosts ahead before Dean Huijsen levelled for the league leaders, with Bellingham stabbing home from close range after Alvaro Rodriguez blasted Elche back in front.<\/p>\n

Barca cut Madrid’s lead by two points over the weekend after they thrashed Athletic Bilbao 4-0 on Saturday in their first match back at Camp Nou.<\/p>\n

Atletico Madrid, fourth, scraped a 1-0 win at Getafe earlier on Sunday to keep the pressure on the teams above them.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid have failed to win any of their last three matches across all competitions.<\/p>\n

“It’s football — after going in a good dynamic we’ve had some results we don’t like, but we know what we want,” Alonso told reporters.<\/p>\n

“We’re not happy because we always want to win.”<\/p>\n

Alonso gave Trent Alexander-Arnold his first start since August and also benched Vinicius Junior.<\/p>\n

The England international missed several weeks injured and is yet to find form following his summer switch from Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Alexander-Arnold was partly to blame for Febas’s goal, with the midfielder sneaking in behind him to break the deadlock in the second half.<\/p>\n

Elche impressed against Barcelona a few weeks ago and gave Madrid a tough night at the Martinez Valero stadium.<\/p>\n

Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a fine early save to deny Andre da Silva after Hector Fort teed him up.<\/p>\n

The forward was involved in an unfortunate incident earlier in the day at Real Madrid’s annual general meeting, when the club displayed his photograph by accident in a tribute to former Liverpool striker Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who both died in a car crash in July.<\/p>\n

Former Barca goalkeeper Inaki Pena denied Kylian Mbappe twice in the first half, which were the visitors’ best chances.<\/p>\n

Elche stunned Madrid early in the second half with a slick move to take the lead.<\/p>\n

German Valera’s superb backheel allowed Febas to dart behind Alexander-Arnold and squeeze a shot across goal, past Courtois and in off the post.<\/p>\n

‘Clear foul’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexander-Arnold earned some redemption by his contribution to Madrid’s equaliser, earning a corner and then whipping it in for Bellingham to flick into Huijsen’s path to bash home.<\/p>\n

Elche took the lead again when Rodriguez caught out Courtois with a powerful drive from the edge of the box.<\/p>\n

However, three minutes later Madrid equalised for a second time, with Mbappe’s cut-back finished by Bellingham.<\/p>\n

The England midfielder was in the spotlight back home earlier in the week after he was unhappy to be taken off by national team coach Thomas Tuchel.<\/p>\n

Bellingham was not at his best against Elche but was involved in both Madrid goals, highlighting his game-changing ability in the box even when otherwise quiet.<\/p>\n

“After adversity is when we have to respond,” said Alonso, insisting the team will find form again. “We want to improve.”<\/p>\n

Elche were not happy that Vinicius collided with goalkeeper Pena before Bellingham’s goal, leaving the stopper with a bloody nose.<\/p>\n

Pena himself said the clash was just something which happens in the game, but his coach Eder Sarabia was furious.<\/p>\n

“It’s a clear foul, clear,” said Sarabia, who added he was not happy with just one point after his team’s fine display despite finishing with 10 men after Victor Chust’s late dismissal.<\/p>\n

Diego Simeone’s Atletico trail Real Madrid by four points following their narrow win on a chilly night at Getafe’s Coliseum.<\/p>\n

Getafe, seventh, often prove a tough nut to crack at home and they frustrated their neighbours.<\/p>\n

Atletico captain and all-time highest appearance maker Koke played his 700th game for the club, but it was not one of the more memorable.<\/p>\n

Giacomo Raspadori turned a cross back across goal and Duarte bundled clumsily into his own net under pressure from Antoine Griezmann in the 82nd minute for the game’s only goal.<\/p>\n

Atletico are unbeaten in 12 consecutive league matches, after defeat by Espanyol on the opening day.<\/p>\n

“The team is working very well and we are competing as we want to, and luck, which is also part of this game, is on our side sometimes,” said Simeone.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jude Bellingham struck late on to secure Real Madrid a 2-2 draw at Elche on Sunday, keeping his team top of La Liga by a point from rivals Barcelona. Xabi Alonso’s side struggled against their mid-table opponents in an entertaining battle in which Madrid twice came from behind. Aleix Febas fired the hosts ahead before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}