{"id":42874,"date":"2026-03-07T15:04:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=42874"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:04:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:04:28","slug":"valverde-stars-as-real-madrid-beat-celta-vigo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=42874","title":{"rendered":"Valverde stars as Real Madrid beat Celta Vigo"},"content":{"rendered":"
Federico Valverde’s heavily deflected 95th-minute drive snatched injury-hit Real Madrid a 2-1 win at Celta Vigo in La Liga on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Uruguayan midfielder needed a stroke of fortune at the death to pull his team to within one point of leaders Barcelona, who visit Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Aurelien Tchouameni opened the scoring for Los Blancos early on but Borja Iglesias soon pulled Celta level at their Balaidos stadium.<\/p>\n

Alvaro Arbeloa’s Madrid, without injured striker Kylian Mbappe, had lost their previous two league games and are struggling to find consistent form.<\/p>\n

Valverde’s shot, which flew into Celta’s net after bouncing off former Barcelona defender Marcos Alonso, stopped his side going three consecutive La Liga matches without a win.<\/p>\n

“There’s a long way to go in La Liga, a lot of points left to play for… at this point it’s almost like La Liga has not started yet,” Arbeloa told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Every game you’re playing against a team that has their own objectives and each game will be a war.<\/p>\n

“We came here with 10 players out so I think our win deserves a lot of credit.”<\/p>\n

As well as French superstar Mbappe, the team’s top goalscorer, Arbeloa was without several other players including Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo Goes and Eduardo Camavinga.<\/p>\n

Despite the victory, Madrid’s form and their injury list does not inspire confidence ahead of next week’s Champions League last 16 clash against Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Arbeloa started 18-year-old midfielder Thiago Pitarch for the first time and he offered a decent display even as his team failed to impress.<\/p>\n

Iglesias forced Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois into a solid low save with a drive from the edge of the box in the opening exchanges.<\/p>\n

Arbeloa’s side started well and Vinicius Junior struck the post before Tchouameni put them ahead in the 11th minute.<\/p>\n

The French midfielder produced a fine finish from the edge of the box as Madrid worked a corner to him, his strike hitting the upright on its way in.<\/p>\n

Celta were not discouraged though and some poor defending from Trent Alexander-Arnold let them back in.<\/p>\n

The England international allowed Williot Swedberg to get in behind him and then lacked the agility to block off the Swede, who cut the ball across for Iglesias to finish.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hard-fought win<\/p>\n

Courtois made a good save to keep Swedberg at bay before the break, as sixth-place Celta largely gave as good as they got.<\/p>\n

Madrid appealed for a penalty when Ferran Jutgla handled the ball in the box, but a VAR review showed there was a push on a Celta defender just before and no spot kick was awarded.<\/p>\n

Celta substitute Iago Aspas hit the post late on and it seemed like his team were destined for a point as the clock ticked down.<\/p>\n

However in the final minute of stoppage time Valverde’s effort from the edge of the box hit Alonso and left Celta goalkeeper Ionut Radu wrong-footed.<\/p>\n

“We hardly gave up any chances, and the shot at the end was well defended, so we’re a bit annoyed (to lose),” Iglesias told Movistar.<\/p>\n

Arbeloa said he hoped Madrid’s determination to claim the three points could be a platform to build from going forward.<\/p>\n

“I know we can do a lot of things better, but with the personality and character we showed today, I hope that this is a turning point and from here everything goes a lot better,” added Arbeloa.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federico Valverde’s heavily deflected 95th-minute drive snatched injury-hit Real Madrid a 2-1 win at Celta Vigo in La Liga on Friday. The Uruguayan midfielder needed a stroke of fortune at the death to pull his team to within one point of leaders Barcelona, who visit Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. Aurelien Tchouameni opened the scoring for […]<\/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-42874","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\/42874","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=42874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}