{"id":4646,"date":"2025-04-21T21:01:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4646"},"modified":"2025-04-21T21:01:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:01:32","slug":"valverde-stunner-saves-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4646","title":{"rendered":"Valverde stunner saves Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fede Valverde’s superb 93rd minute strike kept Real Madrid on Barcelona’s tail in the Spanish title race, earning the champions a 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Madrid stayed four points behind Barca after Valverde smashed into the top corner with a sliced, swerving effort.<\/p>\n

After Champions League elimination by Arsenal it looked like Madrid were set for another devastating result until the Uruguay international’s stoppage-time intervention.<\/p>\n

“Fede has such a good shot… in training yesterday he shot a ball that looked like it was going out and then it picked up a curl like that and you go ‘how do you shoot like that?'” said Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.<\/p>\n

“In training he does that once or twice a week.”<\/p>\n

Athletic Bilbao, who reached the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday by beating Rangers, rotated heavily.<\/p>\n

Despite that, the Basque side proved a hard nut for Madrid to crack, especially with their top goalscorer Kylian Mbappe both suspended and recovering from an ankle problem.<\/p>\n

The forward was whistled by some fans for his failure to help the team overcome Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals in midweek when he was shown watching the game on the stadium screens.<\/p>\n

“Valverde was key in this game because he scored the goal,” said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.<\/p>\n

“The team was good, a bit slower in the first half but very good in the second.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to win, we wanted to react after the elimination against Arsenal — the team came through and Fede was the key player.”<\/p>\n

Vinicius, who was previously criticised by Ancelotti for lack of defensive work ethic, was running hard on the left, which fans at the Santiago Bernabeu appreciated.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian has struggled for form at times this season but was Madrid’s brightest player against Athletic, giving Unai Nunez a difficult night.<\/p>\n

Madrid played with intensity after their European elimination, trying to keep La Liga in their sights after Barcelona made a late comeback to beat Celta Vigo on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Rodrygo Goes came close early in the second half before Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon saved from Eduardo Camavinga.<\/p>\n

The hosts began to push Athletic deeper and started to create better chances.<\/p>\n

Madrid turn screw<\/p>\n

Vinicius bent a delicious cross with the outside of his boot into the six yard box for Jude Bellingham to meet, but Simon made an excellent save to tip over his header.<\/p>\n

Fede Valverde fired narrowly wide of the near post and Vinicius did find the net but Endrick was offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Bellingham appealed for a penalty after going down softly in the area and then fired over from close range in the final stages.<\/p>\n

It was the kind of chance the England international managed to turn into late match-winning goals last season as he inspired Madrid to La Liga and Champions League glory.<\/p>\n

Instead it was Valverde who took up that role with his sublime blast which left Simon with no chance.<\/p>\n

“Valverde has an extraordinary shot,” said Athletic coach Ernesto Valverde.<\/p>\n

“We had a really good game (but) they are individually very good, Vinicius was very good.”<\/p>\n

Madrid’s victory offers them hope of salvaging their season and a morale boost ahead of next weekend’s Copa del Rey final against Barcelona.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fede Valverde’s superb 93rd minute strike kept Real Madrid on Barcelona’s tail in the Spanish title race, earning the champions a 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. Madrid stayed four points behind Barca after Valverde smashed into the top corner with a sliced, swerving effort. After Champions League elimination by Arsenal it looked like […]<\/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-4646","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\/4646","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=4646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}