Result: Valencia 4-1 Real Madrid
Date: 08 November 2020
Venue: Mestalla
Real Madrid ended the weekend outside of the top three places in LaLiga after suffering a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Valencia on Sunday night.
Los Blancos were without Eden Hazard and Casemiro after they tested positve for Covid-19, with Vinicius Junior and Isco taking their places in the line-up and there was also recalls for Marcelo and Luka Modric.
After a relatively quiet opening, Karim Benzema eventually broke the deadlock for the visitors in the 23rd minute with a cracking strike from the edge of the box after a cut-back by Marcelo.
Valencia had a wonderful chance to equalise on the half-hour mark after Lucas Vazquez conceded a penalty by blocking a cross with his hand but Carlos Soler's initial spot-kick was saved by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, although Yunus Musah fired the rebound into the roof of the net.
However, the goal was disallowed after the referee reviewed the incident on the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) monitor and spotted an encroachment by Musah and ordered a retake of the penalty, which Soler converted for the equaliser.
The VAR had to intervene again on the stroke of half-time after Raphael Varane scuffed a cross that spinned towards his own goal and crossed the goal-line before being parried away by Courtois and while the referee was unsure, VAR awarded the goal to Valencia.
Soler made it 3-1 for Javi Gracia's charges nine minutes into the second stanza with his second of the game penalty after Maxi Gomez was brought down by Marcelo in the box.
The VAR came to Valencia's resuce once again just after the hour mark after spotting a handball on Sergio Ramos, handing the hosts their third penalty, which Soler duly converted to complete his hat-trick.
Zinedine Zidane made a double change in the last quarter of an hour as Benzema had a hamstring problem and was replaced by Mariano Diaz while Toni Kroos replaced Federico Valverde, however, the visitors could not get on target despite probing and Valencia held on to a famous victory.
