Elche 2-2 Real Madrid: Los Blancos hit back twice to deny the home side a historic win
Real Madrid returned to the top of La Liga on Sunday night but only after Jude Bellingham salvaged a point in the closing minutes of a 2-2 draw away to Elche.
Xabi Alonso’s side trailed twice and struggled for much of the game, but first Dean Huijsen and then the England midfielder hit back to prevent a damaging defeat that would have left them in second place after Barcelona won 4-0 against Athletic Club on Saturday.
The result moves Madrid back above Barcelona but only on goal difference, and the performance will add to concerns over their recent form after poor results that also preceded the international break.
Madrid’s clásico win at the end of October was their 12th in 13 games in all competitions this season, the one poor result being their 5-2 thrashing at the hands of local rivals Atletico Madrid.
But November has seen their form crash. After the 4-0 victory over Valencia, they have now failed to win in their last three games, losing to Liverpool at Anfield before drawing to Rayo Vallecano and now Elche.
Elche threatened to beat Madrid for the first time in their history when Alvaro Rodriguez put them back in front with only six minutes left in normal time, after Huijsen had scored six minutes before to cancel out Aleix Febas’s early second-half opener.
But Bellingham struck in the 87th minute from Kylian Mbappe’s cut back to save his side’s blushes.
Vinicius Junior’s future at the club continued to look bleak after he started on the bench yet again. He was brought on in the second half, and afterwards Alonso defended the decision not to start him.
“We spoke about it,” said Alonso. “Vinicius understands it. He knows the role and the impact he could have. We’ve done it other times, like against Getafe.”
He refused to accept there were deeper problems in the squad despite the dramatic turn in form.
“It’s football,” Alonso said. “After a good run, now we’ve had some results that aren’t what we want.
“We aren’t happy, because we always want to win. But now we have a lot of games before the end of the year, and we have to think about the next one, analysing what happened today.
“The team is still competing. The context of each game is different. We can improve, we’re self-critical, but the team spirit is still good. We have to respond to difficulties.
“If a result isn’t favourable it leads to criticism and we have to live with that, but we want to improve.”
