Real Madrid 2-0 RB Leipzig: Fede Valverde scores again to help Carlo Ancelotti’s champions win

Fede Valverde scored his second goal in two games and helped Real Madrid to a 2-0 win over a lively RB Leipzig.

It wasn’t as good as his attack on the weekend when he walked halfway across the pitch to score, but it was another reminder that an already very complete midfielder regularly adds goals to his game.

The Fede express arrived only 10 minutes before time and that changed the mood in the Bernabeu. Madrid fans were spoiled with the spectacular last season and were bored by a lukewarm first half from the home side.

They even booed Marco Asensio when he came in as a substitute in the second half. He got the second goal to turn the whistles into applause.

Vinicius started the move for the opener by stabbing in front from the left. Rodrygo ran over the ball for Valverde, who steamed in from the right and bent a left footed shot past Leipzig keeper Peter Gulacsi.

Valverde certainly deserved to be on the winning side. He had been excellent all evening as Madrid missed Karim Benzema on offense and passed Toni Kroos and stayed on the bench late.

A halftime lead for Leipzig would not have been undeserved. Timo Werner found Christopher Nkunku with a pass over the top halfway through the first period and it was almost the opening goal.

He was played alongside by Dani Carvajal and sharpened on the goal by Thibaut Courtois. A combination of the Belgian keeper and Aurelien Tchouameni thwarted him, but the midfielder had cracked Courtois and the keeper held onto his knee for a few unnerving seconds.

Werner worked his magic again ten minutes before half-time and his pass over the six-yard box was nearly surrendered by Nkunku who slid to the back post. There was no news of Madrid in attack.

Without the still injured Benzema, Carlo Ancelotti would have started with Rodrygo on either side of Valverde and Vinicius. But the front three were well controlled and with Luka Modric restrained in midfield and Kroos on the bench, Madrid was flat.

Rodrygo missed a header and Modric sent a shot from the edge of the area to the same commercial behind Gulacsi’s goal. But there was little else.

Modric wanted a penalty just before half time, but Emil Forsberg had enough on the ball and not enough on the player to warrant a spot, according to referee Mauricio Mariani.

At the hour, Ancelotti had seen enough and brought in Asensio for Eduardo Camavinga. The Bernabeu whistled and cheered the player who came up.

Asensio had thrown down a bib in frustration as an unused substitute in the second half of Madrid’s win over Mallorca. That, and the apparent desire to continue in the summer, was not forgotten.

The change worked almost immediately. Valverde broke from his own half and squared for Rodrygo. He played against Vinicius and when Gulacsi saved the ball he ended up at Asensio, but he chose to lob subtly and his effort went over the bar.

Valverde combined delicacy with brute force to break the deadlock and when Asensio got a redeeming second, everyone on the Madrid side, even the substitute, was delighted.

Elsewhere in Group F, Celtic drew 1-1 against Ukraine’s Shakhar Donetsk in Warsaw, with Ange Postecoglou’s Hoops taking the lead via an own goal from Artem Bondarenko before Mykhaylo Mudryk equalized.